Hosts: Tom Kraeutler & Leslie Segrete
(NOTE: Timestamps below correspond to the running time of the downloadable audio file of this show. Text represents a professional transcriptionist’s understanding of what was said. No guarantee of accuracy is expressed or implied. ‘Ph’ in parentheses indicates the phonetic or best guess of the actual spoken word.)
BEGIN HOUR 1 TEXT:
(promo/theme song)
TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show, making good homes better. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Don’t look now but your home improvement projects just got easier. What are you doing? What are you working on? Call us right now at 888-MONEY-PIT. You working on a home improvement project? Need some help getting started? Maybe you’re stuck in the middle of one and don’t know how to get out. We can help you. We don’t judge. We won’t complain. We won’t chastise you. We won’t get you in trouble with your spouse, either.
LESLIE: (chuckling) Well, we might a little. (chuckling)
TOM: Maybe just a little bit. Call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974. We’ve got a great show in store for you today.
LESLIE: That’s right. Well, your kitchen counters; they’re probably getting a good workout in your home. And it’s the one room in your house that everybody loves. It’s the heart of your house. You gather there to eat. You work in there and you cook, of course. But if all of your counters are at the same level, you might want to make a few changes so that everybody can pitch in. You do want some help in there, don’t you?
TOM: We’re going to help you out. We’re also going to tell you what you can do to cut your annual heating bills in half. You need to do at least two things: good insulation and proper use of the thermostat. Now, the first one might be a little bit difficult to do because maybe you’re not into replacing insulation. But with just a couple of tweaks of the way you use that thermostat, you can actually cut your heating bill substantially. We’re give you details on that in just a minute.
LESLIE: And also this hour we’re giving away a great prize. It’s a tripod flashlight from the folks at Stanley. It’s worth 25 bucks and it’s perfect for projects in those little nooks and crannies because it stands on its own; so it’s hand free.
TOM: I’m going to throw a dart and bet it has three legs.
LESLIE: Tripod – correct.
TOM: (chuckling) So call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Leslie, who’s first?
LESLIE: Calling from New York City, we’ve got Jim on WABC. What’s going on at your place?
JIM: Well, I have a townhouse and on the second floor I have one room that’s like really squeaky.
TOM: OK. Do you have carpeting in that room?
JIM: Yes, I do.
TOM: Are you willing to take the carpet up to fix this.
JIM: If I have to; it’s the only way to go, yes. (INAUDIBLE)
TOM: Well, there’s two ways to fix it. And taking the carpet up is definitely the best way to do it. If you want to try something that doesn’t require taking the carpet up, here is what you need to do.
First of all, you need to identify where the floor joists are below the carpet. You can do that with a stud finder. The stud finders today …
LESLIE: A deep scanning one.
TOM: Yeah, they have a deep scanner that will go right through the carpet, through the subfloor and identify where the joists are. Once you identify them, you can finish nail through the carpet and it’s best to use like a #10 or #12 galvanized finish nail installed at a slight angle. You can nail right through the carpet and you’re securing the subfloor to the floor joist.
LESLIE: That’s where the squeak is coming from because they’re just moving against one another and rubbing and causing that sound.
TOM: Exactly. And once you get done driving the nail in, you’ll see that the carpet is depressed. It’ll look like a dimple. But if you grab the nap, you can pull it up through the head of the finish nail and kind of brush it with your hand and it’ll disappear.
Now that works to quiet the squeaks but because it’s a nail and not a screw, it won’t last as long as if you could pull back the carpet and then take black, case hardened drywall screws about 2
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