How to remove stubborn nails

Residence Expertise Carpentry

Up to date: Jun. 30, 2017

Method 1: Maximize your hammer energy

Again once I was a rookie garage-builder, the lead carpenter warned me that driving a nail close to a knot is a waste of time for 3 causes: First, the nail will bend within the dense wooden surrounding the knot earlier than you’ll be able to drive it house. Second, it’s going to be solidly wedged within the wooden and hard to drag out. And third, you can break a hammer deal with tugging at it.

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I used to be cussed and needed to be taught by expertise. However I by no means broke a hammer deal with, as a result of I began out with an unbreakable all-steel mannequin. By the point I graduated to a properly balanced wooden-handled mannequin, I might discovered how one can pull nails rapidly and effectively sufficient to hardly break my nailing rhythm.

A hammer is not one of the best nail-pulling software, however because it’s already in your hand, use it. Ram the claw into the nail shank as shut as potential to the wooden and rock it sideways (Picture 1). Then repeat the method, pulling the nail about 1/2 in. every time. You develop terrific pulling energy, sufficient to extract even these powerful cement-coated or galvanized nails, with out straining your hammer deal with or arm.

As a result of the hammer claw grabs the nail’s shank, this technique normally works even when the nail head has damaged off. However it has a few drawbacks. The sting of the pinnacle will chunk into and dent the wooden. Should you do not wish to mar the floor, slide a 1/4-in.-thick piece of wooden below the sting earlier than pulling. Additionally, a worn claw may slip on the shank and never ship any pull. And eventually, the pulling energy might be so nice that the nail shank may break earlier than the nail lets go. At that time, both clip it flush to the wooden with a side-cutting pliers and go away it, or noticed by means of it (Picture 5).

Method 2: Shield these completed surfaces with a block

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Shove a block of scrap wooden below the hammer head to guard delicate surfaces, just like the cedar decking in Picture 2. The block additionally offers the hammer claw higher leverage, so you’ll be able to typically rock the hammer straight again on its head slightly than sideways. However not all the time. Use this straight pull solely on nails that come out pretty simply or aren’t pushed deeply. In any other case you can break a wooden-handled hammer. Though you’ll be able to yank rather a lot more durable on hammers with a fiberglass or metal deal with, you will discover it is rather a lot simpler to make use of a sideways pull.

Method 3: Dig for buried nails

Buried nails are not any match for a cat’s paw, a vital software to hold for all tough framing work. Emphasize “rough,” since you drive the claw below the buried nailhead and rock the deal with again firmly (Picture 3). The brief claw develops great leverage and can pull virtually any nail. A robust, regular pull works finest. Should you jerk the deal with, you can pop the pinnacle off the nail, particularly with 16d galvanized nails. You need to use it for bent nails too. However it’s important to put a block below the cat’s paw to develop good leverage, as in Picture 2, or slide your hammer head below it to shim it up.

Downside: Even with a deft contact, the cat’s paw digs up a divot of wooden across the nailhead and leaves a definite “paw print” behind while you rock it again. It is not a end software.

Method 4: Drive it by means of

End carpentry typically requires extra refined ways to keep away from ruining a beneficial piece of woodwork. You possibly can pull most bent end nails with the hammer-and- block method proven earlier or with pliers.

However if you cannot pry trim off with out damaging it, drive the end nails fully by means of the trim (Picture 4) and pop it off. You need to use both a 1/32-in. nail set or a 1/16-in. pin punch (purchase at house facilities and {hardware} shops). They’re particularly helpful for releasing window and door casings which have been cross-nailed to carry the miters collectively.

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Drawbacks: Use the nail set for skinny woodwork. In any other case, you will go away a reasonably large spherical gap on the entrance aspect to fill later. And work rigorously close to ends, as a result of the nail set can cut up the wooden.

Method 5: Lower the powerful ones

A reciprocating noticed can minimize by means of nails in a fraction of the time it takes to drag them (Picture 5). Plus it’s going to attain nails you’ll be able to’t get at another means. Many all-purpose blades minimize each wooden and nails, however purchase the 10-teeth-per-inch sort as a result of it cuts by means of hardened drywall screws as nicely. With a deft contact, you may as well do delicate work, like reaching behind trim to chop nails, in addition to screws and bolts, with out marring the wooden.

Downside: Chances are high that the blade will pinch whereas slicing tight spots, so push the noticed guard tightly in opposition to the wooden and maintain the noticed firmly.

Method 6: Pull them from the again

End trim is dear and price salvaging at any time when potential. Should you can pry it off, pull the end nails from the bottom (Picture 6). They will splinter the entrance for those who drive them again by means of. A nippers works nicely, however so do slip-joint pliers and locking pliers.

Required Instruments for this Challenge

Have the required instruments for this DIY undertaking lined up earlier than you begin—you’ll save time and frustration.

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• Cat’s paw
• Hammer
• Nail set
• Nippers
• Reciprocating noticed