Sqeaky floor boards

ants83

ants83

ants83

Soldato
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
2,587
New property has flat wooden floor boards.(as in wooden sheets rather then single slats)
Very creaky in places and need to stop this.
What do you guys recommend to cure this? Lifting then drilling them back down again into the joists or use glue?
Can see this might be a pain of a job.
Any advice welcome. Thanks
 
Nails are fine provided done properly - a nail gun is a must. The squeak could be because the join in the two pieces of board is literally ‘floating’ instead of being nailed to the joists.

glue should also be used at the connections of the boards
 
Floor-tite screws done loads of floor boards in my house never failed to silence them.
I'd never glue them down anywhere near services, you never know when you're going to need to take them up again.
 
If it's "new" as in a modern property then you probably won't be able to take them up.

Our landing creaks really bad for an 8 year old house and when I looked at what I could do about the floorboards they are all slotted together and to get a piece out would mean removing the pieces next to it - which in my case went under the door frame into the next bedroom.

Only thing I could try doing was putting more screws in to the joists, but made little difference.
 
You need to be really careful and by really careful what I mean is you are rolling the dice every single time you put in a screw.

You have no idea if there are pipes or cables below where you are working.
 
Sounds like its butt jointed ply (rubbing against each other making the squeaking noise) rather than tongue & groove chip board. Unless you plan to replace the ply, you'll have to try and get some screws along the lines of the joint. However, you do run the risk of potentially damaging any plumbing or electrical services behind the floor board.

Did you buy the property new? have you removed the floor finishes to investigate?
 
Chers
Yurka said:
Sounds like its butt jointed ply (rubbing against each other making the squeaking noise) rather than tongue & groove chip board. Unless you plan to replace the ply, you'll have to try and get some screws along the lines of the joint. However, you do run the risk of potentially damaging any plumbing or electrical services behind the floor board.

Did you buy the property new? have you removed the floor finishes to investigate?
Click to expand...

Thanks for all replys so far

The property is 30years old and k have took the carpet up in on bedroom and it looks like chipboard to me.
I think what I may do I try and lift a board to see any potential cables /pipes then screw the boards down onto the joists is my best bet.
 
ants83 said:
Chers


Thanks for all replys so far

The property is 30years old and k have took the carpet up in on bedroom and it looks like chipboard to me.
I think what I may do I try and lift a board to see any potential cables /pipes then screw the boards down onto the joists is my best bet.
Click to expand...
If anything's like mine, really long chipboard sheets laid, you could have pipes notched into the top of joists meaning they're sitting just under the boards, thus preventing screwing the existing nailed down boards. We had some electrical work done and had the ceiling under the master (where the squeaking is the worst) open in places and could see the pipes just running under the upstairs floor, no 2 inch gap. Thus any screwing down next to nails risks going through a pipe.

I've done some preliminary reading about spreading construction adhesive into the joins and gaps between boards might help, yet to try it myself.
 
Remove the nails and use fat screws slightly shorter than the nails in the old holes to pull the floor down properly. No risk of hitting a pipe this way.
 
This sounds crazy but talc (yes as in baby talc or old people powder) shake it into the gaps and put it on the nails, squeek will be gone in a day or so.
 
200sols said:
Remove the nails and use fat screws slightly shorter than the nails in the old holes to pull the floor down properly. No risk of hitting a pipe this way.
Click to expand...
Tips on getting the nails up? Going to be difficult with them all nailed.

Tempted to try the PVA glue mixed with water method in the joins between the boards as i've seen some recommendations on that.
 
Nice to see lots giving good advice on here, quite surprised more modern build homes have same issues as homes 50 years or 100+ years old.

I was looking on ytube yesterday and watched this video it sounds like it might be the same issue you described and he fixed it with this glue and better quality screws he has mentioned the parts he used in the list, not sure if it will help or work but maybe you get some idea.


Regarding the nails, not sure but he does mention above he just did drilled new ones next to the existing nail mark but that sounds risky also.

Another video here shows how one guy did it but it doesn't look the best way perhaps.


I plan on going back in time and giving a screw to the person who designed the nail and while I am at it give a USB C plug to the guy who designed the USB port.... and then slap both of them.
 
robj20 said:
Floor-tite screws done loads of floor boards in my house never failed to silence them.
I'd never glue them down anywhere near services, you never know when you're going to need to take them up again.
Click to expand...

This. Always have the boards above plumbing junctions/electrics easily removable.
 
same problem here. Chipboard floor panels. I tried the floor-tite screws and the PVC down the cracks solution and it didn't do anything, they're still squeaking like mad :( I have new carpets going in next week and was hoping to get this sorted before then.
 
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