I've only been in my house 5 months and its driving me batty... I dont have an exposed joist as its on the top level of our townhouse. I'd be interested to know if this squeak no more works for you.

Almost need to see a pic or two to get an opinion formed for you.

Been agonizing over this question for a while. Complicating issue is that we live in a retirement community (Sun City West, AZ) in a very open-plan home with tile floors throught and carpet in the living/dining area off the tile open hallway and in the 2 bedrooms. Tile and carpet are both 17 years old - no doubt carpet has to go but tile is pretty dated too. Younger retirees are moving in or buying for later and seeming to prefer to redo. So we don't want to spend a whole lot when we know that it will all probably be torn out later. However, the general thinking in many of these posts as well as with many realtors is that even a carpet allowance doesn't make up for the bad first impression buyers can get. I'm thinking more and more, as many realtors do, that even if a potential buyer might eventually want to retile almost everything, if the carpet looks good now, the buyer will say "I can easily live with this until..." The carpet allowance sounds good, but most of our buyers are moving from out of state and I think having to deal with carpeting/flooring issues could entail a lot of extra work and even an extra trip or two to get it all done, whereas finding a house that's not absolutely heart's desire but is move-in ready could very well get the sale. Thanks for the posts. We're like the original poster - we have pets and don't want to do anything now but won't be selling for a year or two. Think my focus will be to get the white tile grout deep-cleaned and sealed and do everything we can to keep it in good condition, then replace the carpet when the time comes with somewhat better than builder grade. For anyone else facing this issue down the road, we're trying to build a savings account just for "fixing the house to sell" so that when the time comes, the money will already be there. I'm getting carpet estimates just to have an idea how much we'll need and calculating what else we might do (replace shiny brass chandeliers, hollywood bathroom lights, etc.) and how much we'd be willing to spend to do it. Think we'll be glad down the road that we did this. Again, good posts and good day to ask my question about recarpeting that sent me here. Thanks.

I would replace carpet with carpet when asbestos (or possibility of asbestos) is present. Even though laminate floors float over top of a hard surface, the surface must be flat, smooth, and level. And most homes from 1904 do NOT match any of those requirements. To put a rigid floor over old vinyl tile, the surface/subfloor must be level. If it is not, you need to do some prep work. And prep work around asbestos based stuff is tricky/expensive. Which is why replacing carpet with carpet is the easiest thing. So long as the tiles are happy and well adhered, you don't have to worry about them. It is when they are ground up (asbestos fibres thrown into the air) that they become dangerous. And removing/adding more carpet will not do any of that.