How to Fix Floor Squeaks Without Removing Carpet

Hearing a squeak from your floor can be pretty annoying. Wanting to fix it as soon as possible is a natural urge. But what if your floor is carpeted? Do you have to remove your carpet flooring to fix it? Do you have to ruin all that beautiful carpet installation? Absolutely not. There is a simple way to do it yourself. Squeaks usually occur when a gap appears between the joist below and your sub-floor. Joists are wooden or steel beams that run across the length of your house and support the floors.

Follow these instructions and your job will be done in less than half a day.
 

 

Instructions to Fix Floor Squeaks Without Removing Carpet:

1. Gather all the things that you will need like a hammer and a drill. You will also need a special carpet repair kit which contains a depth and alignment tool which has specially designed screws with heads that snap off.
2. Around the area which squeaks, take a hammer and use it lightly to locate the joist. If you don’t want to use a hammer, make someone walk across the floor and listen closely. Listen carefully for a dull sound under the floor. Wherever you hear it indicates the location of the joist.
3. Start drilling the carpeted floor in the areas where you think there is a joist. If the drill goes through try again in another spot.
4. Once you find a joist, find another joist 16 inches apart from the first one. If you drill more than 16 inches without hitting the joist, it means you are drilling along the joist. So, change direction and this time take it from a 90 degree angle from that very spot. Now secure the entire area.
5. Now is when you will need an alignment and depth control device. The three spiked device needs to be pushed into that space in the carpet. Use a screwdriver to insert a screw through the device. Make sure the sub-floor is as tight as possible before drilling the screw in. The device has an automatic guard, which stops the screw once the head reaches the carpet. You will feel it while drilling which is an indication to stop.
6. Now, remove the device and place the slit edge on the head of the screw. Hold the device with firm hands and tilt it with a jerk. Even if you keep the device the way it is and move it a bit from left to right, the head will snap off. This will break off the screw head above the carpet. It is designed that way. This process needs to be repeated on either side of the squeak. You should do it every 12 inches along the joist.
7. As you finish, you won’t hear more squeaks and all the screw heads will be off. You won’t see a sign of the repair on your carpeting.

That’s it! Didn’t think it would be this simple did you? And don’t worry, you can’t see or feel the screws at all. Make this your project this weekend and silence those squeaky floors without any more delay.