How to Take up Prefinished Floors

Move objects off the prefinished flooring. Put on heavy-duty work gloves and eye protection.

Remove baseboard trim from the walls. Slip a pry bar behind a baseboard, starting near the end of the trim. Position a shim against the wall behind the pry bar to prevent damaging the wall when you pry off the baseboard. Pry the baseboard away from the wall. Work along the length of the baseboard until you have completely removed it and remove the rest of the baseboards in the same manner.

Choose a wood floor plank to cut through. Cut along the entire length of the center of the plank using a carbide tooth-bladed circular saw. While this particular plank cannot be reused, the rest are potentially reusable.

Wedge the curved end of the pry bar into the cut and underneath half of the plank. Pry up on the bar to tear the half of the plank off the subfloor. Repeat to remove the other half of the cut wood plank.

Slide the flatter end of the pry bar underneath the tongue side of the adjacent floor plank. Gently pry the bar upwards to loosen the wood plank from the subfloor. Work along the length of the plank until you fully detach it from the subfloor.

Grasp each nail with the locking pliers and pull the nails directly out of the wood.

Continue removing the remaining prefinished wood flooring planks and extracting nails from the salvaged floor boards.

Inspect the subfloor for remaining nail stubs and extract with the locking pliers.