sinister wrote:
"aemeijers" wrote in message
...
snip
Drill the head off the nail, then pull the board off the top of it. Once
you have a half-inch of nail showing, vise-grips will pull it right out.

The nails were sunk into the wood. I ended up getting a nail puller with a
wide end; that didn't damage the wood underneed too bad.

But I also did get a vice grips, which I used for a nail or two, and for one
screw which someone had mangled badly.

A small stanley wonder bar, with a piece of cardboard as a scuff guard,
will protect the paneling the batten is nailed to. Yeah, I've done
non-destructive demo before a few times. And you are right- furnaces and
water heaters should never be trapped- if you must put a wall in the
access path, put it on quick releases of some kind. And even then, you
should leave plenty of air space around them for proper functioning.

They did put in those metal slat vent thing-ees, so the circulation doesn't
seem to be a problem.

--
aem sends...


Guess I didn't describe it well enough. (Moot point for you, now, but
others may find it useful). Drill directly into the head of the nail, to
de-head it. Then using the stanley wonderbar, pull the wood OFF the
nail, in essence pulling the nail through the top board. That is when
you use the vise-grips, to pull the headless nail out of the board
below. Just another way of doing what another poster suggested, about
driving the nail through the board with a nail set, but a skinny drill
bit can often do less damage to the top board than a nail set would. I
wouldn't bother for pine trim that will be painted anyway, but I have
saved hardwood trim this way several times. Only an itty-bitty hole that
the putty stick hid well.

--
aem sends...