I want to repair some floor beams and pull the water tanks for
cleaning/inspection. My boat, a Swift 40 built in Korea in 1980, has
ribbed stainless nails instead of screws under the plugs. The teak
planks are grooved on both sides and the white wood (spruce) is kind of
cruciform, although each leg is the same. =||=
OK, How can I pull the floor up with the least amount of damage?? I
would like to end up with screws in place of the nails.

I'm thinking of pulling the 4 floor hatches and then sliding a hacksaw
blade in sideways and cut as many nails as I can, then lifting as much
as I can, and cut some more.

Also, any ideas how to get the white wood out of the grooves? after
each plank comes out the white wood will, hopefully be intact and
probably stuck to one side or the other. Boiling water?

Norm

The real question is whether your effort if greater than the expense of new
wood and I suspect it is by a great deal.
Steve

"Norm" wrote in message
oups.com...
I want to repair some floor beams and pull the water tanks for
cleaning/inspection. My boat, a Swift 40 built in Korea in 1980, has
ribbed stainless nails instead of screws under the plugs. The teak
planks are grooved on both sides and the white wood (spruce) is kind of
cruciform, although each leg is the same. =||=
OK, How can I pull the floor up with the least amount of damage?? I
would like to end up with screws in place of the nails.

I'm thinking of pulling the 4 floor hatches and then sliding a hacksaw
blade in sideways and cut as many nails as I can, then lifting as much
as I can, and cut some more.

Also, any ideas how to get the white wood out of the grooves? after
each plank comes out the white wood will, hopefully be intact and
probably stuck to one side or the other. Boiling water?

Norm

Thanks Steve for offering the other way, but I don't think thats what I
want to do. The teak is about 9/16" thick, so I don't imagine it will
be cheap to duplicate. It also goes under cabinets. I won''t remove
it from under cabinets, I really only need about a 48-54" wide by 60"
long section opened up.
Norm


Steve Lusardi wrote:
The real question is whether your effort if greater than the expense
of new
wood and I suspect it is by a great deal.
Steve

"Norm" wrote in message
oups.com...
I want to repair some floor beams and pull the water tanks for
cleaning/inspection. My boat, a Swift 40 built in Korea in 1980,
has
ribbed stainless nails instead of screws under the plugs. The teak
planks are grooved on both sides and the white wood (spruce) is
kind of
cruciform, although each leg is the same. =||=
OK, How can I pull the floor up with the least amount of damage??
I
would like to end up with screws in place of the nails.

I'm thinking of pulling the 4 floor hatches and then sliding a
hacksaw
blade in sideways and cut as many nails as I can, then lifting as
much
as I can, and cut some more.

Also, any ideas how to get the white wood out of the grooves?
after
each plank comes out the white wood will, hopefully be intact and
probably stuck to one side or the other. Boiling water?

Norm

Norm, if the nail head is like a finishing nail and not very large I
would try to drive it right on through the plank with a fine pointed
punch. It has to be no larger than the nail itself.

But if the head is fairly large, driving them through might split the
teak board. If so, you might try to cut the head off with a carbide
plunging router bit or possible some sort of drummel tool ....and then
drive them through.

Getting the 'holly' separated after the boards are up should be easy if
layed without glue as in the states. If solidly glued in your only
option is probably to cut the out on a table saw, both between the
planks and later out of the grooves.

Thanks Paul, Good idea on cutting the head. They are large head,
maybe 1/4-5/16" in Diameter. Can you help me with the proper
procedure for removing teak plugs without damaging the surrounding
area. I think if I can get enough of the plug out to see the center
of the nail, I might be able to use a center punch and one of those
dewalt drill bits with the small starting tip to drill the head off.
With the heads off, I should be able to slide a flat pry bar between
the floor beam and the planks and lift them off the nails. What do you
think of that?
Norm

Here is the technique for removing plugs without damaging surrounding
wood:

Since your material is 9/16ths thick my guess that the plugs are
either 3/8th or possibly 1/2" dia. and they have to be rather shallow.
I think I would try to drive a No. 8 screw right into the center of
each plug. This should force the plug up and out without damaging the
bung hole.

However, on reviewing everything you have written I wonder it if would
not be more cost efficient to just rip everything out and install a
totally new cabin sole. If you wanted to save money you could think
about using teak/holly plywood which goes for around $100 for a 4x8
sheet and is available in 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 and 3/4", perhaps even
thicker. It real easy to lay. If you use FastCo two-part, one to one
mixture epoxy (which comes about the consistence of peanut butter) you
can spread it on the plywood with a notched spreader, lay it down and
weigh it with bags of sand. This way you don't even need to use
fasteners.

If you want to go the solid wood route you should be able to buy 1/2"
vertical grain (you should use VG for a deck or cabin sole) teak for
around $10 to $15 a sq. ft in 1/2". Holly is hard to come by but no
one will know the diffrerence if you use hard maple instead. You
should be able to buy that for around $5.00 a bd. ft.

Total up your cost in materials and you will see that if you end up
doing it your way (trying to reuse your materials) you are going to
end up working for about .50 cents an hour. Isn't your time worth
more than that?

Good luck

Joe