If you have carpet, then its your plywood underneath that is sqeaking. The squeaks usually happen in between seams, so the only way to fix it is to remove the carpet and put in several screws in the squeaky area. But if you have hardwood or laminate floors it could be that you have a bad board or the subfloor plywood is squeaking. The only fix for this is to either replace the wood or laminate with new boards or fix the plywood as I mentioned above.
If you have a squeak that is occurring in carpet, it could be the subfloor plywood at the seams or it could be at the actual floor joist to plywood, or floor joist to hanger. All avenues should be explored. There are times when sub floor adhesive was not used or maybe not enough was used. Also, some contractors only use nails to put subfloor down which can lead to the nails squeaking in the hole as the floor flexes under weight. In any case, there is a product called squeak no more. It is a screw that works for carpeted areas and when applied into the subfloor the head of the screw breaks off and the squeak is alleviated. Of course, it is necessary to put the screw into a floor joist. If the squeak is coming from a hanger on floor joist, it may be necessary to add screws from the hanger to the joist to hold it tightly. if your floor is a hard surface such as hardwood or laminate, there can be opportunity to alleviate the squeak from below with screws but this will require very good precision and knowledge as to not pierce the floor above. The alternative, and more costly method, is to remove the floor.
Start by boring a 3/32-in.-dia. pilot hole through the floorboard nearest the squeak. Next, put a screw through the depth-control fixture and into the pilot hole. Drive in the screw until it snaps off below the surface of the wood. To conceal the screw, fill the pilot hole with wood putty.
Proper identification of the squeak is the first step.
- Is there a loose joint in your framing that moves and slides on a framing nail? or
- Is it a loose sheet of plywood subfloor squeaking on a nail? or
- Is your hardwood floor loose and squeeking as it slide on atachment cleat or nail? or
- Are the tongue and groove milling loose and the boards squeak on each other as they move?
Walk, press, listen, repeat… think, look closer, listen closer, think harder… then reply.