I've got some squeaky floors upstairs under carpet. Has anyone here used these screws that you put into joists and break off flush into the subflooring so you can't feel them in the carpet? Do they work? How hard are they to install?

I have done it that way, and before that, I found those wonderful screws-I crawled under the house with some long screws wooden wedges and liquid nails...had the kid jump and down until I could find the squeak and did the deed.

The break off screws are much easier. And they work. Even in the carpet-try it in a closet or unseen area first.

Good luck

What if you have hardwood floors? I got a couple places.

This Old House
The above fix is similar to repairing squeaks on a carpeted floor.
Silent

The break off screws work. The hard part is locating the joist below the carpet. Stud sensors work somewhat spottily in my opinion. Using them through carpet becomes problematic. I usually end up pulling up the carpet and screwing floor down and then putting carpet back, but my dad was a carpet layer so I got the tools.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
The break off screws work. The hard part is locating the joist below the carpet. Stud sensors work somewhat spottily in my opinion. Using them through carpet becomes problematic. I usually end up pulling up the carpet and screwing floor down and then putting carpet back, but my dad was a carpet layer so I got the tools.

Taking up the carpet would be the best but not everyone can easily do that. The best method I found for going through the carpet was to:
- Locate each end of a joist in the room, and put in a screw, but don't break them off yet.
- Get some string and tightly mark out the joists by tying it to the corresponding screw on the other end of the room
- Now just go down each line and put in a screw every 6-9".
- Do the whole room this way before you break off any screws, that way if some screws "miss" the joist, you can easily back them out and reinstall them until they bite.
- With all screws installed, you can walk around the room and ensure there are no more squeaks. Only then go back and break off all the screws.

I do the whole room (and move all furniture out) because I found that you tend to chase the squeak around if you don't. You fix it here, but now a new area has a squeak over there. I guess if you had one isolated area, you could try to fix it alone. But my rooms were squeaky all over and I just bit the bullet and did the whole floor.
One other thing, if the joists splice/sister under the floor, now your line of fasteners will be offset, and that's a big pain in the rear end to find those transitions.

I’m gonna try the break off screws just ordered some online. I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

The squeaks are in the upstairs hallway so I can’t get under them and I’ve ripped up carpet and tried to relay it twice in my life and I just suck at it.

I did it the hard way. Every room we replaced flooring in, that's all of them now, I would pry up every nail and replace it with a deck screw. Major pain in the ass but worth it in the end. No floor squeaks in a 1970 house.

quote:

Originally posted by GarandGuy:
I've got some squeaky floors upstairs under carpet. Has anyone here used these screws that you put into joists and break off flush into the subflooring so you can't feel them in the carpet? Do they work? How hard are they to install?

We have used them in a couple houses. Work well. Also tighten up squeaky stairs.

I did the screw and break off thing and it was partially successful. Many of the squeaks stopped. the worst squeak was not fixable with this method and still squeaks...