Found a cheap way to fix a squeaky floor without pulling up carpet

I had this annoying squeak in my hallway right near the door, drove me nuts for 6 months. I tried those squirt bottle kits but they just made a mess on the carpet backing. Has anyone used a floor screw system where you snap off the head, and did it actually last more than a few weeks?

2 comments

2 Comments

thompson.finley18d ago

Right? I had the exact same experience with those snap-off screws, and it drove me crazy. The head snapped off perfectly and then a month later the squeak was back and I could feel the thing wiggling under the carpet when I stepped on it. I ended up doing a similar carpet slit approach but I used a washer on the screw so it wouldn't pull through the subfloor (learned that one the hard way on a previous attempt).

richard_ramirez18d ago

Oh I have to disagree on this one. I tried those snap-off screws on a bedroom floor last year and they fixed the squeak for about two weeks before the noise came back louder than before. The problem is those screws are too short to really grab the subfloor, so they just pull out a little with every step and then you have a loose screw head rattling under the carpet. I ended up having to cut a small slit in the carpet and put in a proper 2 inch drywall screw from the top, then patched the carpet fiber back together with a little glue. That fix has held for over a year now and cost me maybe 50 cents.