Too lose my shit over floorboards

[Fartootiredforthisshit]

I rent my home and the upstairs floorboards are so fucking squeaky that they wake my 1yo. I've been up since 4am since I needed to pee (I'm heavily pregnant) and when I tried to tiptoe out my bedroom stepped on a squeaky board which has now woke dc in the next room, dc has now cried for nearly 2hrs if I try leave the room and go back to bed, although I don't know how I'm getting out dc room to my own without stepping on the floor

Surely you'd think Google would throw up a way to stop the squeaking without tearing up the carpet, and inserting panels under the floorboards. LL not remotely interested and won't fix. It's rent as seen and stuck in contract so can't get out. Not that I could move with dc2 being due very soon.

So aibu to burn the fucking house down the next time I barely get any sleep because of the floor?

Also open to suggestions of how to stop this.
Adding rug won't help as I can't open/close the doors/slash would need one hell of a rug/s to cover the bad areas.

Help me before I lose my shit.

Sorry about that. But if you do find a way to fix squeaky for boards without taking up the carpet please do share. A builder left my quiet house with quite a number of squeaky areas and it pisses me off no end.

We have the same problem. My 1 you twins can sleep through thunderstorms, alarms going off, cats fighting in the street, drunk England fans singing on their way home from the pub etc but put one foot on the squeaky board outside their bedroom and they are both awake screaming. It's maddening!

You really can't fix it without ripping up the carpet unfortunately

I went camping at a festival while heavily pregnant, and didn’t fancy the wall to the disgustiong toilets a million times a night. I got one of those ‘portable urinal’ bottles with a female attachment and some alcohol hand gel.

Alternatively, a camping toilet?

Probably a bit grim in the house, but needs must. I’d take pissing in a bottle over no sleep!

Or a white noise machine in the hallway to mask the sound?

Disgustiong is like disgusting but worse, by the way....

White noise started irritating dc rather help sleep so we had to stop it.
Im almost certain the worst floorboards runs under the wall so if I step on one end it squeaks next door.
We're both still awake. Going to be a long long day.
We're buying next year after mat leave and I've told dh I will forget about the downstairs loo and seperate dining room for a house with no squeaky floorboards.

Heaven help me if I need to ever rock the baby to sleep.

Have you tried playing white noise in your little ones room overnight? I did this with my second one and it worked wonders.

It’s usually forbidden in flats to have float boards due to the noise they make. Ask your landlord to check the lease and chat to the management company.

We had dreadfully squeaky floors on our landing too. If you pull up the carpets the issue is probably where the board is rubbing up and down against the nail as you walk. We solved it by replacing the nails with screws so it didn't move as you walked.
Then pay £20 for a professional to tuck the carpet back down.

It’s really not that hard to carefully lift the carpet up, screw down the squeaky floorboards and put the carpet back down. At least deal with the ones that are between you and the loo.

if there are any 'safe boards' mark them with a bit of masking tape on the skirting board so you can tiptoe over? Otherwise its worth the relatively small expense of getting them screwed down - or if you do it yourself use a meter thingy to find the joists and don't hammer into a pipe like I once did...

The only way to resolve squeaky boards is to screw them down to the joists below, which means you have to pull the carpets up.

But you can mark out where the squeaks are using masking tape, or you could put furniture over the worst points.

I might just have to lift the carpet. And see if I can sort it. Both dc and I didn't fall aback asleep til about 7am, I've just woke now. Going to wake lo one so they still nap later.
My LL totally use less, we didn't go through an agency so no management company. I'm pretty sure the contract isn't even legal but with baby being here in about 2 weeks now isn't the time to get arsey with them. I'll either try fix it myself or use masking tape to mark safe spots to walk on. Which is actually Brill idea and I'm annoyed I didn't think of it.

Although annoying, I'd be surprised that squeaky floorboards that wake up noise sensitive children is going to be covered in a clause in your lease to be honest.

The ideas of marking which floorboard is squeaky is a good one as is the pee bottle.

Also, if said child is sensitive to noise, one wonders what its going to be like with a screaming baby at 3am. The floorboard will be the least of your problems then.

No idea if it works, but I’ve hear sprinkling talcum powder along the gaps helps. Worth a try?

Was also going to suggest talcum powder!

www.google.com/search?q=stopping+squeaky+floorboards&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b#kpvalbx=1

Tip for putting the carpet back is a rolling pin, or wine bottle if that’s more easily at hand 😉 to stretch the carpet all the way to the gripper.

Mine used to have R3 going in his room. In fact, he's 13 now and he still has R3 going in his room quite often!

If you take up the carpet carefully you can relay it afterwards without it looking bad. When you're trying to sort the floorboards out, make sure that you don't hit any pipes as leaks in the floor would certainly not be welcomed by your landlord!

We had a horrendous squeeky floor that ran under a partion wall. It wasn't actually the floor that made the noise but the joint between the floor and timber partition sitting on it. If there is no wall on the floor underneath and the wall is timber stud it could be this?
If this is the case you can remove the skirting board and provide better fixings between the wall studs and floor joists to stop them separating when someone walks on the floor. Our noise stopped immediately thankfully.

I seriously considered a pot next to the bed with a roll of toilet roll next to it when dd was still in the cot next to our bed.

@EggsRoyale thanks for this, if I (and by I, I really mean Dh) do lift the carpet and it didn't work I'd have blown my head haha at least I have the heads up it might not.

To those suggesting talc I saw that suggestion but thought what is there is wires etc under the floorboards wouldn't that break them? The same way sand does🤔

Im hoping to avoid a screaming baby at night, my dc didn't scream once in the night as soon as she stirred/woke I responded to her and never let her cry. Will do the same this time. (hopefully)

There is a few boards that squeak that wouldn't wake her and a few that probably wake the couple 4 houses down. They are right by the door too so unless I remember where to put my foot I usually stand on them. I can usually go to the loo multiple times a night no issues but if dc is having a restless night and I step one on the wrong bit it's game over. Last night dc was awake over 3hrs before finally being able to go back to sleep. As shit as it is for me. Being so tired and so tired it's shit for dc too.