Wood – How to silence or muffle creaky floorboards

I'd use the 24 tooth blade, but be sure it is a carbide type and sharp. Since all your cuts are end cuts and will be covered with baseboard trim, so getting an ultra smooth cut is not that important. Obviously, you don't want to see any large chips on the cut edge, so do your cuts slowly and smoothly. Save your 48 blade for visible finish cuts on softer wood. If you do plan to do any precise finish work, moldings etc, consider investing in an 80 tooth blade for that type of work. Good Luck.

There is really only one way to rid yourselves of the "white" fill spots. You will need to carefully dig out a small amount of the filler so only dark wood is showing around the edges. You don't need to remove all the filler from the original hole. Buy a pre-colored filler crayon, Minwax and others make them. Match the color of the filler stick to your floor color. Sand a small area around your repair with fine sandpaper, an inch or two is plenty. Fill the indent with the matching colored filler, smooth it well and put a couple of coats of urethane over the repair, feathering the urethane into the existing urethane finish. A foam brush would be good for this purpose. Good luck.