Fixing Squeaky Floor Without Ripping Up Carpet
If you’ve got a carpeted floor that squeaks, you may think that it’s impossible to silence the noise without ripping up all the carpet. Not so. In fact there is a neat little trick that helps you silence almost every squeak in your carpeted floor, without even pulling back a single corner of the carpet.
Where Floor Squeaks Come From
First, it’s important to understand why you’ve got a squeaky floor, and there could be either (or both) of two reasons:
- Your flooring or subflooring rests on top of wood joists. Whenever wood comes into contact with wood, there is the potential for noise. So, if you’ve got a concrete slab floor, you most likely will not have squeaks. It only happens in houses with raised foundations.
- The existing flooring nails are moving in and out of their nail holes every time someone walks on them. Metal against wood equals squeaking.
- Both.
That said, you’ve already identified with 90% certainty where the noises are coming from. That’s good.
Fix #1 – Insert Wood Shims
If you’re feeling ambitious, you can get under the floor to the crawlspace or basement with a flashlight and look for any noticeable gaps between the tops of the joists and the bottom of the subfloor. Have someone walk on the floor above when you’re below, and you might even see the gap closing–there’s your squeak.
In this case, smear a little construction glue on a wood shim and tap it gently into place. This should stop the squeak.
Fix #2 – Pound in Finish Nails
But why do that when you can do something easier? Now, this fix only works with carpeted flooring.
- Position a 6d finish nail so that it is between piles, as much as possible.
- Hammer the nail straight through the carpet into the offending joist.
- Use a nail set to keep pounding the finish nail as far down as possible. This will get the nail head out of sight, out of mind. You will never again see it.