EZ way to pull up attic decking held down by pneumatic nails?

[cajunfirehawk]

My home was standard spec house construction and my attic is covered by OSB sheathing which is held down by pneumatic nails. Like most homes today there is no insulation under my decking between my sheet rock ceiling to insulate my garage below. This has always been on my list of "To Dos" for this house and before it gets to toaster oven temp in the attic I would like to knock this out for 2018. The issue is; there are many nails in each sheet that I cannot pull up the normal way, and I cant get behind the osb to cut these nails so I am looking for the GJ gurus here to come up w/some killer time saving tips on how to pull this sheathing up?

Thanks as always...

 

[ChaseDE]

cats paw to get it started, then maybe a flat bladed pry bar once you get some edges loose, I can't think of another way. It's a pain.

 

[capww8]

You could also foam through relatively small holes rather than prying it all up.

 

[The Cobbler]

cut the osb along each rafter and pull it up . then deal with the nails. however you're trashing the OSB this way

 

[rburke65]

If it's a spec home maybe they didn't use too many nails to secure it....so...How about using a small dia. hole saw and saw around the nail. Lift sheet and cut off the small plug. That about sums up my brain fart one your problem. Let us know how ya make out.

 

[ratdoggy]

If it's a spec home maybe they didn't use too many nails to secure it....so...How about using a small dia. hole saw and saw around the nail. Lift sheet and cut off the small plug. That about sums up my brain fart one your problem. Let us know how ya make out.

Maybe this would work. Use a small hole saw off center of the nail leaving the plug with nail intact and then you can put the OSB back in same spot and nail it down

 

[cajunfirehawk]

If it's a spec home maybe they didn't use too many nails to secure it....so...How about using a small dia. hole saw and saw around the nail. Lift sheet and cut off the small plug. That about sums up my brain fart one your problem. Let us know how ya make out.

Kinda what I planned...thx.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

You could always blow in foam or cellulose through holes in the OSB. Or cut out sections of each bay and slide fiberglass or Roxul in under the OSB.

 

[larry_g]

We just used blown in insulation to get between the joists. No need to remove all the flooring.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[NUTTSGT]

This is a time when I would use blown cellulose or price expanding foam retrofitting.

 

[Toolfool]

This : https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...1A2FE939BBBD5BFDD5801A2FE939BBBD&&FORM=VDRVRV

 

[csp]

It's not the fact that they are pneumatic nails. A ring shank nail is hard to remove whether driven by a nail gun or manually.

 

[Angelfire]

Meet my 'lil friend:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DT0OYTG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Yeah, it'll take a while but after you get one or two nails out/loose, you should be able to pry with a large pry bar to lift the other nails up to grab easily.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

I agree with the others. Cut a hole and blow it in. but if you must remove it for your own piece of mind. Get a 1" to a 1&1/4" hole saw and drill around each nail. Pick up plywood and then pull the nails.

You could get a big punch and just drive them through too. Good excuse to buy a air hammer.

 

[RVDan]

Drill a 2" hole, slide in a piece of angle iron on a chain, attach chain to a slide hammer.

Or

Drill a 2" hole next to the stud. Stick the duckbill of a 5" hooligan bar in there and pry.

Once starred any of your favorite prybars will work.

 

[Orionrising]

Drill a 2" hole, slide in a piece of angle iron on a chain, attach chain to a slide hammer.

Or

Drill a 2" hole next to the stud. Stick the duckbill of a 5" hooligan bar in there and pry.

Once starred any of your favorite prybars will work.

I'd go with the cut it out in strips... Save em an lay em back perpendicular when done..but note that rafter depth is rarely enough insulation.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

[gunguy]

With my luck, the flooring would be nailed and glued.

Maybe consider going in the other way; pull down the existing sheetrock ceiling, insulate, and re-rock.

How many sq ft are you talking about and how much stuff do you have to remove from the attic just to get to the floor?

Pulling up the floor or pulling the ceiling would make it very easy to add circuits for additional lighting or overhead outlets if you had a mind to.

Price out your options, add in your time and aggravation factor and choose the best one that fits your needs, skills, and budget.

Just another way to look at the issue. Let us know what you decide.

Jim

 

[mcbane]

Use a hole saw without the pilot bit to avoid putting a drill hole in the top edge of each joist. Instead of the pilot step on a small scrap of plywood with the correct size hole to start the hole saw.

 

[driftpin]

Wouldn't it make sense to just replace the sheet, the intact nails/plugs would provide a 'key' to re-locate the sheets exactly where they were? Then you could just use some joint compound to fill-in the space between the stationary plug and the in-place OSB sheet. A few screws in each sheet to hold the OSB down, done.

If it's a spec home maybe they didn't use too many nails to secure it....so...How about using a small dia. hole saw and saw around the nail. Lift sheet and cut off the small plug. That about sums up my brain fart one your problem. Let us know how ya make out.

 

[TommyK]

If you are not concerned with trying to save the OSB and you can't pull the nails with a cat's paw for whatever reason, then I would take a circular saw and cut along side each joist to remove the bulk of the OSB and then go back with a pry bar or sawzall to get the strips still attached to the joists.

 

[EOC_Jason]

They only put down a couple sheets above my garage but when they did it they used those long staples. I had to pull it up to re-run some wires out of the way and just used a long pry-bar. It ended up ripping the stapled through the OSB, which I then pulled out of the joists with some pliers. When I put the OSB back I just used some screws in different locations.

 

[Radix2]

Cut along the joists, remove the osb, insulate, put in new osb.

No need to remove or mess with the nails. Now you have stud bays an extra 1/2" deep...so what....?

 

[finn]

Leave the osb and blow in cellulose. You'll be done before you finished pulling the cellulose.
If you aren't planning on storage up there, blow more on top of the osb.

Attics in garages make poor storage areas, especially as you age.

They mostly become dumps for junk that should be discarded. You end up scrapping the junk when you're old, or move.

 

[gunguy]

A lot of merit in that statement, you betcha!

Jim

 

[EOC_Jason]

My attic becomes mostly winter storage, I put the garden hoses (after blowing out the water), spreader, and few other misc things up there to give me some more space in the garage when I'm working on winter projects.

 

[rburke65]

When they built my shop they had the floor down in the attic storage area. The insulation company just pushed their hose in as far as they could and blew the joist cavity and repeated on the other end. The cellulose or fiber will fill that cavity.

 

[bczygan]

Blow-in through holes in the drywall ceiling below.