Yep, we managed it: took out the entire floor, including the subfloor, down to the joists, on Saturday. Took most of the day. Made a lot of noise. We also took out a wall, all the electrical and plumbing. Much of this was accomplished with the sawzall.
I should confess a small white lie. I stated that we removed all of the slate a week ago. This was not entirely true. The slate was bonded to plywood (1/4-inch), which was then bonded to 3/4-inch plywood, which was installed in place of the regular floor boards. What? Someone has already removed the subfloor in here previously?! Incredible. What are the odds? But it was true - the remains of some of the slate clung to the 1-inch of plywood, which was then nailed no less than 5-million times with those giant nails to the joists. Joists and overly abundant cross-support boards. It may be difficult to tell, but there was never more than 1 foot of clear space under the plywood, which meant it was nearly impossible to pry up. We had to pound from below, pry from above, and mostly just cut it into ever smaller bits with the sawzall until we could tear it up. Ugly.
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