squeaking overlayment

[starquestMM]

I pulled my upstairs carpet yesterday getting ready to go with solid hardwood. My house was built in the 70s with a 5/8" subfloor and after the walls were up they added a 1/2" overlay. There is squeaking all over and some places where the overlay is raised/bubbled a bit. When I did my mom's floors we just added screws where there were squeaks, but this is a much worse case.

Anyone been through this. I could pull the overlay and glue/screw it back down or maybe just rescrew the whole thing and live with it. ?

 

[Toomanytools?]

A 5/8's subfloor isn't seen much, is the 1/2" plywood or particle board? Depending on how your floor heights are at door and other transitions you could remove the 1/2". If you did then screw down the floor and just go with the new solid 3/4 floor. If it is raised/bubbled a lot then might be best to remove, if it's only a small area you could cut out the section and replace.
Depending on how it was put down and the material used pulling it up just to glue and screw back down could prove to be a mess. How big is the area you are doing?

 

[starquestMM]

Its all plywood. I think the overlay is just nailed down. Nails 6" on center and they even nailed in between joists on the outside perimeter of the sheets. Total is about 900sf.

Hmm, if I just pull up the traffic areas that'd cut the work in half.

 

[rburke65]

As in most projects, a good result relies on a good foundation. Do it right....do it once.

 

[Musicinabottle]

The half inch particle board is intended to span the seams in the 5/8 inch plywood because they didn't have tongue and groove ply back then. Very common in the 1970s. Get one of those pole screw guns and a box of screws and go to town on it, being sure to put all your weight right where you're driving the screws. Make sure to try and hit the floor stringers as well as the fields on the partical board.