How to get my carpeted stairs to stop creaking?

Question

My stairs have carpet on them and whenever i go up or downstairs they creak. Is there any way to stop this. I do not want to rip up the carpet, nor do I have access under the stairs

Answer 1

You have either one of the following:

1. You have loose tread boards(this is what you are hoping for). There is a wonderful product this is called "Squeak No More" about $25 at the Home Depot.(http://www.pdqproducts.net/Squeak_no_more.html). It has a special attachment that goes on your drill. You then screw the special screws into the floor. Once the screws are in...They break off so that you do not have a screw head stick up...It also does not tear the carpet up. I have used this myself and it works great.

2. You have loose stringer... In order to repair this you will need a carpenter to open up the wall and support the stairs.

Answer 2

That's a really difficult problem to fix without major deconstruction and reconstruction of your stairs and surrounding walls. There is most likely nothing structurally unsafe on your stairs. I suggest you realize that you have real wood stairs that were put together with nails and that they don't use such beefy materials anymore and decide that the creaks in your stairs is high quality character.

Consider your house is telling you it's story. It's a lot less expensive that way in fact having a talking house may be priceless. And consider that if the creak was gone you would probably not even notice that it was gone after a few days.

Peace.

Answer 3

The creaks come from loose boards, so unles you want to pull up the carpet and sink some 2.5" screws into the stair treads (heck of a lot of work), it's something you'll have to endure.

Could be an excuse to refinish your stairs. I completed a similiar project a few months ago with sanding and painting and installing a runner...lot of work but looks phenomenal and no squeaks!