Subfloor Screws Through Carpet

Stops floor squeaks on carpeted and hardwood floors.

Subfloor screws through carpet.

In this video this old house general contractor tom silva explains how to repair a squeaky floor through a carpet. A thicker subfloor takes a 3 inch screw. You ll want the screw to go about an inch past the plywood into the joist or underlying layer beneath it. Use 2 inch trim screws with undersize heads that will penetrate the carpet backing and sink into the subfloor.

So if your subfloor is 3 4 of an inch thick any screw about 1 3 4 inches long will do the trick. Drill straight down through the carpet with the joist finding bit. 3 chuck the joist finding screw into the drill driver. Here s a tip that doesn t require any special tools.

Drive the screws approximately 8 inches apart. The way it works is you can use the tool and screw the screws in and then with the tool snap the head off just below the surface of the sub floor so it doesn t poke thru the carpeting or interfere with laying down vinyl or tile etc. Drilling through carpeted floors can present a few challenges including unraveling the carpet and stalling the drill. 2 tap the carpeted floor with the hammer and listen for dull thud indicating a joist below.

If the plywood subfloor you re placing is 5 8 of an inch thick you need a screw about 1 5 8 inches long. This is also a good time to screw as much of the original subfloor down as you can. Move the bit to the left or right. Find the joist using the tool in the kit place the tripod fixture over the joist and drive the scored screw through the fixture as far as the fixture will allow.

You can t see or feel where the screw went through the carpet. Drive screws into the subfloor from above if there is no access underneath it. If in the rare case you remove the sub floor and it can t be pulled up with a pry bar as the sub floor would be weakened you could just cut the very few of these with a reciprocal saw. 1 use a hammer to locate a floor joist within the squeaky section of floor.

If the bit penetrates down more than 1 inch and begins to spin freely you ve missed the joist.