The most important tip that I can give you about working with wood, is always use a high quality wood glue when joining two pieces of either new or old wood together. When glue is applied to both sides, and moderately clamped together, they form a tighter bond than if you were to use nails. And even stronger yet, is to use glue, clamp the two together, predrill, and use a screws. Keep in mind when using clamps, if you apply too much pressure, you squeeze out all the glue, thus weakening the joint. Loose hinges: Usually when hinge screws get to the point that they work their way out of a wood jamb or door,

the wood surrounding the screw is either rotten from age or from stress. One way to remedy the problem would be to install a longer screw. By far the best way is to remove all the screws, swing the hinge out of the way (or remove completely) and take small slices of wood, pointed like the shape of the screw, dip them (two or three if necessary) in wood glue, and hammer them in the screw hole. After the glue has dried completely, usually overnight, take a hand saw or a chisel and remove protruding wood even with the door or jamb. Predrill a pilot hole and install new screws. Picture hooks: When hanging hooks for pictures, keep in mind that if the picture weighs less than five pounds, you don’t have to find a stud. For heavier pictures, you must find a stud. Hardware stores sell stud finders. You slide it across the wall and it beeps or lights up when you cross a solid object, like a stud. Without a stud finder, you can knock across the area with your knuckle, listening for the sound change. In most construction, studs are on 16 inch centers. Before you hang it, check to make sure that you’ve hit a stud, by using a small finish nail and actually hitting the stud. Securing top heavy cases: From a hardware store, purchase 2 1/2 inch “L” brackets and follow the above instructions to find a stud. Install the wall side of the bracket first, using 2 inch screws. Then find the thickness of the wall unit and apply appropriate length screws into it without protruding through the face, or the inside. Squeaky floors: Squeaky floors should be the blame of the house builder, (go ahead and try to find them). When they installed the subfloor they didn’t glue the plywood to the floor joist. This is why your floor squeaks. First let’s cover floors that are accessible from underneath, such as through a basement or crawlspace. These floors can be easily fixed by doing what the builder should have done in the first place, glue the floor to the floor joist. With a caulking gun and some quality panel adhesive simply run a bead of the adhesive along the joint where the joist meets the subfloor. Do this on both sides, and do not smear it too much, that will weaken the integrity of your seam. For floors that have carpet installed on them it is not so simple. First the carpet must be removed, which can be replaced and restretched later. Since tearing up the subfloor is not an easy alternative, and you can’t access the joining of subfloor and floor joist, your only way to stop squeaks is to screw your floor down. First you must find your floor joist and use a chalk line to mark them. Next, use a screw gun and 2 inch screws and apply five or six screws per four foot section. This should eliminate your problem. Reinstall your carpet and most importantly stretch it back into place.

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