# Hardwood floors: Removal of carpet staples, dried paint, and a discoloration problem



## proofer (Jan 20, 2008)

I just ripped up some old carpet intending to buy new carpet, but fortunately I found hardwood floors underneath. The hardwood floors seem to be in good shape except for some color discoloration in the center of the room (I guess they had an area rug covering that area at one time), dried white paint splotches all over, and lots of heavy-duty carpet staples. What would be the best way to fix these issues? I've never worked on hardwood floors before. I've read some past threads and maybe I need to rent a floor sander to get the dried paint off? And with regard to the carpet staples, is there something I can use to pull them out easily without tearing up the floor? And lastly, although I like the overall color of the hardwood, there's still some serious color discoloration in the center, so I guess I use some sort of stain to cover all of the hardwood floor to give it a uniform color? And what about those nailed-down wood strips around the perimeter of the room? What tool is used to safely get those strips up? Any help will be greatly appreciated.


----------



## xkempx (Feb 18, 2008)

The strips come up easy, Just a hook knife to pop up the strips, Or a Lightest, strongest 18" pry bar " go slow, not to reck to floor. A pair of needlenose pliers or wire cutters is best for this. You may need a screwdriver or knife to help pry up the staples.

The paint on the floor will sand off with the discsander.

P.S look out for the little nails on the carpet strips, the prick good.


----------



## proofer (Jan 20, 2008)

Thanks for the tips. Most of the nails (in the middle of the floor) came up pretty easily with needlenose pliers. There's still a bunch, though, that I can't pull out because they're too close to the floor to get a good grip with the pliers.

Now with regard to the wood strips around the perimeter, that's a big problem. These strips are so difficult to pull up. There's at least 10 nails per strip, so using the hook pry bar just gets these strips up small piece by small piece. It's very time consuming. Any other ideas for getting up these wood strips?


----------



## SubSailor (Feb 25, 2008)

proofer said:


> Thanks for the tips. Most of the nails (in the middle of the floor) came up pretty easily with needlenose pliers. There's still a bunch, though, that I can't pull out because they're too close to the floor to get a good grip with the pliers.
> 
> Now with regard to the wood strips around the perimeter, that's a big problem. These strips are so difficult to pull up. There's at least 10 nails per strip, so using the hook pry bar just gets these strips up small piece by small piece. It's very time consuming. Any other ideas for getting up these wood strips?


not really, you could try and pry them up evenly but all that would do was prevent them from breaking its not going to be easy to pull nails out of an (i am assuming oak) floor.


----------



## canadaclub (Oct 19, 2006)

Take up whatever wood comes up and use the claw end of a (trim) pry bar to lift the nails. Use a piece of wood under the lever part of the pry bar to avoid denting or marring the hardwood and incerase the leverage. And, yep, watch out for those tackless nails..they smart!!


----------



## Joining_Heads (May 27, 2007)

To get it to look good you will need an entire resand.


----------



## proofer (Jan 20, 2008)

Here is the floor. I'm guessing it's real wood, and I believe that it was put here when the house was built in 1965.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s287/LisaSlone/woodfloor-1.jpg


----------



## xkempx (Feb 18, 2008)

proofer said:


> Here is the floor. I'm guessing it's real wood, and I believe that it was put here when the house was built in 1965.
> 
> http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s287/LisaSlone/woodfloor-1.jpg


Nice looking floor, Take up the " TRIM " baseboard. Then you can get right up the the wall.

If you think its not real wood just look at the air vent on the floor and see how think the wood is, befor sanding. 

And sennd a pic when it is done.:thumbup:


----------

