Fixing Squeaky Floors Under Carpet

Squeaky wood floors under carpet is an annoying problem with an easy, DIY solution. It’s not necessary to have to pull up any of your carpet to fix, and with just a few simple tools you can easily fix this problem in an afternoon. Floor squeaks are caused by gaps between the sub-floor and the floor joists which have separated over time and can be fixed by simply reattaching that sub-floor back to the framing. The trick, however, is to not damage your wall-to- wall carpet and to locate where the joists in your floor are located.

Tip: Cut a 6″ or 8″ piece of wire coat hanger to attach into your drill. You can use this to locate the joists under your subfloor without damaging your carpet. Once you locate a joist, mark it off with tape.

Tip: If you go beyond 16″ left or right without hitting a floor joist, it may mean that you are drilling in the direction that the floor joists run. Change direction and try going perpendicular.

Once you have found a joist, you will take your screw and turn it by hand to create a small hole in the carpet so that when the drill is used, that it does not ‘catch’ the carpet. Rotating the screw in a circle within the hole will help make the hole larger.

Tip: Hold sub-floor down with your knees as much as you can to make sure that it is as tight as possible before driving the screw.

Tip: Stop driving screw once screw head reaches top of carpet. Using a pair of channel lock pliers, twist screw side to side and front and back until screw pops off.

What is needed for the job

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