# Pulling up bowling alley lane?



## Fur_252 (Jan 26, 2014)

I recently was doing search on bowling alley lanes and came across this site. Great site! Recently my small town bowling alley sold and going to get demolished for a new ford dealership. I was wondering how hard would it be to rip up sections of the alley? any special tools to rip floor off lane? I was thinking 10ft sections because of the weight of the floors. I read plan on using a lot blades because of the nails. I would really love to make work benches out of the floor and maybe a shuffleboard table down the road. Is it worth the time and effort of peeling the lanes up or one lane? What can I expect on doing this? How much time would it take 2 guys to bring up one lane?


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## b2rtch (Jan 20, 2010)

People have been doing this before, be ready to pull out thousand of nails


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Ive never done one personally but being in the demo business I would bring the whole tool box, and a chainsaw. Id start with a sawzall and some "Axe" blades made by Milwaukee. Those are the best blades for cutting wood IMO. Little thicker than normal and wont bend on you if they bind. Id also have a circular saw with me with a couple of junky blades. After that id have a chainsaw handy, just in case.

From what ive heard the first 10' or so should be hard maple. There's a possibility that the rest couple be of a lesser material such as pine. Id venture to guess that it would be an all day event for 2 guys doing one lane and its gonna be heavy. 200-300 pound range would be my guess. Id shoot for the first 10' of multiple lanes.

Now if I had to do it in real life as a project I would bring in a mini excavator to do the heavy lifting and have the guys chainsaw it into sections at about 8'. A skidsteer with forks might help out too. One guy would be relegated to sharpening and replacing chains on the saw.


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

Lots of folks have done this in the past. I think PurpleLev produced the most famous example. It's a lovely bench, as are many bowling alley sourced benches.

For my part, I'd rather have a Doug Fir bench that I could build over a long weekend using Home Depot lumber for $150 than a free bowling alley bench that took me 40 hours of just demolition, de-lamination, and re-lamination. For every guy that's built a bench from a bowling alley, there are 10 who've built a soft-wood bench. Either bench will get the job done. (BTW I've never built a BAB so I don't know how long it takes to pull all those nails)

The definitive text on workbench construction "Workbenches: From Design and Theory to Construction and Use" by Christopher Schwartz, advocates for the use of the lowly southern yellow pine for building workbenches. I don't think it's worth getting hung up over the wood species. Hardwoods are great, but there is nothing wrong with inexpensive softwoods for benches.

I think the real question you should ask is "how many additional hours will bowling alley sourced lumber add to my workbench project?". Getting it out of the bowling alley is just the tip of the iceberg. If you're willing to put in the extra time that experienced people say it will take, then by all means go for the bowling alley bench-top.

I'm not trying to discourage you. Like I said, far better men than I have built bowling alley workbenches and love them, I'm just trying to give you an alternative before you pull out the cats paw and pry bar!

Best of luck and let us know what you decide to build and how it works out!


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## Fur_252 (Jan 26, 2014)

Is there anything holding this to the subfloor…..is it nailed, screws, tar, glue? Or can I expect any of these?


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## Bluepine38 (Dec 14, 2009)

I worked in a Fasteners store for a few years, and every spring a gentleman that refinished/repaired bowling
lanes would come in and buy quite an assortment of screws, and if I remember correctly some were #14 or
1/4" by 3" or 4" so do not be surprised if you find some screws. I never checked out his projects, just sold
him the screws.


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Id guess that they are probably laying on sleepers and there's no real subfloor like youd see in a typical house. You probably wont know until you start ripping a section out.


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

FWIW, my father helped cut up a piece of bowling alley used for a research project. Not only nails but be prepared to used lots of blades as that maple is like cement. It's not a job to be rushed, either.
He used it for a workbench and didn't delaminate it.


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## Fur_252 (Jan 26, 2014)

I talked to the owner he was telling me that the whole lane is hard maple! Could this be true? What I read is the first 15' is hard maple then soft pine or fir after that. Is he full of it?


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

Fur_252-It depends on who built and installed the lane. Some were all hard maple, some used softer woods after the first 15 feet or so.

chrisstef may be right. Our lanes sat on cradles that were effectively big sleepers. The cradles sat on a concrete floor and were high enough to allow for sunken, covered ball returns.


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## Gentile (Jun 3, 2013)

I met a guy once that made kitchen counters out of bowling lanes. It looked good. LOTS of nails…


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## Bogeyguy (Sep 26, 2012)

I would verify what is made of. Some of the later lanes are plastic.


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

The first part would be a hard wood as many bowlers, in my observation, tend to throw the ball down instead of out in front of them
The piece my father had was all hard maple- back in the mid 50's.


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## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

I've never removed bowling lanes, but have worked with them after the fact. As noted above, there does seem to be large screws that hold them in place. There are plugs on the top surface that have been obviously removed to get the screws out. I've worked with 2 different varieties and both had steel angle iron mounted with screws to the bottom side also.

The lanes are nailed together horizontally, and randomly, so not easy to know where they are. A 7-1/4" Skil saw won't cut all the way through. An 8" saw will and, as mentioned above, if you use some throw away carbide blades, you can cut through it.

It takes 4 strong guys to pick up a 15' section.

I got a ton of the stuff for nearly nothing at an auction 4 years ago, or so…...didn't have any idea what I was getting into.

Nicholas makes some really good points. This isn't everybody's cup of tea.

I've made a bench and several shop counters out of this material as well as a coffee table. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it….I did choose to remove all the nails and and clean up the boards, because those pesky nails are a problem otherwise (for me).......

There are some pictures HERE of the dismantling process.

The cool thing in my opinion, is that the quality of the Maple is outstanding. You won't find many defects in the wood except for damage perhaps when removing the lanes. And there is the satisfaction of re-purposing this beautiful material.

That being said, I wouldn't personally tackle the removal process, nor would I pay much for the material. For me, it was a cheap resource for some nice wood.


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## dataman19 (Sep 16, 2014)

First off - I know this is an old thread - but my delimma is a) start a new thread and take a chance that somebody will point me to this thread (this thread doesn't really answer my concerns).
b) Start a new thread and never get a correct answer (nno pun intended - but sawing up the lanes is not a good option for me - unless there is a way to reassemble them)...
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OK - now I am faced with the task of removing bowling alley lanes that have been in-place since 1958-1962.
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I do not want to cut them up - I need them whole…
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I get that I will have to make a cut at the approach/lane transition… This is not a problem as there is already a visible seam here to start with.
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My problem is that I will be reinstalling the lanes in a home. So I need a functional lane when I am done.
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Yes I said it - I want the whole 63 foot 9.5 inch lane as one piece…
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There I said it…
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Can anyone point me in a direction where I can learn what it takes to remove a solid bowling lane without destroying it?
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Thanks
dataman19


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## Fur_252 (Jan 26, 2014)

Ok I ended up with some bowling alley lane. The thing is that is some heavy stuff a 10ft piece we had 4 guys to carry it out! I'm not for sure if 2 guys could carry it out didn't want to blow out butt doing it. Thing about a full lane is do u have a straight shot carrying it out? If I was u and knowing how heavy the lanes are I would cut the lane 15ft pieces and have 6 guys there to lift, piece them back together sand a refinish the lane. Unless the bowling alley is getting demolished could drag it out and then get a crane to pick it for you. Just an idea


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Whoa dataman, that's a hell of an obstacle you want to tackle but ive got a few thoughts from doing demolition work over the last 12 years and heres how I would approach trying to wrestle something 63' long and ridiculously heavy (2-3 tons?):

Remove the ceiling above the lane youd like to salvage and locate the support structures of the building. (Ibeams, bar joists, something strong and structural)

From there you need to free up the lane itself. JL7 says there are plugs over the screw / anchors. Find those and remove them.

Then I would epoxy in place picking anchors in those old holes. Heavy duty picking anchors. Heavy duty epoxy (im thinking Hilti)

I would then attach come alongs / chain falls / hoists up in the ceiling to the structure and attach those to the picking points you just installed.

You can either pick from one side and roll it up or pick the whole shootin match at once and drop it on dollies to be rolled out of the building.

Once outside you're gonna need machinery and a low boy trailer to get it home. 63' long may require over the road permits in your area so talk to the local dept of transportation.

Im all for starting a new thread on this one data. Id like to see the situation youre working with. I love trying to tackle out of the norm jobs like this. Another option is to call a rigging company if you've got more money than time. You might also want to demo a portion of one lane to see how everything's put together.


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

I would call the manufacturer of the lane (Brunswick, AMF, etc.) and ask exactly how it comes apart. Bowling lanes are built, and installed by the manufacturers. I believe different manufacturers have differing assembly systems so you should try to find out who the lane is made by. As they go together in pieces, I believe they must be taken apart in pieces as well. I don't think that a lane as a whole could be lifted without the weight of itself doing some damage.

Good luck. Hope you let us know your progress.


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## dataman19 (Sep 16, 2014)

> Whoa dataman, that s a hell of an obstacle you want to tackle but ive got a few thoughts from doing demolition work over the last 12 years and heres how I would approach trying to wrestle something 63 long and ridiculously heavy (2-3 tons?):
> 
> Remove the ceiling above the lane youd like to salvage and locate the support structures of the building. (Ibeams, bar joists, something strong and structural)
> 
> ...


First of all - I believe the synthetic lanes have plugs with screws - I am not an expert… but I have never seen plugs in any solid wood lanes…..
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The manufacturer (AMF) is no help… they refer me to Bowlmore or their new owners… they refer me back to AMF/Cubica (who are owned by BowlMore…..
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It would be about the same with Brunswick - since Brunswick is combining with AMF under Bowl More ownership….
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Now consider this:::: Say there are plugs in a solid wood Lane - where would I find them?
I do know that I can pry up the lanes on the end (the current building owner said they did that and that the lanes appear to be resting on 2×4's laid flat…. Instead of the standard cribbing rafters - this alone has me concerned….


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## firefighterontheside (Apr 26, 2013)

I used a piece of bowling lane for my island counter top in my kitchen. Mine is mostly yellow pine. As was said before the first 15' or so was maple, but I missed out on that. The two outer pieces are maple so I got some more maple and made a border of maple all the way around. As Jeff said it was held together with angle iron screwed to the bottom. The rest of it was just nailed together and there are gaps here and there. I used another large piece for my workbench. You have t be careful after you remove the angle iron because it is not very strong across it. As near as I can tell the pieces are not glued to each other, only nailed. Also I had the same experience as Jeff with cutting it. The 7 1/4 saw left about 1/8" of wood that I had to cut with a saws all. I cut thru several nails. If you want to make it narrower just remove some boards instead of ripping.


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## firefighterontheside (Apr 26, 2013)

Whoa, I just noticed this is an old thread. I have no idea how you're going to move a whole lane. I believe they were assembled in place. I'm not sure it will survive being handled as one piece. You would probably need to be able to back a long trailer up to it and lift and then back under. Kind of hard to do in a building.


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## dataman19 (Sep 16, 2014)

> Whoa, I just noticed this is an old thread. I have no idea how you re going to move a whole lane. I believe they were assembled in place. I m not sure it will survive being handled as one piece. You would probably need to be able to back a long trailer up to it and lift and then back under. Kind of hard to do in a building.
> 
> - firefighterontheside


Actually, the new building owner is going to knock out a whole section of the outer wall to the building…
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This will allow us to actually back a truck/flatbed into the building - hopefully.
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I have a 10K forklift so lifting should not be a problem… There is an 18K/20K available also.
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To be honest In all my years I never realized that bowling alley lanes were not monolythic (Glued together)... I guess this accounts for the spaces that seem to develop between the boards (doesn't it…)???
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I am definitely taking pictures of this job!! if nothing else the scrap book I can make will blow people's minds …..
I want to help all og you for assisting me and helping me to understand all this…. Like I said, I never realized they weren't glued together…. I guess this accounts for the characteristict sound of the bowling ball rolling down the lane…
..


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

Everything I have ever read about bowling alley salvage makes me thing it's not worth it.


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

If I remember correctly, the tolerance for flatness on a bowling lane is 40 thou over the entire length per PBA regs. I know that this is a minor issue as the lane will be private, but it indicates the intricacy of assembly.


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## dataman19 (Sep 16, 2014)

Moving the lanes will mean that I will have to refinish them as well…..
Since they are not glued together - the finish will definitely crack, and the boards will most likely shift…
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My Plan:::: (Not saying it is the best - but I think it will work)::
- To minimize this I am going to lay 4X4's under the lanes and mechanically fasten the lanes to the 4X4s.
- Then I am going to sandwich the lane between 4X4's (using felt/canvas on the side of the upper 4X4 where it contacts the lane surface.
- am going to mechanically bond the sandwich with steel strapping to clamp the 4X4's together.
- I am planning on shrink wrapping the whole lanes in the shrink plastic that they wrap yahts/boats in when they store them..
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This will be a learning experience… 
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The fact that they are going into a "home" is irrelevant to the tolerances… As a bowler I can tell you - it would make a difference if the lanes were not flat.
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Basically the tolerance is about the thickness of a quarter…
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My thoughts are that the reason the lane boards are not glued is exactly related to the flatness tolerances… Would not a glued lane tend to warp with age?


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