Recycling Red Oak Flooring?

[Bob Falk]

As was said, contact Community Forklift or a Habitat Restore....many Restores will remove for you and you get a tax deduction for the donation. Hardwood flooring is definitely worth salvaging and is sought after by these "building deconstruction" firms (assuming it hasn't been sanded too many times). Always remove from the tongue side. I bought about 1000 sf of salvaged red oak flooring from Habitat and used in a remodel of my home.......looks beautiful and you can't distinguish it from the original flooring in the house. Removing nails can be a pain, but there are pneumatic ("nail kicker") tools that make it easy. Restores that salvage use these.

Bob Falk , Author "Unbuilding: Salvaging the Architectural Treasures of Unwanted Houses"

[Ole Anderson]

We carefully pulled up about 800 sf of prefinished 3/4" oak in my sons house using this really cool Crescent tool from HD: Pulled many staples, not easy, ended up cutting them off with an angle grinder. Still had at least 25% waste with ruined tongues. Relaid it in my buddy's cabin. The rest will be kindling in his wood stove.

[Yonak Hawkins]

...you get a tax deduction for the donation.

With the tax laws that went into effect this year, this is a nonstarter unless you have a tremendous amount.

[Sam Beagle]

The floors come right out. We remove them constantly w a standard stanley pry bar. Bigger jobs we use roofing removers.
I’m a wood turner. So when I come across decent wood like braz cherry or cool pieces. I cut the grooves off the back and use the leftover for segmented bowls.

[Eric Janson]

Deja Vu. I am building a new house and the floors (5" to 7" quarter- and rift- sawn white oak) were installed over sub - floors which were too moist. They buckled and warped so badly that they all had to be ripped out. The contractor was going to throw it all away. But the ghosts of my Swedish ancestors would haunt me forever if I did not salvage the wood. So I stacked it all and when my shop is in order after we move in, I'll use a Lenox carbide- tipped blade on my bandsaw to rip the boards just shy of the tacks (it's impossible to pull out these glue- coated beasts) and then re- surface and glue them up for thicker if needed (they will be about 5/8" after resurfacing them.) Everyone I know is saying that it's way too much work. But I prefer that to being haunted ;-)

[Jim Andrew]

I removed some oak flooring once from a house my uncle was taking down. He said to cut wedges from some pieces of flooring and drive them under from the groove side of the floor, I took his advice, and after driving the wedges underneath, could just pick up the flooring. Still had to pull the nails, but that was not hard.