Stop Carpeted Stairs from Squeaking

LESLIE: In Rhode Island, Delores has some squeaky situations happening on the floors. What can we help you with? Tell us about it.

DELORES: Hi there, Leslie and Tom.

LESLIE: Hi.

DELORES: I have the squeaks like on the steps even though they’re carpeting. The house is old but I realize – in other words, there’s nothing I can do with the carpeting there, correct?

LESLIE: No, no, no.

TOM: No, that’s not true at all.

DELORES: No?

TOM: No, we can fix that.

DELORES: Oh, great.

TOM: What you need to do, Delores, is – the floor joists under the carpet have to be located and that could be found with a stud finder.

LESLIE: A deep scanning stud finder.

TOM: Deep scanning stud finder. And once you locate those floor joists, here’s a little trick of the trade. You can take a finish nail – like a number 10 or a number 12 finish nail – and nail through the carpet, through the subfloor and into the floor joist. Because the subfloor is loose and that’s what’s causing this. You can do that in two or three spots right through the carpet. And then the last thing you do is grab the carpet and sort of pull it up through the head of the nail. Because it’s a finish nail, the carpet will sort of pop right through the head of the nail and you can brush the carpet and the little dimples that you created will sort of disappear. And that will stop the squeaks. When you drive the nail you put it on a very slight angle because it has better holding power that way.

DELORES: I appreciate it. Thank you.

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.