I need to pull nails out of hardwood flooring. Any good ideas on how to go about this?

It is old hardwood (oak) flooring that was pulled up from an old house. Now I have thousands of nails to pull out of the wood. Are their any tips you can give for removing the nails?





Size-wise, they are like 16d nails.I need to pull nails out of hardwood flooring. Any good ideas on how to go about this?
Use a piece of board under the hammer so you do not dent or scratch the floor itself.I need to pull nails out of hardwood flooring. Any good ideas on how to go about this?
Drive them out as you would with any other nail. If the nails are ring shanks it is a done deal, you are not going to pull them out without splintering the wood. The best you can do in this instance is to cut the head then pull it through.


Drive the nail backwards until the point is flush with the wood, place a block under the hammer claw and pull. The block will prevent the hammer from leaving a divot as you pull.
There is a brand new solution, and without a doubt it is the best. Try a Nail Jack or Nail Hunter. I got one off of Amazon and I can pull anything. These tools are designed to GRAB, unlike a cat's paw or anything else. Pliers with an attitude. Plus, to dig out a nail that's at, or below the surface, this tool has a place on the back of the head to hit it with a hammer! This drives the tips under the nail head or in the case of a headless one, just below the wood surface to grab. The Nail Jack and the Nail Hunter have a built in fulcrum point to lever the nail up and out. Wow.
Hmm... Well, depending on where you live, this is a bad time of year to do it. The humidity makes the wood swell, making it more difficult to pull the nails. But, like one guy said, using a wonder bar is a good idea. Most hammers leave it difficult to accomplish the task ahead of you.





Best of luck! And wear goggles!
If the nails do not have large heads, pull them out from the back side to prevent splintering the surface. You may also want to think about driving larger headed nails inwards a bit, cut the back side off with a grinder and filling the head side with wood filler.
Get a Wonder bar at the hardware store, it's much better than a simple claw hammer for this sort of thing. And put a cloth or cardboard down, so you don't mar the wood when you apply pressure.