"CompleteNewb" wrote in message
. ..
We recently ripped up the carpet in the living room, and the hardwood
floor underneath is 3-width pieces, with what appears to be those round
"dowels" which cover the nails. In other words, where the nail was
pounded in, there's a small cylindrical hole drilled into the plank about
1/4 inch, the nail was punded in, then the nail head was covered with a
round wooden plug. One of the plugs cracked and came out because it looks
like the nail was forced up from underneath.

I have 2 questions about this:

1) The floor is unbelievably squeaky and creaky, and not just in a few
spots. The whole thing, all over, is unbeLIEVABLY creaky; our 30 pound
dog just walking around squeaks it at every step. Seriously, it's crazy.
I have heard this is typically because the planks are a little loose, OR
the subfloor where it is nailed into the joists is a little loose. To
begin trouble-shooting, how can I remove these plugs to get at the
underlying nail? Several plugs are a little above the surrounding plank,
but they seem to be glued in, or are at least too tight for me to get them
out via any means I have immediately at my disposal. I don't see any
protruding nails in the basement ceiling (it's bare, so I can see the
subfloor and joists), but even if I did, I imagine pounding them up would
break the plugs anyway, and I'd like to avoid that. If I NEED to just
break them to remove them and replace them with new plugs, what's the best
way to do that?

2) (moot if I have to break and remove the plugs from the answer to 1)
When I sand the floor to (hopefully) refinish, how do I handle these
plugs, especially the ones that stick up just a tad? It seems like they'd
tear the heck out of a sander, or at least the paper in it. Do I just
press on them and sand down until they're flush?

Any help is appreciated, and thanks for reading.


This won't solve all your problems, but try something cheap and easy before
you drive yourself nuts trying to fix the squeaks. Got a container of
squeeze mustard? Finish it, clean it really well and let it dry thoroughly.
Fill it halfway with talcum powder. Go down in the basement and squirt the
powder in between all "seams" where you hear squeaking. I did this in my
last home and it lasted for several years. Your mileage may vary.