This issue's tip comes from David Merrill at Spring Grove, Ill.-based Totallywood Flooring:
In my area we do a lot of lace-in jobs, and we used to do board removal like everyone else: Take a circular saw, cut two kerfs and remove the pieces with a lot of finagling. At some point I got the idea to drill a hole in the board and put a cats paw in the hole, then slam that with my mallet. It was easier: You didn't have to cut the boards and it wasn't as messy. But it was still physical, because you had to whale on it to get it out. Then one day while we were on a job I realized I could use my demolition hammer, which we use for tile demo jobs. I went out on the driveway and used an angle grinder to cut a profile in the chipping bit—not easy, as that Hilti steel was no joke—and that's what I've used ever since. I think you could also use it to drive the new boards back in as long as you protected the boards, but I haven't tried that yet.
See a video of this trick in action:
