Squeaky floors driving me mad!

[FingersCrossedSA]

Our house is not very old (built in the 70s/80s) but the upstairs floors are so incredibly squeaky.

We had them re-carpeted a few years ago and the carpet fitters said they couldn't do much (as in hammer down floorboards) as they didn't know where the central heating pipes were underneath.

Is there anything we can do to reduce/remove the squeaking?

Other than find where you pipes are and screw down the boards, You could try talc. Although, if you are going to lift carpet to sprinkle talc in the gaps, you may as well go one step further and lift a couple of boards to locate pipes & screw down properly. It would be annoying to lift carpet & use talc then find the squeak comes back a few months later!

www.checkatrade.com/blog/how-to/fix-squeaky-floorboards/
Step Seven: Lubricate the floors If you don’t have access to the underside of your floors, then lubricating them might be your only option. One great fix is talcum powder, which you can find in most pharmacies. Just squeeze it into the cracks between floorboards and walk up and down them to distribute the lubricant. If the creaks don’t desist, try a dry silicone treatment, which you spray through the cracks in the same way. However, be warned. It gets messy!

Talc is rubbish. They need screwing down with a certain type of screw that I can't remember the name of. Our old house was a bugger for creaking chipboard floors. Best thing we did was to move. They drove me demented.

We were told to take up the carpet and re glue or re do the boards underneath. We moved so didn’t. But that’s what we were told.

Floorboard screws and the sense to work out where pipes and wires are. You should be able to get rid of the majority of the squeaks.