How to Remove Nails Without Damaging Wood

Featured Pro: Eric Stromer
Category: Home Improvement
Time: 2:09


ERIC STROMER: Hey, I’m Eric Stromer. Here’s your GMC Trade Secret.

Have you ever wanted to pull a nail out of a piece of hardwood but were afraid you might damage or injure the wood around the nail? Well, there’s a couple of tricks of the trade I’ve learned along the way that I’d like to share with you.

Now, this first tool, these are called nippers. What you do is you grab the nail head, if it is coming up out of the surface of the wood, and you gently pull it back and forth and essentially rock it just like that, being careful not to gouge or damage the wood whatsoever and being very, very slow and deliberate as you do it. And as you can see, that nail comes out very, very easily.

And then at a certain point, if you need to, you can go ahead and use the claw end of your hammer, but I like to put a spatula down to protect the wood as well as I’m pulling the nail out from the wood. Voila.

Tool number two, if you can’t get the nippers under the nail head, you can go ahead and use a putty knife and put it right underneath the surface of the nail head and just tap in from all directions. Try not to gouge the surface of the wood as you’re doing it, keeping it flat, and going around the nail head just like this.

Now we’re at a point where we could, in fact, get the nippers underneath the nail head, again, rocking back and forth; same thing, using that. You can pull it out just like that. Voila.

Now, the third scenario, if you have a finished nail and the head is buried into the hardwood, you can go ahead and use something like this, a little cat’s paw. You may have to gouge or dig slightly into the surface of the wood, but you can repair that later either with sanding or some kind of a putty scenario.

Now, all you’ve got to do is put that cat’s paw just like that and tap gently from all directions. Obviously you can see I’m making a little bit of a divot around the nail head, but it’s a lot better than if I’d used a different tool – right tool for the right job. Ah, no problem whatsoever.

Next time you’ve got a nail stuck in a piece of wood, remember this GMC Trade Secret, presented by the GMC Sierra.