Blog posts
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, by Trudy Chuoke Author Article title
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, by Trudy Chuoke Author Article title
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, by Trudy Chuoke Author Article title
Take Care of Squeaky Floors
- , by Trudy Chuoke Sarah Jones
Do you have a two-story home? If it’s more than 15 years old, have you noticed that in some areas upstairs you will hear and feel a squeak when you walk across the floor? When you are upstairs it’s not a bother, but downstairs, it’s so annoying. I had a two-story home that I sold about eight years ago. I remember my agent looking at the home, and she was all full of praise and promise of a quick sale until we were in the den, and my daughter was upstairs in her room, and we heard a squeaking as she walked across the floor. My agent looked at me and said – you must take care of that- a prospective buyer will think that there is something wrong with the floor and will bring it up when they bring in an offer. Well, I knew there was nothing wrong with the floor, however not everyone has spent 45 years in the hardware business like I have. And should I mention, I was NOT giving up anything at the close!
First let me tell you why the floor squeaks, and it’s not what you think. It’s not a soft board, or foundation problems, it’s simply a nail that is rubbing against a board, a floor joist. A nail was hammered in when the house was built, now after many years has worked itself loose from the floor joist. And you are going to fix it with Squeeeek No More. I know, very weird spelling of the work squeak….but that’s where the weird stops and an easy project begins. When you purchase a Sqeeeek No More kit it will come with everything you need. So, let’s get started.
Locate where your squeak is on the floor. Now you need to find the floor joist. Don’t try and find it with a stud finder, to me they are not reliable. You will get a “joist finding tool” in the kit. It’s just a long screw with just a few threads on the end of the screw. Put this into your drill, measure over about nine inches from the wall and screw down into the flooring. If you are lucky, you will meet with resistance, and that means you have found the joist. Leaving the joist-finding tool in the floor, measure over 16 inches and that will be your next joist. Just keep moving across the floor until you get to where your squeak is located. The hard work is done. Once you find the joist close to the squeak, place the Alignment and Depth Control Fixture firmly into the carpet. This tool looks like a claw. Then using the driver bit in your drill, drive the provided screws down into the carpet. The screw will only go down so far, and the head of the screw will be sticking out above the carpet. I know – I said you would not see or feel the screw and you won’t. You are going to use the same tool but turn it on its side. Slip the head of the screw into the screw gripper. It looks like a cut out of the screw head and fits right into the tool and rock the tool back and forth. The screw head will snap and then just pull it off and throw it away. This screw breaks off down below the carpet and down into the wood of the flooring. Now walk across the floor, if you have a couple more areas to secure, you have plenty of screws to work with.
And it’s just that easy and inexpensive. I am going to price it lower than any price I see on Amazon so you can feel good about your purchase. If you look for it at a hardware store near you, make sure you buy the product made by O’Berry’s and made proudly in the USA. Did you like this article? Thank you, fellow reader, Denise. She reminded me about this easy project with great results. Do you have a question? Well just send me a few lines, and I will get an answer to you.
We are going to have a sale on the website soon, so keep an eye out for it, because I promise you will like the savings.