Mending driveway cracks and silencing squeaky floors

Q I live in a 16-year-old, double-wide, fully carpeted mobile home with squeaky floors. When new carpeting was recently laid down, the installers forgot to renail the subfloor and the squeaks are worse than ever. Is there a way now that the floor can be nailed through the thick-pile carpet without damaging it? Robert C. Kunz Huntington Beach, Calif.

In my experience, renailing the subfloor does not always stop the squeaks. I recall one case in which the renailing merely relocated the squeaks.

I'd not attempt to nail through the carpet, although it is indeed possible. Rather, ask an experienced carpenter to climb under the mobile home and shingle-shim the plywood floor at all bearings. He may also need to squirt some glue between the subfloor and joists, which may not eliminate the squeaks but should materially reduce them.

The seam down the center between the two mobile units may be harder to handle , since the plywood edges could be rubbing together upon foot impact above. That joint may need to be ''scabbed'' with a solid piece of 2x4 or 2x6 which is shored down to a new concrete pier.

Later, the carpenter to spot-nail through the carpet and pad so as to control an evasive squeak or two. This should be dome with a finish nail.