No matter how well made they are, at some time repairing hardwood floors is needed because of squeaks. It doesn’t matter if the flooring below our carpet is hardwood or any kind of wood at all. After time, no matter how good a job was done when the flooring was installed, you will get a squeak or two at places where the joist and flooring meet unevenly. Wood is a natural material and with time, along with heat and moisture, they will shift or twist or even warp. Then they do not sit properly and will from time to time rub up against each other when weight is put on just the right place. When that happens, the only thing we can do is begin repairing hardwood floors by making sure that each place that meets up is securely fastened.

Subfloors vs Hardwood Floors

If your carpet is on subflooring that is not hardwood flooring, and you were planning on changing the carpet out, then the problem can be solved pretty easily. Simply identify the joists in the subflooring while the carpet and pad are out, and screw the subflooring down at intervals where the joists occur. By doing this thoroughly you will ensure that in the future you will not get any additional squeaks as the subflooring shifts.

But what if you are not ready to change carpet and still need to take care of these squeaks? There are several options available to you:

1.  Remove the carpet and pad, screw down the subflooring, return pad and carpet to original position. I suggest using a professional carpet installer to do the second part.
2. There is a company that makes special screws that allow you to go through the carpet and are pretty inexpensive, appropriately called Squeak No More. If you are willing to do the detective work to find the joists, this is an inexpensive way to solve the problem. You can also find some of the squeak no more supplies on sale at this page on Amazon
3. For true hardwood floors though, you will want to use face-nails to solve the problem to minimize the damage to the hardwood floors. If what you have on them is rugs instead of carpet, this will be easier to accomplish.

Finding the Joists

The trickiest part to doing the screwing down yourself will be discovering the joists. It can be done; it just needs a bit of patience, and a method to your madness. Here is simple method to find the joists, and then screw down the subflooring through the carpet using the special “sqeeek no more” screws.

•   Pound on the floor with a hammer to locate where the joists are. They will sound solid, while the areas without a joist will have a hollow sound when pounded.
• Probe the area that gives a solid sound when pounding, hammering a 10d nail through the carpet. Since a subfloor is usually around ¾ inch thick, hitting solid wood will tell you that you have located a joist.
• Leave that nail in the joist and continue to pound about a foot out to locate the direction of the joist. Again, the sound of a solid versus a hollow pounding will tell you where the joist is. Once you locate the direction of the joist, leave a nail in that direction.
• Once you have established the direction of the joist, hammer to locate the next joist – they should be 16 inches apart. Engineered i-joists are usually 19 inches apart.
• Use a tape measure to note the ends of each joist, marking them off with nails and then tying strings to begin to grid off the joists.

·        Then use the specialty screw system to screw the subfloor into place. If you follow the system outlined here, you should end up with a carpet that has no squeaky floor spots and no bumps in your carpet.

Does this all sound kinda like more than you bargained for? Check out this page on This Old House, to see for yourself that you can do this too. Sometimes all you need to do is see someone else do it to say “Hey! I can do that!”

Then just sit back and enjoy the fact that your floor no longer squeaks and you did it all yourself!