Fixing Squeaky Flooring

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eracode

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# 140567 13-Feb-2014 07:42

We are going to recarpet upstairs rooms in our home. The floors are very sqeaky and I want to try to fix this before the new carpet goes down. There's no access to the flooring from below and I think the floors are squeaking where the edges of the particle board panels rub against each other.

Is it mainly a matter of finding the squeaks and putting new or additional screws through the particle board to fix them firmly again to the joists? Is there any way I can use adhesive to improve the fix? I am wondering if I could 'stitch' the edge joins in the boards by cutting or routing a series of slots at 90 degrees to the joint and gluing in 'biscuits' to firm up the joins.

I would be grateful for advice or comments on all this.

Cheers

Craig

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# 986548 13-Feb-2014 07:47

Considered oiling them? ;)

My builder put additional screws into my squeeky floor boards. Some adhesive is an interesting idea, interested to see what people here think about that.

PeterQ

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# 986550 13-Feb-2014 07:50

You will probably find another reason that the joins are rubbing together with joist deflection, I think you would be on the right track with screwing, how old is the house? way back they most never glued the floor nor the joins

scuwp

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# 986554 13-Feb-2014 08:02

Identify the squeaky areas and go for broke with a bucket of posidrive screws and a cordless drill/driver. That's about all you can do easily with only access from above. Alternative is to lift the floor, glue and re-lay.

It possibly may be the joists underneath moving, but without lifting the floor you wont be able to do anything about that.

Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be the Batman

geoffwnz

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# 986659 13-Feb-2014 11:11

Had that with my parents relatively new place (at the time) a few (15?) years back. The solution was 1000 screws, a multi-stepped drill bit that drilled the pilot hole, top hole and countersink all in one go and a 2nd drill with the appropriate screwdriver head fitted. Lifted the carpet and Dad and I spent a weekend installing the previously mentioned 1000 screws.
More or less eliminated the squeaking.

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PeterQ

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# 986660 13-Feb-2014 11:15

You can also get self drilling screws that countersink as well at the same time

TinyTim

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# 986733 13-Feb-2014 14:13

Screws would be the first choice. If that doesn't work, another option would be to cut a slot between the sheets/boards, along the joins, and fill the slot with Gorilla Grip (which expands as it dries). That's what our builder did.

kiwitrc

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# 986746 13-Feb-2014 14:52

I was also going to suggest screws and Gorilla Glue

gundar

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# 986824 13-Feb-2014 16:21

Hi

Don't use screws or glue.

Your house is designed to move and no give will cause the screw heads to be ripped out or the floorboards to split under the weight of the move. Glue will cause some parts of the house to not give and that means other parts will have to compensate and you see this as slightly shifted gib board that results is slightly ripped wall paper or cracks in walls (or windows that don;t quite close anymore if you have older wooden frames).

My house was built in 1960 and I have been down this road.

Nails are the right choice because they pull out a little to allow expansion without letting go. Oil is a suitable substitution because it causes the wood to expand and absorb the gap that is leading to the rub or squeak. But it is not permanent alhough, under a sealed floor (covered in carpet etc) it could provide relief for years.

If your floorboards are chipboard or artificial wood, then lots of nails (or screws) will have a perforating effect over time and that is where the floorboard will start to split when next the house moves a little or worse, a small recess will form that holds moisture...

The right way to solve this problem is to work out why the gap is there and fix that. In my case, my house had a history of a damp basement. When I sorted that, the earth dried up (and shrunk a bit) causing the pyles to move a bit and the floorboards (I have Rimu, which is brittle and hard) started to crack and squeak as it shrunk. The solution for me is to have the floorboards resanded and resealed once it's been through a few seasons and 'settled' as the floorboards, on close inspection, shrink and expand with each season.

It may be the movement of wood is only few millimters per meter but a house may be 6 or 8m on a beam, so you can imagine, there is easily room for a 5-10mm gap opening and closing between seasons or with a little earth tremor or settlement (like if you live near a railway, on a slope or you build a pool etc).

Find a mate who is a carpenter or builder from the era of your house and have him over for a few beers or pay for one or the squeak will just keep coming back and be pretty damn hard to fix under a carpet.

Good luck

PeterQ

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# 986843 13-Feb-2014 16:32

That is not right, screws and glue are used constantly throughout the building industry as I do and screws are recommended

kiwitrc

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# 986856 13-Feb-2014 16:39

PeterQ: That is not right, screws and glue are used constantly throughout the building industry as I do and screws are recommended

Builder mate just said the same thing, 50mm stainless screws and SB glue.

eracode

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# 986873 13-Feb-2014 16:57

Thanks to all who posted. Some differing opinions there but screws and glue seem to be the way to go.

What is 'SB glue'?

PeterQ

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# 986877 13-Feb-2014 17:02

SIKA NAILBOND SB ADHESIVE

kiwitrc

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# 986879 13-Feb-2014 17:02

Solvent Based

hangon

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# 986915 13-Feb-2014 17:53

I looked up this a while ago, basically they were suggested screws, a few nails. Some can be done without lifting carpets, but it's a bit of guess work there. There were even suggestions lubricate the nail holes...

There are local trades person doing this even (most would take the carpet off), but some squeaky noise may still be present.

D1023319

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# 988112 16-Feb-2014 09:46

Hi

While the original poster was talking about fixing from above, in my 1920's house I have fixed squeaks and wobbles from below with a mixture of
additional joists and fence palings (on advice from my father who was a apprentice builder in 1950's).

Ref pic -

You can see new joist to left and fence palings going off into distance.

In brief - i cut new joists with a chamfer to allow me to insert them between the bearer and floor on a 33 degree angle and slide into place then nailed sideways into the exiting joist.

I took fence palins - ripped them down middle, then glued and screwed upwards into each individual floor board.
NB I used washers on all screws to ensure paling was pulled towards floor as the wood was too soft

Its been effect!.

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