# Forum Home Renovation Flooring  removing underlay staples from hardwood floor

## gilbo

Please HELP! I am pulling up old carpet and would like to polish the 100 year old boards. The underlay is stapled in about 1000+ places. Every staple I try to remove with pliers keeps breaking and I cannot get the staple out. Is there a better way? Better tool? Will staple bits left behind be a problem when sanding? Thanks, any advice appreciated.

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## Christopher_940

when we pull them out at work we use the claw of our hammer and yes if they are sticking up they will rip the paper to shreads and will blunt it too and stuff the drum on the belt/drum sander

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## gilbo

Thanks Chris. What I am finding is that nearly all the staples are rusted and any amount of leverage is breaking them at the corners. This is leaving a point that is not long enough to get a grip on. Can I tap the staples into the wood surface and them sand?

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## GeoffW1

> Thanks Chris. What I am finding is that nearly all the staples are rusted and any amount of leverage is breaking them at the corners. This is leaving a point that is not long enough to get a grip on. Can I tap the staples into the wood surface and them sand?

  Hi, 
Confronted with this problem I used a wide pincers type nail puller like this   CARPENTERS PINCERS 8" / REMOVING NAILS WOODWORKING 075 - eBay, Other Hand Tools, Hand Tools, Business, Office Industrial. (end time 17-Nov-09 03:57:04 AEDST) 
It gives nearly a vertical pull on the staple stub, and I found most came out for me. 
However it sounds like you will have a lot left in there, and the only thing you can do is to tap them down about 1-2mm with a thin pin punch (you can make a good one from a medium gauge nail, by filing the point off square), and fill with matching sandable wood putty. That will give a good result when sanded and polished up. 
Cheers

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## mattwilliams78

I was just commenting to a friend the other day that its taken me a while to work out how to pull out staples and I should get on here and share it - so you're the lucky one  :Biggrin:  
First thing I did was go and buy a staple remover, I think that lasted 3 staples. Then I tried standard pliers and that was very hard to do on a straight pull. I think I tried levering them over a hammer handle at one point but it was just annoying. 
So what I did was go and buy a pair of irwin locking grips/pliers from bunnings. I found that if you set the thread to lock when the faces meet then the little staple gets gripped really tight and then if you roll the pliers over on the curved jaw then it pulls the staple out really gently. I get 99% of staples out relatively easily this way and the one or two staples that rarely snap I just punched in like the post above. 
Hope this helps - I've found it to be the perfect tool for the job.

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## MBMartinborough

The staples that don't come out, just punch them below floor level 2-3mm.

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## chipps

Believe me gilbo, you are not alone  :Biggrin:   http://www.renovateforum.com/f77/tim...-strips-75323/

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## NailPuller

There is a brand new tool called the Nail Hunter, this is not spam, it is just an announcement that this problem has been solved in the 'States and it is the Nail Hunter...it's finally coming to Australia...watch the staple pulling at the end of this... 
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2XTnuhwCa8]YouTube - Nail Hunter2 with VO[/ame]

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## RumpledElf

> So what I did was go and buy a pair of irwin locking grips/pliers from bunnings. 
> ...
> Hope this helps - I've found it to be the perfect tool for the job.

  I second that - its what we've used to get stubborn, rusted staples out of things too. 
Once you have a pair you find uses for them you never thought you needed locking pliers for!

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## joy.rob53

> There is a brand new tool called the Nail Hunter, this is not spam, it is just an announcement that this problem has been solved in the 'States and it is the Nail Hunter...it's finally coming to Australia...watch the staple pulling at the end of this...  YouTube - Nail Hunter2 with VO

  So where do you get one of these in Australia?!?

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