I have large chipboard floorboards in the upstairs of my house which I need to lift to do some piping and wiring. They are quite old so come up easily however, they don't stop at the stud walls but actually go under them. 

 

Im clearly going to have to cut the boards along the edge of the walls. My question is how do people do this? If I cut them along the walls, there won't be any support for those edges when I put them back on?

 

Any advice much appreciated.

 

Thanks

Cut along the edge, or better just a bit away from it with a multi tool.  Also use that to cut along the joint to cut the tongue where you want to lift them.  I have an old slide hammer nail; puller that helps to take boards up relatively clean.

 

Fix a batten behind the cut to support the free cut end.

 

Watch out for pipes and cables touching the underside of the board.  Most of us in the trade will have had "the fountain" at least once.

Is a Cavity Master type kit any good? A few different makes around. Sure mine is 127mm not 100mm...

 

 

 

Armeg version:

 

 

On 18/09/2018 at 20:31, ProDave said:

Cut along the edge, or better just a bit away from it with a multi tool.  Also use that to cut along the joint to cut the tongue where you want to lift them.  I have an old slide hammer nail; puller that helps to take boards up relatively clean.

 

Fix a batten behind the cut to support the free cut end.

 

Watch out for pipes and cables touching the underside of the board.  Most of us in the trade will have had "the fountain" at least once.

 

Luckily its not tongue and groove. Just big sheets of chipboard. Ive pulled one end of one board up just using a utility bar and bits of wood to lever it up one nail at a time.