How can I stop my hardwood floor from squeaking?

My master bedroom floor (currently carpet over plywood, I suspect) squeaks like there are springs under the floor when I walk across it. At different times of the year different parts of the floor squeak. I am thinking of taking up the carpet to work on this, but not sure what to do at that point. Any advice?

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We can sometimes muffle or reduce noise squeaks by installing insulation in between the floor or in the ceiling below. While this is an inexpensive and simple way to reduce squeaks, it is often effective. There are also more extensive ways with dropping down the ceiling and installing different type of sheetrock and sound glue as well.

If there is access underneath, you can use a simple device that is called the Squeek-ender, available in Home improvement stores or online.

It is a simple piece of steel with 4 - 3/4" screws in it to go into the existing sub-sfloor and a long bolt that will literally go over the framing-member and squeeze down on the bolt therefore pulling the floor down on the board forever!

Works great, I used to go out to homes with a bunch of those and never had any calls back :wink:

Hope this helps

Dutchy, Inc.

Your floor boards are squeeking due to them becoming loose and lifting. This is usually due to expansion and contraction from the change in humidity levels in the home. First thing you need to decide is if you are going to pull the carpeting up. If so you need to ask yourself what are you going to do after meaning are you going to keep the hardwood or are you going to lay carpet back down? If you decide you are going to lay carpet back down then you can eliminate the squeeking by screwing them down with 2-inch screws. I say 2-inch because you need atleast 1-inch for proper fastening into the floor joist and you don’t know how thick your floor is without pulling it up. If you are going to keep the hardwood that is a whole new ball game and I suggest calling a reputable contractor to fix this so there is no aesthetic blemishes. Hope this helps!

You can easily stop hardwood floor from squeaking. You can use vegetable oil (cooking spray) or candle.

You can also use surfboard and petroleum jelly (like Vaseline). I hope these are very helpful to you.

Your course of action is the best one. I do recommend folding back the carpet to expose the sub floor. The reason for the squeeking is because of expansion, and contraction of the floor joists in the summer when its warm they will swell, and in the winter they will shrink causing the nails to loosen. I suggest finding the problem area and screwing the subfloor down through the floor joist. Use at least 1 5/8 cousre thread screws. This will solve you problem.

If you have a crawl hole and the joists are accesible, your problem can be fixed without tearing up the carpet at all. You must first determine the source of the squeaking; it is either the nails holding the subfloor to the joist or the nails holding the joist to a ponywall or beam. It could also be the nails from a partition above nailed into the subfloor. It could also be due to other causes, like a pipe rubbing against something. The squeaking is caused by movement somewhere; you must locate the movement. Once the source of the noise is located, stop the movement. This can be done using shims, nails, glue, additional framing members, etc.

Genrerally, floors creates squeaking when it gets old or losen. Resolving this is not that difficult, just hire any flooring contractor and ask him to get that done. However, I was having the similar problem which I’ve got resolved from the Carpet repair Denver experts. They just put some screws wherever it was required and then layed carpet over that. It was pretty cheap as well. For more details you can check http://ecocleancares.com

Tear it out and put tile in

ps I do tile

I have done this on several occasions with cut loom and berber carpet. Take 2" drywall and pull back strands of carpet and insert screw and run screw in area of floor where it is squeaking with impact or drill driver and be careful not to pull carpet with the screw.

If you have access to the underside of the floor from a basement or crawl space, you can use pocket screws and jig to pull the floor plywood down to the joists.

If you can identify where your floor joist are running (pull up a small length of carpet). Measure over to the squeaky area of the floor and using a small head screw secure directly through the carpet. (plush carpet only, not berber)