What's the best way to remove these wooden battens from the walls?

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I've removed a plasterboard false ceiling in my hall which was covering up some ancient decommissioned hot air heating vents. It was attached to some wooden battens nailed to the walls, and now I'm trying to work out how to remove the battens.

With the fourth batten I cut through it with my jigsaw at each end and in the middle to remove it in two pieces, but that was only possible because it was in the middle of the hall with nothing on other side to obstruct the jigsaw, and it made a bit of a mess of two blades, so it probably wasn't the best tool for this. I can't use the jigsaw for these three battens in any event because the walls are in the way.

The attached photos show all three battens, and then individual shots of the side and underside of each of them.

They're all about 3.5cm thick, and the two longer ones have about 8-9 nails attaching them to the wall, whilst the one above the living room door has 4-5. Even if I could get enough leverage and I had enough strength to prise them off in one piece, that would probably make a big mess of the wall, so I think I need to cut them into sections either side of the nails and then remove them section by section.

My multitool would get through them eventually but it's much slower than using the jigsaw (I already tried it when I was removing the fourth batten) and it heats up the wood and makes it smoke a bit, which then sets off the smoke alarm, which slows the process down even more as I have to keep clearing that and waiting for a bit to go again. So I'm hoping there's a quicker and easier way to cut and remove them.
 

Attachments

  • All three battens.jpg
    All three battens.jpg
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  • Batten above bedroom door (side).jpg
    Batten above bedroom door (side).jpg
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  • Batten above bedroom door (under).jpg
    Batten above bedroom door (under).jpg
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  • Batten above living room door (side).jpg
    Batten above living room door (side).jpg
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  • Batten above living room door (under).jpg
    Batten above living room door (under).jpg
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  • Batten along hall wall (side).jpg
    Batten along hall wall (side).jpg
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  • Batten along hall wall (under).jpg
    Batten along hall wall (under).jpg
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Wrap some polythene over the fire alarm (with tape).

A japanese saw blade on the oscillating saw (multitool) will be much faster. If you hit a screw or nail, it will be beggered though.
 
Can't you use a normal hand saw? A photo from further away would help.
I probably could if I had a suitable one. The only hand saw I own was an impulse purchase in a closing down sale (I didn't really have a reason for buying it, I just thought I should own one), and it's a 14in/350mm fine cut 10tpi / 12 point hardpoint. I tried it when removing the fourth batten and it was useless and just got stuck.

If you could let me know what hand saw would be best for this job, I can see if my Dad has one, or buy one if necessary.
 
Wrap some polythene over the fire alarm (with tape).

A japanese saw blade on the oscillating saw (multitool) will be much faster. If you hit a screw or nail, it will be beggered though.
Thanks. I'll buy a japanese saw blade, which will be useful for cutting battens in future even if I don't use it for this job. The nails should be fairly straight into the wall though, so as long as I don't cut too close to the heads it should be fine.

There might be some some nails where the head isn't visible, but I'll see if I can check for them with a rare earth magnet. I bought a s/h Bosch D-Tect 150 recently which would have been ideal for this if it worked, but it didn't so I had to send it back. It didn't even reliably detect live electric cables. It would find them on one pass and then on subsequent passes it would show them as non-live metal objects.
 
Cats paw and a hammer and remove the nails
I don't think that's going to work here, as the nails are too flush with (or even buried in) the wood. I guess I could try to chisel the wood away around them so that I can get the cats paw behind them.
 
Thanks. I'll buy a japanese saw blade, which will be useful for cutting battens in future even if I don't use it for this job. The nails should be fairly straight into the wall though, so as long as I don't cut too close to the heads it should be fine.

There might be some some nails where the head isn't visible, but I'll see if I can check for them with a rare earth magnet. I bought a s/h Bosch D-Tect 150 recently which would have been ideal for this if it worked, but it didn't so I had to send it back. It didn't even reliably detect live electric cables. It would find them on one pass and then on subsequent passes it would show them as non-live metal objects.
My multitool is the Einhell Varrito cordless, which has a quick release mechanism which isn't compatible with blades for other tools.

This picture shows the accessories that come with it, and the circle of holes on them where they attach to the tool.

So I'm not sure if I can use blades like this https://www.toolstation.com/smart-multi-cutter-japanese-tooth-saw-blade/p83869
or this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Teeth-Bi-Metal-Long-Life-Einhell/dp/B010LZO58Q
which have very different attachment slots (even though the latter one says it's for Einhell Multitool, maybe they used a different attachment mechanism on some other model).

This site says "All Einhell multitools are suitable for our "Q blades."

and they have this Japanese tooth Q blade

but it still has slots rather than dots, and they look the same as this MB blade, so I'm not sure I can rely on what they say about their Q blades.

Do you think they'll fit OK?
 

Cats paw is designed so you can hammer the head into the wood under the nail head then twist it back bringing the nail with you.
 
A belly saw (has a curved convex blade)

There might be another name?

Or a multicutter with a half moon blade
 
My multitool would get through them eventually but it's much slower than using the jigsaw (I already tried it when I was removing the fourth batten) and it heats up the wood and makes it smoke a bit,

That suggests it is blunt

I am very pleased with Saxton brand blades. If you tell them which cutter you have, they will tell you what fits. Buy plenty.
 
That suggests it is blunt

I am very pleased with Saxton brand blades. If you tell them which cutter you have, they will tell you what fits. Buy plenty.
Thanks, I'll give them a shout.
 

Cats paw is designed so you can hammer the head into the wood under the nail head then twist it back bringing the nail with you.
Oh I see. I'll give that a go then.
 
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