Tripod member kathgrif2 asks:
The squeaky floors in my house are about to drive me crazy! Is it necessary to pull up the carpeting to fix this or is there a simpler way?

Handy Girl Jennifer suggests:
If the squeak is from the floor boards and not the plywood sub-flooring, it's very easy to fix. All you have to do is put a screw through the floor board into the plywood sub-floor. I'd cut a little hole in the rug so when you put in the screw, the rug doesn't twist and catch on the screw. Then just fluff the carpeting around the screw. The landlord will never notice. (I'm assuming you own neither the house nor the rug.)

If the floor is carpeting on plywood, the wood rests on joists, and it's a little harder to fix. You can do the same thing but you have to find the joists — and they are very hard to find. Besides remembering that they run 16" apart on their center, I don't know what else to tell you. The joist is what the floor lays on, much like wall board on studs. So if you screw the offending area into the joist, then it can't move and it can't squeak and it can't drive you crazy!

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