LESLIE: Pam in Colorado is on the line. How can we help you today?
PAM: We have floors throughout our house. Most of them are carpeted that squeaks, like bedrooms, hallway, living room, stairs, things like that and then a bathroom that has the vinyl flooring – the laminate flooring. And we’ve tried – there was a little kit that you could buy at Ace Hardware where you find the floor joists and then you put screws every so often down into the joists, I guess, and that didn’t work. It only made it worse.
TOM: So you’re trying to fix a squeaky floor that’s under what kind of flooring material? Carpet?
PAM: Yes, carpet. I’m sorry, yes, carpet.
TOM: Alright. And it’s wall-to-wall carpet?
PAM: Yes, it is.
TOM: Alright. So, here’s the trick of the trade, Pam. You ready?
PAM: I am ready. I am so ready.
TOM: What you want to do – the first thing you need is a good stud finder. You’re going to get a Stanley stud sensor so that you can use a device – electronic device. It’ll allow you to sort of peek through the carpet and identify exactly where the floor joists are below.
And once you identify the floor joists, what you’re going to do is take a Number 10 or Number 12 galvanized finish nail. And we say “galvanized” because it’s a little rougher than a regular, plated finish nail; it tends to hold better. and then you’re going to drive that at a slight angle, like about a 15-degree angle, right through the carpet and right through the subfloor and right into the floor joist.
Now, when you do that, you’ll notice that the carpet sort of sags down and gets dimpled where the nail head goes through. The trick is to grab the nap of the carpet right around the nail head and pull it through the nail head. It’ll pop through and then you sort of brush the carpet and you’ll – that nail will disappear below it and you won’t see it again. So you can get away with actually fixing a squeak through carpet with this trick of the trade.
PAM: Oh, wow. That would be awesome. And again, could you tell me the type of nail one more time?
TOM: Yeah, a Number 10 or a Number 12 galvanized finish nail.
PAM: OK. Number 10 or Number 12, floor joist at a 15-degree angle.
TOM: Yeah. But you’ve got to find that joist or you’re – you can’t be nailing into air, you know? You want to make sure you’re nailing into the floor joist, OK?
PAM: OK. Thanks so much. You have an awesome show.
TOM: Alright. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply