If you have a basement or crawl space, have someone stand on the squeaky spot and bounce up and down, then insert a thin shim in the gap and tap it in. That stops the squeak without having to drill through the topside of the floor.
I had this tool for 10 years and I was not too successful with it in my bedroom. But last night I found the tool and tried again in another room. It eliminated a huge squeak and I am so pleased.
If you drill the hole in the grain of the wood you can hide it better with wood fill. Another tip. Use a flat head screw driver to make the round hole a rectangle shape. It looks more like wood grain.
If your squeek is first floor and you have access to the floor joists from your basement, you can simply drill a hole at a steep angle through the joist and then put a long skinny deck screw through the joist and screw it up into the subfloor. The plan is for the screw to pull down the subfloor. Doesn't always work perfectly, but many times it does with no putty or filling required.
So glad to find this and wish I had known in 1996. I have a bajillion holes in my bedroom floor as I just randomly drilled screws in before the carpet was installed. 15 years later after removing the carpet, the floor still squeaks in some places and the screw heads stick up. I will use this process downstairs now that we have redone the floors and still have some squeaks. House is 1948 so old oak floors.
In the UK pipes are (were?) usually installed underneath the floor over joists, so with those blind drills you have guaranteed to drill through water or gas.
@@Good_Enough4 As I get older (52 now) I try pretty hard to avoid this type of excitement if possible since I don't have the time to fix the problem created.
Here's a tip that "may" work for some people. Try to locate the exact location of the squeak as shown in the video and then lay a small piece of 2 by 4 (about 6 inches long) over top of that spot. Wear ear protection and using a heavy hammer, hit the 2 by 4 a few times really hard. Keep checking to see if the squeak is gone. The noise is usually caused by a nail that has moved due to settlement in the house. We got lucky and got rid of 2 really bad squeaks in our kitchen, which has a 1-piece vinyl floor.
@@billhamilton7524 Doesn't cost a lot to try, and if it's back only after a year, you can decide if you're ok with the temporary fix or want something more permanent.
You don’t fill the wholes with wood putty, you save the saw dust from drilling and mix it with polyurethane and patch the whole with it for a better color match.
I dont know a single electrician or gas fitter who runs their pipes or cables directly under the floor sheathing. It would be one hell of a drill bit to hit any of that
@domoariscotto7486 You must not have seen too many mid 20th century homes. Wiring is in the walls usually, and I didn't mention electric. But most old homes have water and gas pipes ran between the floor joists directly under the floor boards. Miss a joist and hit a pipe, and you're gonna have a bad day.
@@domoariscotto7486 I have seen this exactly once - a gas pipe installed in this century that was almost touching the underside of a floor board. I'm in the UK so it would have been installed by a CORGI registered gas engineer. Scary. My friend missed cutting into it with a circular saw it by millimeters. I don't know the installer's name but if I did I'd post it online.
and for my next trick I will show you how to mount floating shelves in your entry hall by directly drilling into the drain line from the upstairs bathroom. you'll never be able to flush the toilet again but those shelves won't move at all!
So you measure by 16 inches in from the nearest doorway (center of doorway I presume) in which the joists run parallel with? I get how joists run just like wall studs, i just didn't know if under the doorway there were added pcs of wood and the measurement should start 1 inch out from center or run dead center? I never saw underneath my flooring to make a mental picture.
I would not use the doorway as a reference point. I don't think joists placement are aligned in any way to the door way. However, hvac returns usually are a good giveaway of where the joists are. Another option is floor electrical outlets because they have to be attached to a joist.
Laminates are floating floors therefore you should not put any screws into them. In this case your only option is to fix the squeak when the laminate is removed or if you have access under the floor (from a basement).
I would rather have a sqeeky floor than a gas explosion. Diyer's please don't be tempted to do this. You can not tell if there are pipes or cables under that floor
Why do they keep building wooden houses then? Squeaky floors are just a matter of time and fixing them seems impossible. Because of pipes, wiring, etc. What's the real solution then? Build a whole new house.
Never do this in the U.K. I guarantee it will lead to disaster. There’s likely to be a water pipe or pipes under here or possibly a cable. You have to remove the floor to find out. You may even have under floor water heating.
Screws and baby powder don't work for me. The screws dont grip enough and just spin around. Im about to put in carriage bolts every square foot and the lay carpet over the whole thing. I hate hardwood!
My boards run parallel to the floor joists leaving most over just the subflooring which are 1x's and they are too soft to hold those scews in tight enough. The diagram (1:18) shows the same scenario which is 90 degrees opposite of what the video demonstrates. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ooFOKTpDfyc.htmlsi=6rbBmHSQ8XS5MlT0&t=77