Removing Hilti Nails in Concrete?

Vaughn McMillan

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I want to remove the wooden threshold attached to the floor at the bottom of our overhead garage door. I need to thoroughly wash the concrete garage floor before applying epoxy paint, and the threshold will make it real tough to drain or dry the floor. I figure I'll remove the wooden one and replace it with a rubber one after the floor is done.

The existing threshold is held in place with power-driven nails, like you'd get out of a Hilti gun. What's the best way to pull up the threshold and the nails? I could always break out the wood and use an angle grinder to grind the nails flush with the slab, but that seems like the hard way to do things. I've not yet tried to pull it up, but thought I'd see if anyone had any tips before I give it a tug.
 
I'd bust out the wooden threshold and cut them nails off. You are going to loose the threshold anyway, right?

Them power driven nails are HARD steel, and when they break, they can go "Ping" in a rather unsafe way. You could get a BIG crow bar and give it a go, but you might pop the heads off of the nails before you pull them, and that head will be traveling at high speed when it lets go, not to mention you might be taking a dive as the crowbar lets go....:eek:

A good pry bar under the threshold, pry it up, the nails will most likely stay, and the wood will break away from the nails, then cut the nails off, with your angle grinder and pound what is left proud into the concrete.

YMMV :wave:
 
stu`s right..brute force is the only way to pull `em. i`ve had good luck with my trusty 4` crow bar....be ready to pour epoxy in the craters left from the nails before you paint.
 
Use a chisel split the wood remove it then use an angle grinder to to cut & grind the nail flush. Trying to pull the nails will leave craters. If you do this right you'll only need a very small amount of epoxy to fill some small craters if at all.
 
I would wash the floor, then rather then pull anything, I would use a shop vac to suck up the bulk of the water. Add a fan or two to dry up what little remains and you can be "watching the floor dry" with a cold adult beverage".

But then again I'm kind of lazy, but laziness does come in creative packages.:rofl:
 
to quote dremel:

did we mention that we cut?
Going through 20 or 30 extra hard steel nails with a Dremel would only take be about 2 days and a half a case of the little carborundum cutoff disks. :D
I would wash the floor, then rather then pull anything, I would use a shop vac to suck up the bulk of the water. Add a fan or two to dry up what little remains and you can be "watching the floor dry" with a cold adult beverage".
Still considering that as a possibility. I'll see how I'm feeling after I get the carpet nail strips pulled and patched.

Although instead of an adult bev, I'll be hanging Christmas decorations for LOML as it dries. ;)
 
Vaughn we use a burk bar ( big pry bar) to get our wood plates off the concrete slabs. Just gently pry it up and the nails should just pop out with the wood. If some get left behind just grind then flush or bend them back and forth till they snap off. You might have some filling to do but you are going to no matter what you do.
 
Well, the threshold is up. I ended up grinding the tops off the nails, then prying the wood up. Not only was it nailed (about a dozen times) is was heavily glued. About an hour with the angle grinder and I got it all pretty well cleaned up, but there are a number of craters.

Now it's off the the store for some slab patching material to fill the holes under the threshold, as well as all the holes caused by the carpet nailer strip around the perimeter of the shop.
 
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