Squeaky floor boards, how to fix?
- Thread starter LateX'Dog
- Start date
- Joined
- 13 Apr 2010
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- 18,463
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- Sunny Sussex
Boards or sheets of ply / chipboard? Do you know ?
Either way you can tighten up any screws or punch in any nails or replace nails with screws, you can screw them down at lesser intervals but you run the risk of finding a pipe or wire which will make you wish you put up with the squeaking
Either way you can tighten up any screws or punch in any nails or replace nails with screws, you can screw them down at lesser intervals but you run the risk of finding a pipe or wire which will make you wish you put up with the squeaking
Soldato
- Joined
- 12 Dec 2002
- Posts
- 2,951
+1 for screws.
When ever I have to lift boards I always screw them back down, never had a complaint that a bord I have lifted is squeaky
When ever I have to lift boards I always screw them back down, never had a complaint that a bord I have lifted is squeaky
I had a carpenter visit the house last year with a view to doing a few jobs. I have a turned staircase and some of the treads squeak. So do many of the floorboards.
He told me that it is difficult to stop the squeaky stairs because staircases are made in one piece, so to speak, and fitted in the house, not built in the house and as such is almost impossible to replace the tread because it is fitted (jointed) into the two side pieces.
I spoke to a guy at B&Q who was a carpenter by trade and he said that the part where the staircase changed direction (approx 2.6 ft square) was actually fitted in the house when the rest of the stair had been installed. He said that probably that part could be removed and replaced.
He said that it was possible, in certain circumstances to glue the whole of the tread (horizontal + vertical) which could "lock" that individual step.
My understair area is open but the underside is fitted with a one piece board which has been nicely painted and fitted. The carpenter said it would make a mess of the place if he came to fix the stairs. He also said that he could NOT guarantee results but do a best endeavour. Other than that I’d have to have a whole new staircase installed. The man from B&Q stated that quite often the horizontal and vertical part of a step are damaged by carpet fitters who nail carpet gripper with too much force to the vertical part of the step thereby parting the two parts of the steps.
The carpenter, who gave me an agreed quote and arranged a date never bothered to turn up, even though he had been recommended by a neighbour. But he said that my squeaking floor boards might be corrected by screwing but as has been said there are pipes and electric wires under floorboards. Previously in my house a central heating system had been installed and floorboards on the landing had been ripped up and the joists sawn into to lay the water pipes. The floor boards, three wide in some places narrowing to two as it went from the bathroom along the whole length of the landing and into a small bedroom, were replaced by one piece larger wide boards. He said that where the large board rubbed against the floor board proper, it might be possible to put small wooden wedges, like matchsticks which could stop the squeaking but where the floor boards proper creaked they would have to be screwed down because they were tongue and groove .
I was told once that talcum powder can sometimes be placed between boards, as a temporary measure to reduce the noise? Possibly what people use when trying to sell a house to someone like me, who only “discovered” the squeaks after moving in!
He told me that it is difficult to stop the squeaky stairs because staircases are made in one piece, so to speak, and fitted in the house, not built in the house and as such is almost impossible to replace the tread because it is fitted (jointed) into the two side pieces.
I spoke to a guy at B&Q who was a carpenter by trade and he said that the part where the staircase changed direction (approx 2.6 ft square) was actually fitted in the house when the rest of the stair had been installed. He said that probably that part could be removed and replaced.
He said that it was possible, in certain circumstances to glue the whole of the tread (horizontal + vertical) which could "lock" that individual step.
My understair area is open but the underside is fitted with a one piece board which has been nicely painted and fitted. The carpenter said it would make a mess of the place if he came to fix the stairs. He also said that he could NOT guarantee results but do a best endeavour. Other than that I’d have to have a whole new staircase installed. The man from B&Q stated that quite often the horizontal and vertical part of a step are damaged by carpet fitters who nail carpet gripper with too much force to the vertical part of the step thereby parting the two parts of the steps.
The carpenter, who gave me an agreed quote and arranged a date never bothered to turn up, even though he had been recommended by a neighbour. But he said that my squeaking floor boards might be corrected by screwing but as has been said there are pipes and electric wires under floorboards. Previously in my house a central heating system had been installed and floorboards on the landing had been ripped up and the joists sawn into to lay the water pipes. The floor boards, three wide in some places narrowing to two as it went from the bathroom along the whole length of the landing and into a small bedroom, were replaced by one piece larger wide boards. He said that where the large board rubbed against the floor board proper, it might be possible to put small wooden wedges, like matchsticks which could stop the squeaking but where the floor boards proper creaked they would have to be screwed down because they were tongue and groove .
I was told once that talcum powder can sometimes be placed between boards, as a temporary measure to reduce the noise? Possibly what people use when trying to sell a house to someone like me, who only “discovered” the squeaks after moving in!