Kitchen Floor Dismantling: Complete?

So I've begun putting new flooring in, that means I'm half-done, right?...yeah. Unfortunately it probably doesn't even mean I'm done tearing out old stuff.

It's been quite an experience so far though. Thoroughly educational. I know it may not seem like it with the sheer professionalism of the work being done, but I have absolutely no experience with floors, walls, subfloors, joists, kitchens, etc.

I have plenty of basic remodeling and plumbing experience from working winters on the boats. The big difference is that the boats are all made of steel, steel floors, steel overheads, steel bulkheads (or walls), you get the idea. So boy was I confused when I ripped up the floor in the kitchen and found all this wood. What on earth were they thinking, no wonder the old dishwasher did so much damage.

Proof for some of you that Karl still exists

Anyway, with a little help from my friends the wood finish-floor is entirely removed, as well as the entire middle layer of flooring which was 5/8" particle board. The finish floor came up much easier with the prybar than with just a hammer like I demonstrated in a video in a previous entry...

Particle board on top half, plywood sub-floor under garbage cans

I took up the middle layer because I plan on tiling the kitchen at the end of this project and I've been told I need this other stuff instead. Once it was all up the water stained sub-floor really stood out.

See

Obviously, that hole was going to have to get bigger. With the help of Lil' Davey, some precision skill-sawing by yours truly, and some sweet dual-prybar action, we made it happen.

Out of necessity, the floor project has also become, to a lesser extent, the wall project.Yes, Lil' Davey does all the work while I just take pictures

Soon we had a pretty respectable looking hole. I decided taking whole pieces of the sub-floor out was probably the smart move, rather than trying to custom fit a partial piece onto half of a joist...See, I'm not a carpenter.

Whole piece of plywood will fit on left side of hole

I still will have to cut down a second sheet to fit around the right side/wall/top of stairs.

Watch your step!

As of right now I've laid the full sheet in, just so people have something to walk on, but it's not glued and screwed yet.
The old sub-floor ran right under the wall, I removed it as best I can, but I just don't think there's any getting it out from under that wall. I don't dare even try really. It was tricky enough just trying to cut it out around the wall.

This is a particularly nasty angle, it's really not so bad.

I did manage to get it up at the seam that was under the faux-brick wall along the staircase, leaving some hard to get to nails for me to remove.

Hard-to-get-to nails wedged between wall and joist

After imagining some tools I didn't have to get the nails out, I considered what I did have. A flathead screwdriver to bend the nail, and a masterful use of all three nail-removing parts of the prybar did the job (without breaking a single nail somehow).

I'm working quite a bit this week but I've still set some pretty ambitious goals for the house. I'm moving in full-time at the end of July whether the house is ready for me or not. So I hope to be ready to paint and tile by next week. Which means I have to finish the sub-floor, get the tile under-layer installed, replace the section of the wall in the kitchen, get the rest of the wallpaper stripped off the bathroom walls, and spackle/sand the rest of the living/dining room...I'm not very encouraged having typed all that out...but with that being said, if you're any good at any of those things and would like to help, give me a call.

The second piece of the new sub-floor

Here's a random video of David steeeruggling with the prybar on a thin piece of drywall, eventually getting a very mediocre piece broken off...Maybe it just makes me laugh because I've spent so much time in that room lately: