Working on home improvement projects around your house and yard typically requires driving lots of nails. But sooner or later, you’ll have to pull out some of those nails.

Here are three techniques that make it easy to pull out virtually any nail:

• Use a block of wood as a fulcrum; this will provide quite a bit of extra leverage for pulling the nail out.

• Use the side-to-side pull — put the hammer’s claw up in a nail shaft and rock it back and forth. You may have to reposition the hammer, but little by little, it’ll pull the nail out. This can mess up the wood surface, so be careful where you use that.

• If you have a nail with a broken-off head, or a large finishing nail with a tiny head, grab a pair of locking pliers. Lock the pliers onto the shaft, and then put the claw of the hammer under the pliers, pull up and yank out the nail.

Watch the video above to see the Simple Solution!

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avatar for Joe Truini

Joe Truini

Radio Show Co-Host

Joe Truini is a contractor, author, and the host of “Simple Solutions” on Today’s Homeowner TV and the weekly Today’s Homeowner radio show. He has worked on both large commercial projects and residential remodeling, and has written for national publications such as This Old House and Popular Mechanics. He has also written eight books, including three best-selling shed-building books. Joe lives in Connecticut with his family and enjoys hiking, traveling, and baseball in his spare time.

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