Thanks for your suggestions. I noticed the difference between the summer and winter with the floor. Its ashame as they are very nice looking. My wife and I are just fed up as we cant even go in the babies room without waking him up from the noise. YES, its that bad. We put a little rug in his room to try to damper the sound, but only helped a little. Floorguy, I tried with the screws underneath (probably about 100 of them or so) but didn't help. If I recall correctly, I used 1 1/2 inch screws. Maybe they weren't long enough? My arm was ready to fall off from holding the screw gun in an upwards position! I did try putting some shims where I saw that the sub floor was loose, but overall, the sub floor is pretty flat against the joists. As the contractors said, they basically didn't use any any nails when they were installed. If I look underneath them from the basement, I would probably count maybe 50 nails sticking out from the sub floor for the entire 1st floor. I don't know...... :-/ If you can remember the screw names, PLEASE let me know! :-) Any other suggestions or advice is appreciated. Thanks all!

It is unlikely that any 'asbestos dust' is going to fall through cracks into the basement; large particles might, but not 'dust'. If your removal releases any fibers, those are going to become airborne real easy and remain suspended for a time. Testing would be the way to go and then you can make your decision about removal.

I started mine with the shellac. No filing off of the first layer of nail to adhere the tip. No tip at all. I did it so my nails will be stronger to grow out for an occasion coming up in a couple more weeks. So far, I have had the shellac done twice in about 6 weeks. I am getting about 3+ weeks on it. They look like they were done yesterday. Still shiny. Work is very hard on my hands and all my nails broke way down. Now they look nice again. Just starting to show over the ends of my fingers. Shellac does NO damage to your nails. When the polish is soaked off, you can leave it off and have perfect natural nails. NO layers are missing. I love them. Now I haven't done any pottery since I have had them done and after my event I will go back to throwing and see how they do. The only downfall to shellac I was told was if your hands are in water a lot they might lift a bit. We will see. I know the wheel turning will file them down some like they did before. So we will see.

I have to say that if you don't know how to paint you would be better off calling a pro. In Florida like out West there is an abundance of cheap labor. The $200 they would charge you per day would be money well spent. Latex paints peel in sheets as you have found out. You have peeled off layers and a pro will as others said skimmed the walls which will seal the edges and even out the coats. I don't like textured walls but here it will work to your advantage as after a light skim and prime texturing will make it all blend and you will never see what you created. In case you do yourself lead paint is not like asbestos it doesn't create airborne particles. Lead paint concerns are children eating the paint chips and being lead poisoned. Once it is sealed under latex paint their are no issues, Skim coat, prime, spray texture, prime and top coat. By the time you buy all the tools and products you could hire someone from craigslist to knock it out. Not trying to insult you but you have learned that learning a trade isn't as simple as watching HGTV.