Do I need 18v or 24v or will 14.4v suffice?

Fed up of squeaking floorboards so need something that’ll do the job. I have a corded drill for other duties so I’m thinking I’ll just get a cheap nicd cordless for this job. Then when the battery is knackered from lack of use in a couple of years I won’t be bothered about it.

Id go for 18v, but its the Ah that you should also pay attention too. I have a Makita 18v with 1.3Ah batteries and its fine but I think Id opt for something with a bit more grunt for next time. Screwfix have a nice looking Hitachi 18v Li-Ion with two 1.5Ah batteries for sale at the moment for £99.99. Looks like a bargin.

I suspect that once you enjoy the cordless freedom you wont use the corded drills half as much.

The volts don’t actually tell you that much. If you want to know how powerful a drill is, look at the Torque figure.

There is a big difference between brushless and brush based motors, as the latter is less efficient so needs more volts to get the same torque as a brushless motor. This is one reason why, for example, Festool have relatively low voltage but powerful battery drills.

Could always put a screwdriver bit in your corded drill and be careful.

You know screws are attracted to copper /plastic right ? Copper and plastic being heating and electric cables 🙂 doesnt matter how many or few volts you have then:)

You will also require several cable junction boxes and some fast fit pipe connections. 😉
However as a note, just screwing boards down will not kill the creaking..

ive just bought one of the hitachi ones from screwfix for work. Perfectly adequate for any diy task, enough grunt to get the job done and reasonable battery life (I could be useing it for 5 hours plus a day and that’d be fine with the two batteries. I couldn’t find a better deal end of last week.

+

But be careful for hidden cables, pipes and bogeymen.

Personally I’d use a smaller impact driver, bigger isn’t necessarily better
As mentioned above, lift boards to check what’s underneath and there’s no guarantee of a fix

I screwed down all our loft boards with a standard cordless drill, with no bother. I found these (http://www.screwfix.com/p/turbogold-countersunk-screws-3-x-25mm-pack-of-200/11702#rating_link_anchor)go in a lot easier than standard wood screws.

Just don’t do what the previous owner of our house has done; used cheese-soft brass screws and powered them about 5mm into the floorboards, before varnishing over them.
Took me about 40 mins to get 2 boards up on Sunday, including one that I had to Dremel the head off as I wrecked it trying to get it out. Tried to put a new slot in using the Dremel before cutting the head off, but it still wasn’t shifting. 😐

These are the best fixing I’ve used
Spax flooring screws

a drill is for drilling. much better to use a proper screwdriver/impact driver

I’ve got a 10.8v Milwaukee brushless driver, I use it for almost everything. It’ll easily send a 120mm screw into softwood and has enough grunt to turn a 32mm Irwin blue groove auger easily

It cost about 150 quid though with 2 batteries

If you just power a screw through a floor board into a joist, you are not actually pulling the two materials together; to do this, you need the shank of the screw to go through a hole in the board wide enough that the threads don’t grip the board (called a Through Hole and necessary to avoid Plumber’s Floorboard Syndrome), so 4mm for a 4.0 screw and 5mm for a 5.0.
I never screw a board down without lifting it to check what’s underneath; if the board is squeaky, it’s probably be lifted in the past to install services.

I never screw a board down without lifting it to check what’s underneath; if the board is squeaky, it’s probably be lifted in the past to install services

Had a few customers not do that,one put a screw through the gas fire pipe that went along the ceiling and down the wall,Transco came out and re did the gas pipe round the outside of the house and along the skirting board, looked terible, but they wouldnt repair the original leak, just blanked it each end.

Another customer driled every 10 inches through a water pipe just before they went to bed, early next morning the ceiling below colapsed as it filled with water, pulling all the wall units off the kitchen wqll as the space behing the cornices filled with water.

Another customer used a circular saw to cut out a dodgy board, and failed to set the depth stop, and cut through the water and central heating pipes.

But of course you knew to check for services below.

http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/makita-lct204w-108v-li-ion-drill-driver-i-p94367

And the job is done. My all new favourite toy.

impact driver ftw.

Great advice up there but I do subscribe to buy cheap buy twice.

For years I had cheap battery hammer drills and drill drivers.

I then borrowed a proper branded one from a mate in the electrical trade. I chucked most of the others away shortly after and bought the same thing I had borrowed. Made Mr realise how useless some of the cheap stuff was.

I suspect changes in battery tech have helped too over that time.

My little dewalt 9.6v drill does it nicely, not too heavy either.

If you’re local to Skipton/Burnley you can borrow my Paslode 360 and a box of Nail Screws – then you can just fire them in 😆

and when you find said services draw their location and label them on the top of the floorboard to save future hassle!