Good brand of 3/8" corded drill

[drjfjr]

I was putting new tile in my bathroom and was trying to remove all of the squeaks prior to installing the backer board. It turned out that one squeak was due to a knot in the wood that was inbtween the joist. I had to put a board under the knot to prevent the squeak.

 

[Constant Mesh]

I saw the This Old House guy on PBS use the Squeak No More screw system you're talking about. It seemed to work OK. But on a later show he stated that if he had a squeaky floor under carpet at his house he'd just go ahead and pull the carpet and pad and do the fix so he could see exactly what he was doing.

Pulling the carpet is easy. The biggest task is moving furniture so you can pull up/put back the carpet. Carpet guys charge a minimal fee for reattaching the carpet.

I installed one of the screws this morning in an outdoor deck to see how difficult it was. The 2-1/2" screw really loads up the drill. I think it might be better to drill a hole in the 3/4" flooring before installing the screw. The top 7/8" portion of the screw is not threaded. So there's a lot of friction between the flooring and the unthreaded portion of the screw.

Maybe a 2" screw is a better choice -- less work for the drill and me.

 

[Kilroy]

You might want to try using a pilot bit, which bores a tapered countersunk hole. They're relatively cheap and come in a few different sizes.

 

[Fencer]

I saw the This Old House guy on PBS use the Squeak No More screw system you're talking about. It seemed to work OK. But on a later show he stated that if he had a squeaky floor under carpet at his house he'd just go ahead and pull the carpet and pad and do the fix so he could see exactly what he was doing.
Pulling the carpet is easy. The biggest task is moving furniture so you can pull up/put back the carpet. Carpet guys charge a minimal fee for reattaching the carpet.

I installed one of the screws this morning in an outdoor deck to see how difficult it was. The 2-1/2" screw really loads up the drill. I think it might be better to drill a hole in the 3/4" flooring before installing the screw. The top 7/8" portion of the screw is not threaded. So there's a lot of friction between the flooring and the unthreaded portion of the screw.

Maybe a 2" screw is a better choice -- less work for the drill and me.

You can get a knee kicker at harbor freigt for $9.99 to re-lay the carpet. I had to buy one from a busted water heater. I re-laid the carpet after it dried. you can have it if you want it.

As far as getting rid of squeeky floors once the sub floor is laid, its hard. If you ever build, have the contractor put liquid nails down before he nails as normal. No more squeeky floor. gar-ron -teed.

 

[Geezer]

Since you're going through all of this work and you want to do it right, you should verify that you have plenty of blocking between the joists below the squeaking floor. Joists can move a little as you walk across the floor. If you have plenty of blocking connecting the joists to each other they will not twist and the load is spread across several joists.

Before I tiled my kitchen floor I added solid blocking every 24" between all of the joists. That floor is solid and does not deflect or squeak even with a crowd of house guests.