Subfloor squeak detective work after 6 years

So I was fixing a squeak in a house built in 2019 and the owner told me he already had two contractors come by. Both said it was the joist hangers, but I found it was actually a nail popped next to a duct run. The sound was traveling through the HVAC chase, fooling everybody. Makes me wonder how many times we chase phantom noises when the source is just a few feet off. Has anyone else tracked a squeak that turned out to be somewhere completely unexpected?

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elliot_roberts2mo ago

You ever spend two hours tearing apart a floor and end up feeling like the world's dumbest detective? I had one where the squeak only happened when the dog walked across the living room. Turns out it was a loose drywall screw behind a picture frame. The frame was hanging on a stud, so every step made it shift just enough to rub against the wall. Walked past it a dozen times before I got lucky and bumped it with my elbow. Now my trick is to sit in silence with a cup of coffee and just listen before I touch anything. Nine times out of ten the noise is hiding in plain sight, right near a vent or a baseboard.

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lee6892mo ago

Wait, the dog was making the frame squeak? I gotta be honest, that one threw me. Like, I've chased appliances and HVAC stuff for hours, but a picture frame rattling from across the room because of a dog's footsteps? That's some next level sneaky nonsense. I would've probably ripped up half the subfloor before I ever even looked at the wall, so yeah, you're a better man than me. The coffee trick is solid though, I do the same thing but with a beer, and it usually saves me a lot of headache. Good on you for figuring it out, even if it took a lucky elbow.

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