LESLIE: WYLL is where Rich listens in Illinois in Chicago. What can we do for you today?
RICH: I own an old – an older rehabbed house in Chicago. And through the common areas in the hallway and when you – and when you go into the bedrooms and the bathrooms and stuff in the common areas, the floor squeaks. And I have no way of getting to the bottom subfloor from my basement because the ceiling is drywalled.
TOM: What kind of flooring material do you have, Rich?
RICH: Wood.
TOM: Hardwood or plywood?
RICH: Hardwood floor. Original.
TOM: Alright. We can fix this.
What you’re going to do is get yourself a stud finder because you’re going to have to identify where the floor joists are under the hardwood floor and a stud finder is the best way to do that. It does it by – it can actually see through the wall – through the floor or through the walls and identify the position of the joist.
The next thing you’re going to do is get yourself some, probably 10-penny or 12-penny finish nails.
LESLIE: Yeah, Tom’s got a good trick for this.
TOM: Yeah. The finish nail – you’re going to take one of them and cut the head off it and use it as a drill bit. Because I like to use the finish nails as drill bits when I’m working on hardwood floors because they actually spin and part the wood fibers and allow the nail to pass through into the floor joist below. And you’re going to have to hit this two or three times in the area where it’s squeakiest because what you’re doing is you’re securing those floorboards down to the floor joists. And what that will do is eliminate the movement and if you don’t have the movement you won’t have the squeak.
Now, it’s not – it’s not as good as being able to work on this from below or work on this – say if you had a floor you didn’t care about, I would tell you to shoot some drywall screws down there. But this will work and it works effectively. And then, what you do is sink the finish nail below the surface of the floor and then fill it with a colored filler and you’ll be good to go.
RICH: OK. Have you heard anybody pour – like I’ve read on the internet – like maybe baby powder or graphite on where the floor …
TOM: Yeah, you know, that’s an old wives tale. And I don’t think it’s going to work. It’s a simple matter of securing loose floorboards.
RICH: Sounds good.
TOM: Alright. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
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