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HeyBub wrote:
wrote:
The concrete will be at the temperature of the ground below it,
irrespective of water.

Tack strips should be nailed down. Proper carpet installers use short
concrete nails and sooper-dooper guns to shoot the nails. The nails
are a bitch to remove.
I disagree, but I've only removed nails in one home. Our carpet
strips were in place for about 35 years. When we removed carpet to
install tile, it wasn't very difficult to remove them. I'm not
muscle-bound and it only required a screw-driver (to start) and a
small pry-bar. Some nails pulled out by just moving the pry-bar
along the length of the tack strip, but most had to be pried
individually. The carpet and pad were very secure until we removed
them.

Same here - one home - but the nails were *******s! I've removed the
carpeting, now, in every room and in each case 3/4 of the nails remained
after prying up the tack strips. Originally I removed the nails with a
pry-bar, but that required some muscle power and chips of concrete came up
with the nail. In putting down tile, that required going back and filling
the chipped areas with floor leveler (I finally started using sheetrock
mud).

For me, the angle grinder was ever so much easier...

Should I pull up my tile and apply floor leveler?

) Heck, my nails
pulled out with ease - very few broke. A few chipped the concrete, but
no more than a dimple - perhaps 1/2" diam. The nails were probably less
than 1"; difficult to remember. The tack strip was brittle, and prying
it didn't bring along many nails, so had to pry most of the nails
separately. Perhaps your nails were longer than mine.