As anticipated, I spent my work-time this weekend removing nails from oak trim. If people are interested, I'll do a post on how this is accomplished with minimal destruction of the boards. Basically I use a vise grips and pull them from the back to avoid making bigger holes in the face of the board.
Some come out quite easily. Others are quite obstinate and can result in smashing of the hands. Wearing heavy leather gloves is not optional!
At left is the wood still remaining to be done. I got most of the long boards finished. On the table behind the fridge, there is a pile of smaller boards that also remain to do.
Here is what was there when I started.
And here's a shot of the finished boards, which I am putting in the garage as I finish.
Steve spent his time on a ladder pounding out the coffered ceiling. The good news is that he has been getting it out without breaking anything. The bad news is it takes a lot of time and his back was hurting today too much to continue.
He'll have to work on it during the week an hour or two at a time.
Steve did treat the bricks for efflorescence on Friday night, which hopefully I'll have time to do a post about later. An architect friend of Steve's also recommended that he fill any gaps in the brick joints with mortar while the walls are open. We may have to pay "the crew" to do this because of time limitations.
Some new developments this weekend... We were planning to have the sides of the building tuckpointed at the end of the project, but our tuckpointing company called us up and said they had an opening now. So, they will be starting on Monday. I will get some before photos tomorrow morning hopefully.
The other exciting development is that when the ceilings were opened up this week, we discovered alot of space up there- a few feet at least between the roof and ceiling joists. We spoke to a friend of Steve's, who is an architect and we decided we are going to raise the ceiling about a foot in the front room. The ceiling will be almost 10' in there after we are finished. This will add to the expansive feel of the room and be proportional since this room is larger than the rest of the place.
...And in the midst of all this, we managed to fit in a nice dinner for my Dad and Dave on Saturday night. After a few hours of nice conversation and a good meal, I felt positively civilized again. But boy are my hands tired!
5 comments:
I recommend trying a nipper instead of a vicegrip plyers for removing those trim nails. I find that it's faster, and easier on the hands. The nipper 'rolls' better too as you lever the nail out the back side.
ooh i'm officially jealous that you can raise your ceiling height...i'm sure it'll be fantastic
I could try the nipper but I wonder if my hands are strong enough to clamp the tool down and pull the nails out. The nice thing about the vicegrip is it clamps down, but I'll give it a try. I still have plenty more to go!
Isn't it thrilling to make discoveries like that?
I've had good results with the vicegrips + prybar. Clamp the grips on near the bottom of the nail and then wedge the bar in as if the head of the grips were the head of the nail. Then you can pop the nail on out backwards with a little less strain on the hands. Of course, I often end up with the vicegrips hurtling through space, and I have to go fetch them. But hunting and seeking is a little less painful than wrenching out nails.
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