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I have a squealy floor below my carpet on the 2nd floor of my house. It sounds like the subfloor under the carpet is moving up and down a little and makes this awful load squeak when I step down on this specific location. It can be reproduced at will.

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Could you just nail on exposed hard wood? I have a lot of places in my house that could use this treatment, but I have no carpets. – Spencer K Jan 19 '11 at 22:22
hardwood would be a completely different solution. These screws in the accepted answer would not work for you. I would highly encourage you to ask this question though! – mohlsen Jan 20 '11 at 12:57

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up vote 19 down vote accepted

Fixing a squeaky floor beneath a carpet is a fairly complicated process that's probably best illustrated with video. This Old House provides a wonderful tutorial.

The procedure demonstrated at that link does not require you to pull up any carpet and uses scored screws to hide your work. This seems to be the most hassle-free way to do what one might expect to be a huge job.

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@Mike very cool ! I didn't do that when I had a squeaky floor. I probably should have though !! – Scott Vercuski Jul 23 '10 at 12:36
@Scott, yeah. I had a friend who did this. I was very impressed. It works best on thick carpets, as those hide the carpet punctures most effectively. Makes it invisible really. – Mike Sherov Jul 23 '10 at 12:38
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@Mike would have saved me a ton of time and a few punctured fingertips from carpet tack strips :) live and learn! (and bleed/swear a bit) – Scott Vercuski Jul 23 '10 at 12:40
I have some squeaking in our new home on the second floor. I'll definitely be getting this product! Our warranty service has been addressing some of the squeaks, but they've been pulling the carpet up - overkill. – Jonathan Sampson Jul 23 '10 at 16:50
told my father-in-law about this and he had them. Squeak no more kits are available on Amazon and many other retailers. These suckers worked great. No more squeaking! – mohlsen Jul 23 '10 at 18:09
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up vote 0 down vote

If there's movement you'd do best to pull back the carpet and nail down the subfloor. Hopefully the squeak isn't in the middle of the room.

I had a squeaky floor at an old house, had to pull back a large chunk of carpet and drive a few nails through the floor to anchor it down.

Best of luck.

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If you're going to go to all that work, use screws. – Brad Gilbert Jul 24 '10 at 4:02

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