Pry up the first few boards to give yourself room to work.
Tearing up hardwood floors.
Removing hardwood floors in one of the houses we renovated.
So cutting them into smaller pieces of wood makes it easier to pry up.
Then we came up with this one which.
You can cut each section into approximately one to two feet wide portions.
Take down the tarps roll them up carefully and move them outside to be cleaned or thrown away.
By cutting the boards into small sections removal will go faster and smoother.
If necessary go over the area again with a vacuum or mop to clear away any especially fine dust remaining.
This is helpful because hardwood planks are all different lengths and make it really tough to remove quickly.
Cut the hardwood flooring perpendicular to the direction the flooring is lying.
Make sure to set your saw blade to the thickness of your hardwood flooring so as to not damage the sub flooring.
We used several techniques that we found very uncomfortable.