Tool Talk: Drill versus Impact Driver

Welcome back to the Chicks in Construction! In this episode, hosts Mikki Paradis and Jessica Abreu kickstart their tool talk series - aiming to save you from buying unnecessary tools and helping you choose the ones that deserve a spot in your truck. They delve deep into the differences between power drills and impact drivers, offer tips for proper drywall anchoring, and share humorous anecdotes from their DIY experiences. Plus, they touch on New Year's words instead of resolutions and the importance of focusing and aligning goals. Tune in for an informative and entertaining session that blends practical advice with real-life stories!

00:00 Introduction to Tool Talk

00:30 Meet the Hosts: Mickey and Jessica

01:58 New Year Resolutions and Words of the Year

13:11 Tool Talk: Power Drills vs. Impact Drivers

20:56 The Best Stud Finder: Stud Buddy

21:36 Understanding Screws and Studs

24:16 Drill vs. Impact Driver: Key Differences

30:44 Choosing the Right Drywall Anchors

34:31 Tips for Using Drills and Anchors

40:54 Final Thoughts and Viewer Engagement

Creators and Guests

Host

Jessica Abreu

As a social media expert, Jessica has a knack for identifying what makes each business unique and translating that into powerful, engaging content that resonates with clients and customers. From crafting tailored strategies and managing accounts to recording on-site content and boosting engagement, Jessica and her team handle it all so their clients can focus on what they do best.

Host

Mikki Paradis

President & CEO at PDI Drywall Inc. Mikki founded her first construction company, PDI Drywall Inc, in 2005 while she was still a student at NC State. After growing PDI into a multimillion dollar company, she has become an accomplished entrepreneur, speaker, and advocate for innovation in business and leadership. With a passion for empowering others, she has built a reputation as a forward-thinking professional dedicated to driving growth and fostering meaningful connections. Known for her dynamic energy and ability to inspire, Mikki is deeply committed to creating positive change in her industry and beyond. Whether through her entrepreneurial ventures or speaking engagements, she consistently challenges the status quo and encourages others to reach their full potential.

What is Chicks in Construction?

You plan your renovation with excitement, trust your contractor, and hope for the best...until things start going sideways. That’s when most homeowners realize they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

From permits that were never pulled to “contractors” who ghost after demo day, the construction world can feel like a maze of hidden costs and shady shortcuts. Too many homeowners end up confused, overwhelmed, and out of a lot of money.

The Chicks in Construction Podcast is here to change that. Hosted by Mikki Paradis, a licensed general contractor with 20+ years of experience, and Jess Abreu, a homeowner turned construction content creator, this show breaks down real renovation horror stories and teaches you how to protect your time, money, and home.

After building a multimillion-dollar drywall business and helping countless homeowners recover from construction nightmares, Mikki is on a mission to make sure you go into your next project informed, not blindsided. And Jess brings the perspective of someone who’s been in your shoes and now knows exactly what questions to ask.

Submit Your Construction Horror Story: https://chicksinconstruction.com/

30 Chicks in Construction - Tool Talk
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It's tool talk on chicks in construction, which means we're about to save you from buying junk.

You don't need. We are talking about the tools that earn their spot in the truck, not the ones collecting just in the garage. If you've ever been told this one's basically the same, this episode is for you because, no, it's not the same. And we're gonna tell you why. Because learning the hard way is overrated.

Yeah.

. Well, hello and welcome back to another episode of The Chicks in Construction. I'm your host, Mickey Paradise. This is my illustrious co-host. Hi, I am Jessica Abra, and we're, we're back in the studio, y'all.

[00:00:43] Default_2026-01-08_5: Now listen, we've done been recording, we've done been recording for, for a couple episodes. So even though this is our first episode back in the studio this year, this year there you're gonna see a few. We recorded. Mm-hmm. Because we were still working, just so you know. We didn't just like, you know, just take off, go on vacation and just forget about you guys.

We were thinking about you, we've been doing, we've, we've been doing a lot of thinking about you in the sense of like, what do our viewers want? What do they need? What do they need? How can we help you? We want to be of assistance and one of the things we found, um, after doing some polling, if you will. Was there was a little bit more requests for some, some chicky chat, if you will.

About tools. So we are gonna get into that in a little bit. Yes. 'cause a lot of us don't know what any tool is or what it's supposed to be used for. I will give you, I will tell you though, when she says a lot of us, she's not really talking about herself, just actually knows a little bit about tools.

Little bit. She does a little bit. She knows how to solder wires, if you will. Yes. I won't do it in my home, but she know how to do it. She wants daughter, anything that actually needs to work, but, but she knows how to do it. Yeah. Fun little science experiments. That's half the battle. There you go. So, um. One thing I wanted to talk about, we both picked words.

I always pick a word. I don't do a new, do you do New Year's resolutions? No, I do goals. I never, I never, I don't do New Year's resolutions because I always fail at them epically. And the one that is seared into my mind. Mm-hmm. I dunno, I don't know how long ago it was probably not that long knowing me, but, um, I really wanted to stop giving so many people the bird.

I was like, I gotta stop flicking so many people off when I'm driving. Mm-hmm. It was just getting outta hand. Like it was just, it was just giving away like candy. It was, I was just like, work for it. At least work. I was dishing out like Halloween candy and I was like, I probably need to just do better. So I think that did not last.

More than 24 hours, and it was one of those things where it's like that I immediately felt guilty because I had already busted my New Year's re resolution. Yeah. I feel like resolutions are just a good way for you to feel bad about yourself. Yeah, a hundred percent. You're not gonna do them. No, I'm not gonna lose weight.

This is the weight. That I am forever now. Okay. Everybody deal with it? This is how much I weigh. Yeah. I, I might, I might get more. It might go up less. It's not going down. Okay. I don't even know how much I weigh because scale is the devil and I don't wanna know. And it's just gonna be that way until the doctor's like, excuse me, need to work on that.

I'm just gonna keep living my best life. Do you know that I went to an exercise class the other day, look at you. And I know Jess is, Jess is way better at adulting than I am. Just so we're clear. Forget we're getting there. And the instructor in the beginning class is like, how old are you? And I was like, they're like, ma'am, how dare you?

So I told her my age. And then she goes, how much do you weigh, if you don't mind me asking. Oh. And I was like, God. I was like, like right now. Now granted, it's after I have consumed an entire gluten-free cheesecake by myself in three days. So we're not, we're already, this was not the moment to be asking that question, ma'am.

So I was like, normally, or right now, those are two different things. Two different things. Yep. Yep. And she's like, well, normally. So I told her what I weigh normally. What a weird question. And she looks at me, she goes, huh, I thought, I thought you weighed more. Oh my God. What? And I didn't, I was like, so we're never going back there again.

But I have a membership. Oh. But I was just like, Hmm. I feel like, well, I do. This requires a strongly worded email. And so I thought it was more. And she's like, don't take offense to it. It's just because you know, you've, and I was like, I have, I have a butt. That's what she was pointing to. And I was like, yes, but.

So I was like, maybe I need to go more often to my exercise classes so that I don't, okay. That would immediately make me want to never exercise again in the history of ever Okay. In the hi, I would be like, oh, oh, is that right? Just wait. I'm gonna dig in now and it gets better. I go home and I tell my husband.

What is this? And I tell him the story. I, and he goes, well, you do way more now. Right? Because he is like, so he, she probably thinks like, you look like you way more because you do. So we're getting a divorce also. It's been a big week. It's been a big what is with the people That is the que like, here's one Hector.

Hector's been on this journey with me for a long time, and he understands the assignment. Mm-hmm. Um, he, when the, when my clothes don't fit mm-hmm. Hector knows that the answer to that is because the washing machine shrunk them. Them. Oh, of course the washing machine came for me. And so he, especially the dryer.

The dryer is the devil he'll get. So I'll be like, babe, you're never gonna believe it. He is like, what? These pants don't fit me anymore. And he goes that freaking washing machine like he did. No hesitation. The man understands the assignment. I have never gained weight. My clothes drunk, and it was a malicious act, and it had a malicious intent and Hector's on board with that.

We never, he never I would say without thought. Mm-hmm. Speaks of my weight. Yeah. Because Hector, Hector likes his life and he likes being alive. Yeah. Like, I think my husband was trying to make me feel better about it and just, I just dug that even deeper. Just right. Didn't, it didn't, it didn't hit right.

He jumped right in. I didn't think, 'cause I had just right before class I was like, oh my God. I made the mistake of stepping on the scale to see like if I gained any weight while eating all of the gluten-free. Yeah. Oh, I also ate an entire box of gluten-free cookies. That I had gotten at the farmer's market.

Yeah. And that definitely happens like on a weekly basis at my house. Apparently you're not supposed to do that. No, it's not. It's not great for you. So, whoops. Whoopsy Dole. I mean, when the, when the, when the Thrive box comes in, oh, you have to eat everything. There's always at least one box of cookies.

Mm-hmm. I mean, where else am I supposed to get my gluten free goods? We're not sponsored by Thrive. But Thrive. If you would like for us to be a very small. Advertising venue for you, just let us know. We're here for it. We're, we're trying to grow. We're trying to grow the pod. We really are guys, me and Jess are really committed to being famous one day and being able to quit our jobs, but I.

Apparently a lot goes into this. Okay? You don't just like jump on, jump on the stage and you're famous the next day, which is very disappointing. I know. Who knew? It's so rude. So rude. It's so rude. Don't you all know that I wanna retire? No one knows in my life that I wanna retire nice, especially my dogs.

Oh, they're super. No, nobody told them. Nobody told them that at some point I would like to retire. So optimist, prime, poor, poor old man. So for English, mastiffs like six and seven is like senior because they don't live that long. Mm-hmm. So like, so six or seven, you're a senior MAs, so he's on his like senior dog protocol and he is starting to get arthritis and aw, something was happening and he was having a real hard time getting up and down and so we took him into the vet and.

We went on a talk about a side quest. We went on so many side quests 'cause they're like, oh, there's something wrong with his joints. We're gonna do this procedure, it's gonna cost $1,300. Okay? We take him to the vet to have the procedure. They call and they're like, well, we can't do the procedure because his blood work looks like his heart enzyme is, is is elevated, which could be mean.

He's in heart failure and we did an x-ray and his heart is enlarged. So doggy cardiologist, we go. Yes. So the next day we go to the dog cardiologist for no less than a thousand dollars. And I was like, there goes our Christmas and New Year, like nobody gets any presents anymore. This is all the money that we had.

So yeah, turns out he was fine and they. We're reading the numbers based off of a regular sized dog and not you, huge 200 pounder. Mm. So the, the cardiologist was like, no disrespect to your vet because you know, the cardiologist has made a thousand dollars for nothing, for absolutely nothing. And she's like, she said, I'm mad at it.

But just so you know, if they ever say again that these numbers are elevated, these are actually his baseline numbers. Good enough. And his heart is not inflamed or enlarged. He just is a big dog. He has a big heart. I was like, cool. Cheers. Happy New Year's. This was literally on New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve.

Yep. It was New Year's Eve. Yeah. I was like, great. So there's that. So, you know, just saying Blake can subscribe so I can afford to pay my bills, please. Everybody's like, we don't care about your bills, and that's fine. I always set, I say do a word, not a resolution. Yeah. And I just try to like, so we went on a side quest. Now we gotta come back. Yeah. We went on a side quest coming back, which is, you're gonna laugh at my word, all of you. If you've watched more than one episode, you're gonna be like, good luck with that lady.

So I picked focus,

um, because she needs to, I do, I need to learn to land the plane folks. I know, I hear your, your feedback. I do. I also watch the podcast and see myself, so I'm quite aware. Aware of just like absolute shenanigans and the. Many side quests we go on. Oh, so many. So I'm trying very hard with all the tries to do some focusing to focus and fire the gun.

Um, I'll let, we'll, we'll, we'll see how that progresses throughout the year. Hey, hey, we're on a journey, guys, and you're gonna see how, how focus works. Yeah. As we go out through the year. Right. Before we started, just tell me about this reel. Oh, yeah. So I was watching a reel and it said. If somebody annoys you just tell them to focus.

I was like rude. And I was like, Ooh, that's Mickey's word of the year. What? Why are you gonna tell them to focus? And it, it was like F period O, period C it. No. So it means to tell them to fuck off 'cause you're stupid. Oh my God. And it's the most perfect word for me. And if not like your as you are. 'cause you're with the apostrophe, y'all.

I side quest. I'm gonna note it now. One time, I, I made a comment. It was like I was joking with a friend on her Facebook page and we were just joking around. Mm-hmm. And I said something, it was, she posts a lot of political stuff I was trying to make, make like a lighthearted comment. Mm-hmm. And I put your without the apostrophe.

And somebody, and one of her friends came for my whole soul on the internet and was like, you ma'am, are a stupid C word. But they said the C word and I was like. Because you forgot. Because I forgot the appropriate apostrophe. I did not use the right year, heaven forbid. Ilu clutching the pearls, my pearls.

I was clutching my pearls. Oh my God. All right, so what is your word? Aligned. I like that. Mm-hmm. So I'm gonna try to be focused and she's gonna keep us in alignment. Y'all. I'm gonna try. We're on for it. We're here for it. It's gonna be a journey. Yeah, it's gonna be, we've already gone on multiple side quests in this episode, so, so we're good.

I would love to know what, if you pick a word, what your words are, we'd love for you to comment down below what your words are. Um. Just so that we, we can help, it can help us, like with a database of words for next year. 'cause I really struggled picking my word and we had lunch and Jess was like, maybe focus.

And I was like, that's fair. Well, 'cause kept saying that you wanted to focus on this and focus on that. And Jess goes, that could be your word. And I was like, yeah, I probably should focus. She's not wrong. She's not wrong. I'm never wrong. She's never wrong. We just be honest. Let's just be real, real. She's never wrong.

So. One of the things that we've had a couple of our, our Watchers, um, talk about is they would love for us to talk a little bit more about like, what tools do you have in the house? Like what, how tips and tricks on certain tools. Mm-hmm. And so we were thinking that from on, from time to time. We'll do what we're gonna call a little tool talk.

You know what I'm saying? See that tool talk. So cute. Right. And we're just gonna talk a little bit about tools. Mm-hmm. Because I forget sometimes that not everybody is a contractor. I know. Who am I? But. Obviously tools are an everyday part of my life and they have been for a very long time. And so I don't think that like, oh, there's a lot about tools that people don't know about.

No idea. And so we're gonna, we're gonna give you guys like a little one-on-one. One-on-one that also, but a one-on-one. We're gonna do both. A one-on-one. 1 0 1. You're welcome. I'm sorry in advance. Hold on. Lemme take a sip and I'll pull in Our first tool. I can't wait to see what it is. Okay. Let's see if I can even name it.

Well, you will. Okay. So do we know, and so I, I'll try to be as descriptive as I can for people who listen. 'cause I also realize this is a podcast. It's not just a video. So if you're listening and not watching, it might be really helpful to click through and watch the video. Um, but I'll try to be as descriptive as I can.

So do you know the difference between these two, these two drills that I have in my hand? Mm mm Um, the one in your right hand looks like the one that I would use to drill the screws into the wall. Okay. Look at you. You do know stuff. See, look at me. Okay. So. You do know stuff. Sorry, that sounded very condescending and I did not even mean it that way.

My apologies, Jess, and to our listeners, to the people who are definitely gonna come for me in the comments, because that seems to be some people's favorite side hobby. All right, so. I did not realize that people didn't know the difference between these things. Um, but it actually makes quite a big difference.

And if you're a homeowner and you have to pick one, I am going to suggest that you pick. This is a. Drill, it's a power drill. Um, this is a DeWalt. It is very well loved. Um, basically when our tools out in the field get retired, they retire to my house. So this is very well loved. Um, and the difference between this guy and this guy is that this is an impact driver.

So. You can't like, well, you can, but this is not ideal to like pre-drill a hole or, um, if you need to. You have a bit like where you're trying to like drill into concrete and stuff like that. This isn't necessarily, this is specifically for driving screws into the wall. Into the wall, or, you know, into all kinds of services.

So you couldn't put that little do hickey thing. No, see that's the difference. And I did wanna, I did wanna show that, so this, and I say do hickey, it's like. Yes, it's very, it's very specific. Hickey is very technical terms. Yes. What is the technical term for it? So this is a hex, um, like the attachment is a hex attachment.

Okay. And so this, you know what, I don't even know the name of this guy, but this is the thing that it has a, it. This is a jaw also, but this is magnetic, and so it holds the drill bit, which is this little tiny guy. You can get them in longer versions, but it holds the drill bit into this. And then the hex goes, you pull this guy out, you put the guy in, and then it locks into place.

Mm-hmm. And technically they do make some attachments other than just for driving screws in this, but it's not the ideal tool for this. Okay. I will say most con like construction professionals. Use this because it's more powerful. So it has way more torque and like when it, they call it an impact driver because when it gets to a point where like the screw is driven in, it will, the torque will adjust up and start hammering almost.

Mm. So it really drives the screw in. Um, that could be a problem for homeowners because if you're just trying to like put a, but like little bookshelf together. Yes. If you're trying to put, like, if you're trying to do little stuff you don't want, you don't wanna drive this drive right through all the way through, but this has that kind of power where you could, right.

So professionals will use this because we understand how to adjust the speed of it with just our fingers because this is all we use. Um, but. Why I suggest everybody just have a power drill is because you can adjust the torque, you can adjust the speed, you can adjust the power on this guy. So this hold on, this chuck.

This is what this is here. This is a chuck and so this is adjustable. Now technically this, if you see how this has a hex mm-hmm. This can be used in the impact driver or it can be used in the actual drill itself. Okay. So that little doohickey thing that you just pulled out. Yes. That actually be used in the other one?

It can be used in both. Okay. But, um, again, if you had to choose one, you would wanna go with the drill. 'cause it's just more versatile. Mm-hmm. So if one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they're using, , drills, especially like to drive a screw, if like you're, you're. I don't know what, what are things people do with drills at home?

I, I, I'm only thinking about work. Um, we put screws in the wall. Okay. So you're like, hang a picture. Mm-hmm. Okay. There we go. I, I knew that, but I, my brain just wasn't braining. It's okay. So you're, you wanna, you're putting a screw in the wall. The biggest thing is. You wanna pre-drill that hole. And a lot of people are like, no, it's fine.

And you're right, it can be fine, but it can also go horribly wrong because it's like you don't know if there's a stud back there. If there is a stud back there, great. Then you did your little pre-drill, which you wanna pre-drill with a small, um, drill, tip or drill bit. It needs to be like about the size of the screw that you're driving.

I'm trying to remember what we have this on here for. Oh, I, um, over the holiday. I reface a dresser drawer and put in new hardware, new hardware. And so this was the pre-drill for the hardware holes. Um, so things like that, like, and that's where you can use this to pre-drill holes. You can use this to, to put screws into walls.

There's all kinds of uses for an actual drill versus the um. The words are not coming to my brain. Impact drill. Thank you, Jess. The impact drill. See, I was paying attention. I was focused a good student. She was focused. Unlike myself, the word is not wording today, Joe's laughing at me and that's fair as he should be.

So the impact is, is a little bit more like you can only use it for certain things. So I do like, I have these both in my house and I do use them both in my house. Pretty frequently. So now when you drill a hole into the wall, I, we have this little stud finder so that, oh, it will actually find the stud and, oh, stud buddy. You told me about this one. I don't have this one, but I need to get it. Okay, you guys. I think stud buddy or stud finders. Are kind of witchcraft.

Sometimes they find the studs, sometimes they don't. Mm-hmm. Or like every one of them is different. So like the screen could, could show you one thing and you think, oh, that's where the stud is. But that was the edge of the stud, or you had passed the stud. So like those electronic stud finders I think are really hard to use.

And I went and picked this up, so you didn't see my very well used, said buddy that I have at home. Because this is the best stud finder, and I've been using this for like a solid decade. It's called the Stud Buddy, and what it does is it finds the screws that are in the studs itself that are holding the drywall up.

Okay? So it's like guaranteed. You're gonna hit a stud. A stud, because it's holding, it's like a really high powered magnet. So it'll only find the stud if you go over where the screw is. Yes. But then you'll know. So like, but how do you know where the screw is? Isn't that harder to find? 'cause it's so little.

Well, that's where the stud buddy does. So the stud, it just, it's a high powered magnet. So it, it doesn't have to expose the stud, it just finds where the stud is. And that's, you know, that if there's a screw there, it's hitting a stud. Okay. Clearly that makes, it's very clear to me how could I be more clear about this?

No, I understand that. It's finding the screw. So here's, so like, walk me through it. All right, so the stud goes all the way up and down, right? Yeah, yeah. Yep. So there's screws like maybe like at the top. Somewhere or at the bottom, and I'm like, oh, no. Screw finder. I can just go all screw all the way down.

There should be screws all the way down. Are there? Oh my God. Unless you're at the world's worst drywaller, which it wasn't me. Um, yeah. So screws get put in drywall on average, like on, we called in the, in the field and then. On the perimeter of where we put the screws. Mm-hmm. So the field is like the center of the board and the perimeter Is this like the ends of the boards?

Um, it should be at least eight inches on center, so there should be a screw every eight inches. Okay. Going down the stu So finding it across the wall? Yeah. You're probably going to find Yeah. Yeah. You'll fi a screw. Yeah. That, that is the, that's where I was, I was like, if it's not. Oh, tongue of screw.

That's, this is why we do this. Why this? Because Jess is the homeowner and I'm the contractor and she speaks homeowner and I speak contractors, so that clears that up. So yes, there is a screw. Ideally every eight inches into a stud. So when you're putting the magnet, you kinda like, I kinda go like that until you, it like, it like will suck into where the screw is.

Got it. And then, you know, okay, all up and down, all the way there. There's a stud. A stud. And so you can do the same thing over. And unfortunately, because building codes have changed in house, some houses are much older, some houses are brand new. So they've changed the requirements of the spacing of studs.

Mm-hmm. So it should be 12 inches, it could be 14, it could be 16. I've had, we had one house, it was built in like the 19 hundreds and it was like every 24 inches was a stud. So it was kind of wild. Like they were apparent, they were apparently real cheap back then. They were like, one real expensive, we're gonna really space this out.

And I was like, okay, the house might just fall apart. But, but that wood was stronger back then. That wood, it actually was. There's a whole, there's a whole side Quest story there. Mm-hmm. That we're not gonna go on. So we have discussed the stud buddy. , It, it is not sponsored. Again, reach out stud buddy.

But I do love the stud buddy. So, um, some things to keep in mind, we're referring to my notes because they're not going on side quests. We're side quests. We're staying focused. Oh, we focused, we're staying focused. So the drill. The actual drill, the power drill, if you will, is great for drilling holes in drywall, in wood, in metal.

Um, it does light duty screw driving and it's like for precision type of work. Um. It has like a constant rotational force. So the difference between that and this guy is this has constant rotational force. This has rotational force with the impact. So it will als, it will twerk up and start kind of hammering.

Um, they are great for drilling in straight holes. They're great for control and accuracy because you can adjust like over here. You maybe. I can't. There we go. I was like, you can adjust it. So here you can adjust the power and then here you can adjust the torque. So there's a lot more like adjustability in a drill gun versus, um, the impact.

Um. I will say these are harder to drill if you're using a, a, if you're drilling driving of a longer screw, because this is so much longer, it is harder to drive. Like if you were trying to drive like a three inch nail. Oh yeah. 'cause you're gonna be far away or screw Yeah, yeah. Not a nail screw. Um, the farther away you are, the less like, the more likely you are to kind of wobble and not get it straight in.

So, um, that can, can make a big, a big impact, no pun intended. Um, on, on the. Accuracy of the actual drill. So hanging shelves, drinking, drilling, pilot holes, furniture assembly, and some light home projects. Um, the impact driver, which is this guy, sorry guys. Um, it is best for driving long or large screws. Um, it's mostly used by construction professionals, even though everybody can have one.

Um, construction framing and, all that jazz. It combines rotation with rapid hammering bursts, which is what that kind of impact is. It has a much higher torque and uses a hex, which is this guy, to add your tips. It is noisy. I will say this one is lighter weight than a drill. Mm-hmm. Which is helpful for us.

'cause when we're using them, we're holding them all day long. So I do like that it's lighter weight, but I will say I have the D, the DeWalt and the Ryobi. And the Ryobi is actually a little bit lighter. Mm-hmm. So if, if weight mattered, like if you had arthritis or you had something that kind of limited your ability to like use power tools.

Mm-hmm. I do think Rabi is a little bit lighter weight. It's just not, um. The batteries don't last as long, which isn't that big of a deal if you're just doing it for at home. But for us, in, in, in the field, if you will, you need a lot of battery. Yes. Okay, so. The, we also kind of collected some questions that people might have, um, about like the differences or, you know, what, what questions do you wanna know?

So the numbers on the top which I kind of showed you a little bit earlier. They limit how much torque the drill applies before it stops turning, which means, and like torque is, is like the, the, the amount of pressure that it's putting into the spin. I don't know if that's the best way to explain torque.

So is it a lower number or a higher number? We'll have, so the higher you go on the torque, the higher, the higher torque you'll get. Okay. Yeah. So, um, lemme put that down. Sorry. Um. So the lower numbers to your question for softer materials, smaller screws, the higher numbers are for harder materials, longer screws, and the drill icon, which I'm not sure if everyone has, but I know this one does, which you're not gonna be able to see.

But you know, it looks like a little drill, um, or a drill bit is like full power with no torque limits, meaning that that would, that's like one. When you've lost your mind. So when I was putting the, the drawer faces in, I made a, um, a template. 'cause like, you know, they were all the same size hardware, so it was like, all right, I'll make a template and go, um, pro tip.

Measure the template. Don't just drill the holes all the way down. Your nine, your nine new drawer faces until you've checked that the template actually works. Oh my God. I'm not saying I did all of the drawers, but where the holes too far away or too close together, they were just the smidt too far. So like the screws went in and they kind of caught the hardware, but like then they, the, the screws wouldn't drive all the way in.

And I was like, oh my God. So I had to go back in and kind of make, like, make the holes a little bit closer and it was crazy. Hardwig cover. Yeah, cover it up. Luckily the hardware covered it so it wasn't that big of a deal, but that could be a huge thing. Like if I had really dainty hardware, like it probably wouldn't have covered it.

Like the hardware that we have on our kitchen cabinets is very, like those holes had to be exact. Luckily I did not install that hardware a professional, installed that hardware. Um, but I. Full torque. I was like, Ugh, I just had enough. I've had enough. So if you ever find yourself having like a full Griswold moment where you've lost your mind and you're just gonna take the whole, you're gonna just.

Take the drill and just use it to its full potential. Put it in drill mode. My guys. I tell you what. Oh, next level. So now you know. Now sometimes we drill a hole and well we, when I say we drill a hole into the wall, I mean my husband does it because I'm not drilling any holes in the wall. Fair enough. And he makes sure everything's level.

I'm just like, yeah, it looks, looks good. I eyeball. He comes in later. He is like. He's like something that is crooked. You do realize that. I was like, it'll be fine. Um, don't look too close, Brad. No, don't look, don't look too close. It's fine. Don't touch it either. Yeah, don't batch it. Um, but he puts these little plastic things.

Into the hole. Huh? She, she says she set it up. Okay. So that is an anchor. So you use these, those like every single thing that you ever buy in the history of ever that is like to be screwed into a wall. It comes with like these little plastic things. Yeah, I should throw them away. You really should. I actually, Maria, the organizer that we had on the show a couple episodes ago, she went through my laundry room.

And was like, Mickey, why do you have, do you use these? And I was like, no, actually I don't even like them. And she's like, why are they in here? And I was like, shame. I don't know. I don't know because I'm a hoarder. That's why Maria. So we threw them all out and I highly recommend that because what you wanna replace them with are self drilling drywall anchors.

These are the best drywall anchors that exist in the world. Okay. I will say, when I was talking to Hector about this episode, I was like, you know what? We're gonna, we're gonna talk about drywall anchors because this is the number one thing that. Is the most annoying thing when you mess your drywall up at home because you didn't realize that like if you're not hitting a stud mm-hmm.

You can't just hang something w wild in these streets in the dry wall. 'cause the drywalls can't, not structural. So it'll fall. It will fall. And like it depends on what the thing is. Like if it's just a tiny little, a teeny tiny little baby picture, you'll probably be fine. Like if it's like, hey baby picture and it's not.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, is that how historians. Oh yeah. Well I was when, I mean, it was while I was dating Brad. Oh, okay. And I had my own apartment. Yeah. And I hung up. Little shelves. Okay. Oh, little shelves. And they came with those little things and I'm like, I don't need these. They're like, who did you find? I need these.

I didn't find, I didn't have a stud finder. I literally, she did not have a stud bunny of you guys. Nope. Mistakes for me didn't have something. I just had the little drill and you're like, this looks great. Let's 35 pounds of tchotchkes. It's gonna be fine. Nope, it wasn't. It was in the, no, it was in the bathroom.

Held all the. Like extra like towels and stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Done. Not so much. So in that case, what you would've done if you used us, if you need to install something, like if something needs to be it. What's like in a certain place because of like the aesthetic or the design, right? For it to line up or?

'cause like for me, in my office, I have these two windows and I have all these pictures in between the windows and they need to be spaced a certain way for it to not look weird. When you're looking at it. Can't put 'em all in the Julie, here's the stu, we'll just put 'em all here. Like, no, we had to space it out so like.

Because they were like really big pictures. We used the drywall anchors so that they didn't just fall outta the wall. Mm. But so when you're trying to hang something and, and they have ratings of weight, so this holds up to 79 pounds. Ooh. Um, and they have ones that are less, ones that are more. So that's something to think about when you are thinking about installing something or hanging something, and it's gonna have some weight to it, is to make sure that you're using an anchor.

If you can't hit a stud that. That says it will be installed, like it will hold that kind of weight. So where Hector and I have a little disagreement, and it was very mild, um, just so you know, in case, in case you were worried about us, it was very mild. Hector like, oh, the washer. Hector was like, oh God.

Make you threw out everything in our laundry room. He does ref. Rinse that at least once a week. He's like, well, if you didn't throw everything out, I was like, hunter don't, because then you had to go buy anchors instead of just having a collection of them. That's true. I, well, actually, I did not have any of these anchors because I've used them all.

Oh. So these are gonna go into my, into my collection of anchors in my laundry room, but. These are really great because Hector was saying you have to pre-drill. You actually don't. So what I love about these is like, the tip of them is like a nail. And so you hammer these guys in until about an inch in and you can see when you're supposed to hammer it in, and then you take your, your screw gun and you just screw it in while applying pressure.

Mm-hmm. And then that goes into the wall. And then when you screw the screw, that's gonna hold whatever. That you're hanging Okay. Into the anchor. It pops the back of the anchor out and that creates that like force that will hold it into the drywall securely. Oh, so fancy. And that's why I love these. 'cause you don't have to pre-drill.

Um, and these are the. Toggler, the Toggler drywall anchors. Big fan of these. But you'll be able to see the difference, like this versus the one that comes with literally everything that's you're buying that's gonna be hung on the wall. 'cause those ones that come with everything are like super cheap and they're super janky and they're super, like, that's not gonna actually do anything, is it?

Probably not. So I would go with a more hardcore drywall anchor. Mm-hmm. Now is, and now can you screw any screw into those? So it comes with screws, um, that, that specifically fit, they fought for that. Okay. But if you needed it to, like, like for instance, like I hung a plant shelf in my office and it was gold.

And so like. I wanted to use the gold screws. Mm-hmm. You just wanna make sure that the screw you're using is roughly the same size as the one that comes with this. Okay. And if it doesn't, then you might need to get a different anchor, like if it's way bigger because you don't want to like break the anchor.

Or, and you don't want the screw to be so small that it doesn't catch the screw. Right. So it needs to be roughly the same. And they make a bunch of different sizes for all different kinds of drywall, for all different kinds of screws. Um, what do you mean different kind of drywall? How would I know what kind of drywall I have?

Oh, so there's different thicknesses and probably you would not know. Mm. Um, so in general, standard drywall is half inch drywall. Okay. But if you're in an apartment, then it's probably five eighths. Because it, there's fire rating. No, it's five A is heavier. It's the fire rated versus half inch is not fire rated.

Well, it depends on who you ask. Some people are like, half inch has a fire rating. It's just not a usable fire rating for multi-family structures. Mm-hmm. The more you know guys, um, so, but it shouldn't really matter unless you've got like. A two hour rating and there's three layers of drywall and this wouldn't get through that.

'cause you do want it to go through the drywall enough where it can pop out on the back. 'cause that pop out on the back is what holds the Oh, so that's what it's doing. Yeah. I was like, what is it holding onto? So it kind of like goes in and it splays out in the back so that when something's putting pressure on it, it kinda holds the screw in.

Mm-hmm. So if, if you had a stud, the, the teeth of the screw. Would hold onto that stud. Mm-hmm. So you don't put those when you get a stud? No, you do not use these. You do not. You need a drywall anchor when you can hit a stud. Okay. So, so even if it came with it and like part of it was on the stud and part of it was in the drywall.

Yes. This one doesn't need an anchor. Yep. Got it. Yep. The more you know, the more you know. So let's see. Yeah. The more you know Yeah. It's reading Rainbow. So yeah. I. We could, there were a few, I'm trying to think, I wanna make sure we hit like all the important things. Um, the difference between the one and two speed on a regular drill, which we had kind of talked about.

Like there's a, mine's a little tricky to move just for a little A SMR moment. Um, the difference between those low speed, which has higher torque two is high speed, which has lower torque. Okay. I think I was saying twerk there, but I meant torque twerk. Just so you guys know. It could be either way. Have the party you wanna have.

Um, most people leave it on two. Um, if you have it on two, it might be stripping your screws because that is the higher, the lower torque, but the higher speed. Mm. So having a lower speed, but a higher torque will help you to drive the screws without stripping them. Um, and it'll take you half a second longer.

It will take you a half a second longer. And trust me, stripping a screw and getting that screw out, once it's been stripped, it's not worth it. So just, that's awesome. So keep that bad boy on a one and, and do your, and take your time. Really take your time. Um. So can I use an impact driver to drill holes?

Technically, yes, but you shouldn't. If you want it to be precise, because the thing about the, the impact is like, yes, they sell a bunch of different attachments for it, but eh, it could go either way. So you can't control the speed unless you have, like, you really have experience with it. So that's where the actual power drill is the better one.

. You can use it to take Ooh, take the screw out too. Yes, you can. So yes, it goes in reverse. Yeah. For those of you who didn't know, you know what, let's just say, because I do this all the time, so I don't think about it, but here's how you switch your underneath, like the, the main like engine of the gun and engine is not the word, it's motor.

The motor. There's no engine of the, there's no engine. You do not have to oil this or change or put gas in it. Just the battery, under the motor of the gun. There's a button here. Little. There we go. Very sexy. Um, that just, it just determines which direction it all spins. So you'll figure out, ready, tidy, lefty, Lucy, real quick.

And when you need to drive a screw, you do the one direction. When you need to pull the screw out, you just hit the button, drive, pull the screw out, bing, bam, boom. Um, I also do that when I'm pre-drilling, so I will. You want it to be going to the right when you drill in, but then a lot of people will just kind of use force ooh, to pull it out so they won't change the direction of the drill, and when they come, they'll just pull it out.

Um, you can mess up the wood in that case, so like if you're pre-drilling, you could damage the wood. So I always, you know, reverse the screw out so that you get a better fit when you do. Drive the screw into the stud. There you go. So, I don't know, guys, let us know down below. Do you like tool talk? Do you like having a little shaky chat about tools?

Was this helpful? We are here for you. Really. We want you to have the best experience with everything home related. So we would love to know down below, was this helpful? Would you like to see more? Is there a tool you would like a little demo on? Don't get crazy. We don't know how to drive. Well, I actually do know how to drive a forklift, but I don't know how, how to use an an excavator.

We could do that. We could do a little chicks in the field, do a little field trip, do a little field trip, bring Joe out. He's like, absolutely not. I'm not doing any of that. Um, can we get it in here? No, I'm just kidding. We could get a bobcat in here, but probably that would probably break a couple of rules.

Anyway, we know I know how to do those things, but like this probably not gonna be helpful for you. But if you have a tool that you've been wondering about or you feel like I would love to be more efficient with it, let us know. Down below we're here. To help you in all the ways that we can. Um, I'm excited for next week's episode 'cause we have a little, some, some, some, some old faces coming back to do a little chat with us.

Nice. Um, we're gonna bring, just so you guys know, a heads up for this coming year, we're gonna bring some of our favorite, um, guests back on to be a little bit more intentional. About let letting them talk. I don't know where that came from. I don't know. I don't know who didn't let them talk. I don't know who didn't let them talk.

Probably Joe. Joe edited it all out. Okay. That's the problem. They talked, I didn't talk over them the entire time. Joe. Washing Machine Joe was a washing machine.

It's his fault. That's right. It's Joe's fault. Oh the Lord. So naturally. We're gonna just bring some, some of them back. I let them. Chat, maybe say a few more words than I may not have let them say on accident the first time. So looking forward to that guys. We're getting better every, every episode, episode we're trying with all the tries we're learning along with you.

Yeah, it's not as easy as it looks, just so you know. So with that being said, we will see you next time, but before then, please like and subscribe and just where can they find us. They can find us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram at Chicks Construction Podcast, TikTok at Chicks Construction, and then on YouTube at Chicks Construction.

Yeah, we're doing all the things, so we'll see you guys next time and we love you. Bye bye.