How do you stop floors from creaking (when you walk on them) without ripping up the carpet?

Question

The floor in my son's room right at the doorway creaks horribly when we walk across it. There is no place we can walk that it does not do this. It's hard for us to check on him when he takes a nap. We're wondering if there's a way of fixing this without ripping up the carpet. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The creaking is coming from the wood rubbing against the old nails, which have loosened.

The very best way to fix it is to take a handful of 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch wood screws, and use them to tighten the wood underlayment down wherever it is squeaking.

You should be able to do this right through the carpet, if it has any sort of a nap. Just make sure you push the nap aside when you put the screw through the carpet backing, and then brush it up over the screw head when you have it tightened into place.

It's also best to use a power screwdriver in order to set the screws through whatever layers of wood there happen to be on your floor.

Answer 2

Not really without taking up the carpet. Probably your sub flooring needs to be screwed down. Pull off just an edge of the carpet and the padding if you can. You might be able to do it from the underside by going into the crawl space under the house, but that would be pretty hard to do.

Answer 3

Only if you can get to the underside of the floor from the basement or crawlspace and shore up the floor joists under the floor.
If you can do that, theyn pulling up the carpet is about it.

If you can find the floor joists thru the carpet you
may be able to put decking screws into the flooring
and fasten it down thru small holes in the carpet.

Answer 4

I had a similar problem with the top of my stairs and went to my local Ace Hardware for something called Squeeek No More. It has a screwdriver bit and guide and specialty screws.

You basically locate your joists and screw down into them with these special screws until your bit hits the end of the jig. Then you take the jig and use it to break off the screw heads (they're perforated so it's easy to do).

I had limited success with it. It didn't get rid of the problem entirely, but it improved it significantly. The kit was $20 and came with 50 screws. That should be more than enough if you're only doing one area. For a whole house, you can purchase additional packs of screws.

Answer 5

Carefully locate the squeaks. With a screw gun or drill run trim head screws through the nap of the carpet. The trim head screws have a very small head on them and usually require a #2 square drive bit. They are small enough to sqeeze right through the grid of the carpet backing without damaging the carpet in any way.
Try this link lots of information that doesn't pertain but does mention the trim head screw.
http://www.onthehouse.com/wp/19950814

Answer 6

Your best answer here is the smaller head screw. You don't need to rip up the carpet. You can generally pinpoint the squeak with your foot. When you feel you've done so screw down the floor. You will feel the screw grab and squeak if you have caught the floor joist.

Answer 7

There is no real way to do that without at least pulling the carpet from at least a corner or two.You can buy an anti-squeek kit from home depot that will take care of it.

Answer 8

screaking might cause from nails getting worn out so you will have in any case might have to remove carpet to do some kind of repairs to flooring, which will be replacing old materials.

Answer 9

They make a screw that you screw in through the carpet, and snap off the head.

http://www.squeaky-floors.com/kit.htm

Answer 10

you have to fix it with wood and then staple the carpet back down