How to Secure a Wood Floor

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Linda in Texas on the line who’s got a flooring question. How can we help you in your money pit today?

LINDA: We had carpeting and we had a flooded floor, so we put laminate and tile down to replace it. The area in the kitchen is all tiled and then it runs it from the kitchen into the dining area and then in front of the fireplace. And right in front of the fireplace starts the laminate; we put laminate there.

And so there’s an area of 16-inch tile in front of the fireplace that’s tile and then there’s a running board thing that goes down between to separate the two things. Well, that thing came up and we can’t get it to stay down for anything.

TOM: So this is wood, correct?

LINDA: Yes.

TOM: This running board is wood?

LINDA: Uh-huh.

TOM: And what’s the subfloor underneath this? This is wood or concrete or what?

LINDA: No, it’s concrete.

TOM: OK. So why don’t we mechanically attach it? The adhesives are not working anymore. Why don’t we mechanically attach it?

So, how thick is this piece of wood?

LINDA: Oh, about – I’ve got my fingers up. Can you see it?

TOM: Three-quarters of an inch?

LINDA: About a ½-inch or ¾ of an inch.

TOM: Half inch? OK. Because what I would suggest you do is pilot-hole this out and you want to do this in such a way that you can counterbore the screw below the surface and then use a wood plug to cover it over, because we want this to be invisible when we’re all done.

But if you drill a counterbored hole and what I mean by that is you have a pilot hole and a clearance hole. And then you have sort of a ½-inch or 3/8-of-an-inch hole that sinks down below the surface and then that fits a wood plug that you can stain. So now you have the hole in the wood, right? And you have those strategically across this piece. Then you use something called a Tapcon screw, which is designed to go into concrete.

When you buy a Tapcon screw, it comes with the actual masonry drill bit and the screws in the same package. You pilot right through that – those holes that you lined in the wood. It goes right in the concrete. It takes a little bit of work because you’re obviously drilling into concrete. When dealing with that masonry bit, you’ve got to push a little bit.

And then you pull it out and you use this Tapcon screw, which actually screws right into the concrete. It’ll pull that piece of wood right down. Then once it’s nice and solid, you can put those wood plugs in, touch them up with a little bit of stain and you’ll be good to go.