" -You've remove a lot of a, the salvaged flooring material from a former bedroom that's now been turned into the kitchen?"

" -That's correct. Yes."

" -Any tricks on how you take it up?"

" -Well Bob, we have a small flat bar that we use and that's probably the preferred tool."

" -Yes."

" -A miniature flat bar."

" -That's Correct. And we hook that underneath the floor the same direction that it's nailed in."

" -Yes."

" -And it just comes up pretty easily."

" -Always in the same direction, that is nailed in."

" -That's correct."

" -Okay. That will help prevent cracking and splitting."

" -Cracking and splitting the boards. That's correct."

" -Its, its old, it's a hard wood but still it's been down for 30-35 years. It's gone through. All those season changes in the temperature so that it's somewhat dried up and as long as your prying it carefully, you can be assured that you're gonna be able to reuse it."

" -Right. Now, you've separated it into piles over here I notice, what is the story?"

" -Okay, Bob. On this pile here, we have boards that have both the male and the female grooves at both ends."

" -Yes. This has a tongue at an end, and a groove at the other end, and an intact tongue along one whole side, as well as an intact groove along the other side. So, this is a prime piece, right?"

" -That's correct."

" -The saw the pile we have one that is cut on one side."

" -Okay. So, This means this was a piece that had been butted up against the wall, up against the baseboard."

" -Right."

" -And that's where you see a back cut on it."

" -Yes."

" -Yes, and so these are pieces that are second grade?"

" -That's correct. And this is another one with the opposite end cut off."

" -Okay. Yes, the back cut is on the opposite end. So, it's really like a jigsaw puzzle in a sense."

" -That's right."

" -You got different pieces that you got a different, you fit in different locations."

" -Yes."

" -And you have already run it into what is now the new front hall of the house?"

" -Any considerations on whether you use all the good ones at once and then go to the bad ones or what?"

" -Well Bob, one of the reasons why we divide it up into 3 groups, we don't wanna use all the good ones right away. We wanna use the cut ones up against the walls. Otherwise, when you get done half way through the job, you're just left with a bunch of------"

" -Damaged pieces."

" -Yes. Now Leo, does this make economic sense? I mean, isn't it awfully labor intensive to be doing this?"

" -It's labor intensive but, when you consider that the rest of the floor would have to be ripped up and when you consider the cost of laying a new floor?"

" -Which is about 5 bucks a foot? Right?"

" -That's correct. This is much, much more economical."

" -Okay. Well, show us how you're nailing them in. Cause you're using one of these traditional machines."

" -This is the, the standard floor machine. It opens up in the back and you put in a clip of nails."

" -And they're really cut nails?"

" -They're cut nails."

" -They're all glued together but the machine will. You just slip it in like that?"

" -And just slide in just like a staples gun."

" -There you go."

" -[unk]"

" -We always use a scrap piece of block?"

" -Yes."

" -Get it in here, put a foot on it, do with a good rap."

" -Yes."

" -You have a nice tight fit down there."

" -Yes. And then use another block at that end."

" -Now how far apart would you space the staples?"

" -Normally we nail them about 12 inches apart and then we, we give an extra nail at the ends."

" -Close to the ends, yes."

" -Close to the ends so that when the joints are together, they'll stay really tight."

" -So, it is a nice clean job of inserting that staple right at the correct point just above the tongue at an angle."

" -And you get a nice tight fit."

" -Yes. Let me ask another question about squeaking. Lot of people complain about you know, noisy floor. What do you do to prevent that?"

" -Well Bob, before we lay the floor down, we go over the sub flooring."

" -Yes."

" -And we make sure that the floors are well nailed."

" -So that you've------"

" -So that there are no squeaks in the sub flooring."

" -Check every old board."

" -That's right."

" -And how important is this, this [unk] tape? [time00:04:30]"

" -Well, it acts as an insulator between your sub flooring and your, and your top flooring. It cushions everything."

" -It cushions everything, right. Okay Leo, you go right ahead. You're doing it the old fashioned way."

" -Over here, we've got Bob Riley who is gonna be using a different technology and you've got a different set of problems. But you're gonna be shooting, shooting these in with the------"

" -The compressor back there, that's right."

" -And this nail gun."

" -And it uses these 2-inch staples."

" -Actually Yes, it's shooting staples out, right?"

" -Yes."

" -Well it's amazing that these little staples would, be able to penetrate that hard wood."

" -Oh, It does and it's, it really holds them tight. If you ever have to take it out------"

" -Yes."

" -You'll tell this hole is better than the------"

" -Yes."

" -than the others."

" -Now Riley, explain the problem that you've encountered here?"

" -What we're doing here is we're changing the direction the floor is laid."

" -Right."

" -And so we have a piece were the grooves are biting into one another."

" -Right. The, the, the floor has all been laid in one direction and now, where were adding wood too and we end up with the situation where you have a, two grooves butted up against one another and that doesn't work coz you can't nail through a groove. You have to always nail through a tongue."

" -Always through the tongue."

" -Yes. So how do you deal with that?"

" -Well, I was just on my way to the table so I would cut a spline for that"

" -Let's take a look."

" -Okay."

" -We found pieces of scrap that we'll be using to make our spline with. We're gonna do this with two passes on the table saw. First, we'll cut it vertically and then we'll cut it horizontally to a 3/8, 7-inch width."

" -Alright. So that just gets fitted right into the groove there. Do you have to put any glue on it?"

" -No. You definitely don't wanna any glue. This just floats in there."

" -Why? Why not?"

" -Well, if you put glue in there, its just, has a chance to perhaps split. You want it to be able to move, absorb moisture and, and dry out."

" -Right."

" -So that's okay."

" -You have to fit in a little bit more?"

" -No. This had the [unk] drive it right in."

" -I was gonna say you got your block right there and it's always great to have block handy coz you never wanna nail with a hammer directly unto a groove of, of any of the flooring material that's staying. You wanna take a scrap and use it to be able to dry a spline or the next piece into, into place."

" -Okay."

" -So you have that one pre-cut."

" -That's pre-cut. We pre-cut a few of them------"

" -Yes."

" -already so that when, so we don't have to go back and forth to the, to the, to the saw every time we want to cut."

" -So you got a number of lengths already set up."

" -Right. [unk] at a time."

" -Is thing loaded?"

" -This is no, not loaded. I take a couple of clips"

" -Here you go."

" -Right in place, right in there."

" -Put, put two or three in"

" -Yes"

" -That's it."

" -Alright, go to [unk]."

" -Okay."