[Music Playing]Travis Larson: Hi! I'm Travis Larson and I'm an editor for Family Handyman Magazine.

Today we're going to talk about floor squeaks. First we're going to tell you what causes floor squeaks, it's a lot easier to fix them if you understand what creates them in the first place and we're going to tell you how to get started in fixing them. We're going to deal with fixing our carpeted floor when you don't have access to the underside like a finished basement ceiling for example. Then we're going to talk about fixing a floor squeak underneath the basement when you do have access, when the floor joist are all open and you can get up to the sub floor and fix those squeaks from underneath.

Then we're going to talk about fixing a hardwood floor that's kind of tricky, because hardwood floors can't be fixed from above and frankly it's pretty difficult to fix them from underneath as well, but we'll deal with that then finally we're going to deal with squeaky stairs, I know they drive you crazy. We're going to show you how to fix it.

You're not going to need much to fix floor squeak frankly the only power tool that you're going to need is a screw gun, hammer, nails, screws, some construction adhesive and a cocking tube, shams and that's about it and you will be able to fix most of the squeaks in your floor.

In order to fix floor squeaks it's a lot better if you understand what causes them in the first place, it's almost always a nail shank rubbing on plywood. Let's go to our model and we'll see. This is a 2x10 floor joist, half-inch sub-floor and five-eights inch particle barred underlayment and underneath the carpeting, but a lot of homes are built differently than this they might have 3 quarter inch plywood, they might not have any sub-floor, they might have a hardwood floor, but this is what causes the problem wherever this nail happens to be.

The plywood or this or the underlayment is rubbing on the shank of the nail every time you put pressure on it when you walk across that floor. 95% of the time that's what causing your floor squeaks.

Before we begin let me tell you little bit about myself, I've been involved in construction for the last 30 years, first as carpenter and contractor for the last 12 years as an editor here Family Handyman. Family Handyman has been around for 60 years and it's the oldest and largest DIY publication on the planet. So let's get started showing you how to fix your squeaky floors.