Lifting floorboards

dickibobboy

Hi there. I am currently doing the attic room and going for a slightly more up to date look (its used as a spare room and office)
I plan on getting a nice new carpet and at the moment there are quite a few wires running around underneeth it and in cable tidys. I hate them, and its slightly ruined the carpet putting it under some parts but they have to be there because how the room is laid out and the equpment in it.

Anyway moving on, i have decided that i want to place all cables that need to go from one end of the room and so on to the other under the floorboards and out where i need them. Also added a couple of other cases JUST incase i need them so i dont have to do anymore hiding of wires.

The only thing is, although i have only looked at a small section of the floorboards as i dont want to take the carpet up yet they hare nailed in. One i had a play with i removed the nails but it was still packed firmly in. I think this is going to cause a big problem for me if i cant get them up to feed cable under (speaker, audio, coax, network etc..)

The good thing is (i think) The main part where where alot of the cables are going is where the dorm window is (where it comes out of the roof) and the floor boards feel different and hollow if you tap, this seems to me they might be easy to take a few out which will help.

Any tips on how to do the other parts though?



Thank You.

dickibobboy

I have also had a look at this. Will give it ago, although i have tried with a really thin screw driver i cannot seem to get down the side gaps!

latecomer

It looks like tongue and groove boards so you'll need to break the tongue off one board to get it to lift and then you can remove next ones.

Robbie_Duck

I was doing this Saturday. Its a pain in the @rse, Had tongue and groove floorboards too. I eventually worked this out and got them up but its made a mess of a lot of the boards. Had to replace a lot of them with MDF boards. In hindsight i should have got a electrician in to snip them and reloacte them.

Could you hide them behind some new skirting?

Kiran

I can't see your photo, so forgive me if this option is not feasable for your scenario. The usual technique is to get a circular saw, set the depth adjustment to the same as your floor board thickness and cut a rip when you want the boards removed. When you cut the rip, make sure its as wide as a ordinary floorboard of the same thickness and when you are done you can just but an ordinary board down and bin the T&G stuff.

The other option is to use a hole saw, cut a 100mm diameter hole at both ends, feed the cables through and replace the removed piece of board with blanking plate. These are BS rated and you can put a bed leg directly on top of them. The only downside to the method would be if you had noggins running between your floor joists.

Hope this is of some use. Good luck

J0nesy_2

Do you intend on leaving the floorboards exposed?

If not then you will need to be quite brutal. Using a couple of chisels and a lump hammer will do the trick, although please make sure you check for any electrical cables that may run underneath the floorboards before hammering tools in around them.
Hammer a chisel between the floorboards close to one end, and leaver the floorboard up enough to work the second chisel underneath a bit further a long. Leaver this chisel, then remove the first one and continue this process along the floorboard until it comes out.
As latecomer mentioned if the boards are tongue and grove you will need to either start at one end of the floor, and lift all the floorboards up to the point where you need to run the cables or, break the tongue using the same method above but using more force.

hope this helps

27col

I always used to cut through the tongue with a Stanley knife. Then used a wide electricians bolster chisel to lever the board up It was quite often necessary to cut across the board with a board saw. It can be a bit brutal. But I suppose that nowadays people use a circular saw. This is all right as long as no one has run cables along the top of the joists instead of through holes drilled in the joists. Have a good look around, you might find that some one has already cut some boards.

dickibobboy

Thankyou, i will give the advice given a go in a few days time. It would be a pain to replace the boards so will try and lift them the best i can. I will be replacing the carpet down anyway so aslong as they go down without any lumps and holes it will be fine.

Thanks.