Front Page Forum: Creaky Floorboards
Our hallway floorboards are not in the best of shape. On the lower floors, there are a couple of patches where you can feel the floorboards flex a little when you walk on them, adding a little bounce to your step. On the top floor, they are more stable, but the whole hallway creaks a…
Our hallway floorboards are not in the best of shape. On the lower floors, there are a couple of patches where you can feel the floorboards flex a little when you walk on them, adding a little bounce to your step. On the top floor, they are more stable, but the whole hallway creaks a lot, which is not insignificant because it’s the floor where the kids’ bedrooms are and, as any parent will tell you, once your child is asleep, you want him/her to stay that way. So we’re wondering what people would recommend for both situations? How big (or small) an ordeal is this potentially?
“Good God, is this what I have to look foward to….”
Ha. Ha. YES! I admire all of the above posters who have come up with these creative solutions. I had so many problems with my old floors, including sagging joists, broken boards, water damage to the floors, inability to find the right parquets for the rooms, etc. etc. that I gave up and tore up everything, fixed the joists and laid new subfloor and new parquets.
Thanks Yente
Mr. Brownstoner,
anon 2:31 is absolutely right about the squeak-no-more breakaway screws seen on This Old House w/ carpenter Tom Silva. Don’t bother with anything else – these will work beautifully…
O’Berry Enterprises, Inc.
5306 Business Parkway #110
Ringwood, IL 60072
800-459-8428
http://www.squeaknomore.com
Related product you’ll want to fill in holes made by the screws:
“Blend-Fil Pencil” wax crayons are available in a range of colors. They are manufactured by Minwax (www.minwax.com).
TW @ 3:29, I got some flooring for from agedwoods.com a few years back. It was beautiful, but the pine scratched if you even looked at it. They have close-outs and specials on their site. *Note, I’m talking past tense because I sold the house, I didn’t take up the floor.
Anon 404:
Be careful about staining pine versus oak. There are significant differences. Loews is where we got our stain (forget the name offhand), but the brochure had all the color chips with side by side oak vs pine compares.
The color of my pine floors before sanding was very varied due to all the years of life:
linoleum leached a black oil stain in some parts, some parts were painted various colors, other parts got linoleum colors like a light red.
The sanding took everything away and I was left with a uniform white/cream pine wood color.
I did not opt for a light or even clear stain. Although the grain and knots would stand out, that country floor look is not really what a Brooklyn brick/frame circa 1880-1900 house would look well with, in our opinion.
Jerry
Another easy solution is to get carpet runners for the hallways. It may not stop the creaking outright but will dampen the sound and perhaps help the kiddies sleep more soundly.
I agree with the earlier posters who advocated for keeping the creak so you can hear them sneak out/in when they’re teenagers. Though it doesn’t always work. I grew up in a townhouse with a few creaky stairs. I knew exactly which steps were the noisiest and always skipped those when I “come home late”. Maybe when your kids get to that age you should remove some of the flooring nails to add more creak to the house!
I have these same pine floors and they are currently being sanded. Anyone have advice on stain colors? Mine seem very yellow as they are (they were covered in carpet for decades) but I don’t really know what color to expect them to be once they are sanded and I need to investigate stain colors now. If I put stain on white oak, would that be a decent test for color?
The old heart pine floors are really beautiful. Once sanded , the smell alone is great. Anyway, you see the knots and their rainbows of colors, the grain, even knotholes. I laugh when I see a factory made flooring offered to LOOK like this.
These floors are beautiful, have lasted the test of time (hopefully) and deserve to be prettied up and then enjoyed. It’s part of the beauty of an old house. Don’t overlook that element.
I pulled up 7-8 layers of linoleum and carpeting to discover my 4-5 inch old heart pine floors. They are nailed right onto the joists. The number of nails and staples I and my g/c removed was unreal. BUT….
1) seeing the entire floor sanded gave a perspective that was so pretty.
2) I am staining them a dark mocha brown and then polying them. Just saw the first coat of stain this week and it is so nice…
I grew up in a brownstone with the parquet floors – also beautiful.
But these pine floors are beautiful and we are going to really enjoy them.
Don’t be so afraid of emphasizing some of the old house’s characteristics. We have knot holes that are holes. We have some patched areas where we know boards were replaced after the house went electric. We are leaving them because we like the charm of the visual lines of age. Kind of like looking at historical timeline markings.
Jerry
“good god, is this what I have to look forward to when I (finally!) buy a house!”
Exactly Anon. 3:07 if you buy an OLD house. They’re not for everyone–that’s why somany (most??) people prefer new construction.You have to be a littlwe bit crazy (like me) to own an old house 🙂
BTW, there’s something wrong with TypeKey–I can’t sign in, which is why there’s nolittle symbol next tomy name.