Q – I love my wood floors, but there are parts that squeak, which is very annoying. I am also lousy with a hammer, which is also very annoying. What should I do?

Doug in Snellville

A – Squeaky floors are not real high up on the required skill level for repairing, so you may in good shape here.

The first thing you need to do is identify where the squeaks are coming from. Then you have a couple of options.

Squeaky floors covered with carpet can be quieted by driving a nail through the carpet and pad into the floor joist below. This is only effective if you hit the joist though, but if you miss it’s not really a big deal – get another nail and try again.

If you can get underneath the floor (like from a basement or crawlspace) you can drill up into the floor and screw it from below. A couple of things here, make sure your screw isn’t longer than the sub-floor plus the floor and it will go smoother if you have someone standing on the floor above where you are working. This will pull the loose boards down and tight.

Another cure from below would be to use some steel bridging between the joists to add support and keep them from moving side to side.

Another note from below – if you see gaps between the joist and sub-floor you can tap a wood shim into the opening. However, don’t drive the shim in any more than is required to close the gap. Any further can make the squeak worse, or move it to another spot.

One more tip for the hammer impaired. Hardwoods are hard, that’s why they make such good flooring. That also means they are hard to hammer through. Use a power drill to make pilot holes before hammering to make the job somewhat easier.