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?
As we have many floor experts in the room can I ask whether anyone knows a cheap, reliable place to source reclaimed wide plank pine? I have what looks a lot like Brownstoner’s floor in parts of my house but not throughout. Thanks and sorry to hijack.
“the likelyhood of wall to wall carpet in the Victorian era seems incorredt to me. Wall to wall carpet is a result of machine made broadloom which became cheap after WWII”
Right about broadloom after WW II, but wrong about wall to wall carpet. In Victorian times this was made up of narrow machine made strips of carpet sewed together. That’s why floors were made of pine and designed to be covered throughout most of the 19th Century. Late in the century parquet floors (with oriental rugs scattered around) became very popular.
good god, is this what I have to look forward to when I (finally!) buy a house!. I understood about 10% of what Yeshant just wrote.
If one is buying an “unrenovated” brownstone how does one check for these things.
Thanks,
These are not subfloors, they are the floor. Most probably covered with rugs. Old heart pine wood, which is only available nowadays if salvaged. The trees are much too young these days to have heart pine.
We have the same issue and the bouncy areas are where the boards do not extend up to the joist and over the years the tongue of the board breaks off allowing the board to bounce in relation to adjacent boards. In our house, some of the boards snapped and I had to support them from below with blocking attached to adjacent boards or the joist. The good thing is that any nail holes or even countersunk screw heads covered with wood putty go unnoticed in a floor this age.
Sanding these floors can be dangerous and you may lose the patina of the wood, which is the reason for having these floors in the first place. Since our basement ceiling had to be demolished, I got at the boards from there and supported them with boards between the joists. But, for squeaks, flooring nails at an angle into the joist are the way to go. Besides, it’s part of the old house experience. The OHJ had an article last year about these floors and their repair.
Anyone know what it would cost per sf to install a new sub floor after putting up the entire old one?
Many of us with older homes have floors that are unlevel, no noise, just wavy 😉
Watch Tom Silva fix a squeaky floor at http://www.thisoldhouse.com. O’Berry Enterprises gives a list of businesses that carry the product but don’t bother with Home Depot, it’s not available in the store. Your best bet is online. Good luck.
B: the likelyhood of wall to wall carpet in the Victorian era seems incorredt to me. Wall to wall carpet is a result of machine made broadloom which became cheap after WWII, at which time many people threw large, dusty antique Persian rugs into dumpsters.
Are rugs, painted oilcloth and even linoleum would have been more likely.
Hey Schleb,
What’s it to you if people want to use this as their floor? Mine had tongue and groove. I put subfloor under it, finished it and it looks fantastic! So, I should care that some anonymous blogger says it’s wrong to do that? Yeah, go and pay $15 sq ft for a similar look.
Is there a children’s version of Tylenol PM?