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?
Mr.B.
Speaking from experience (with both a kid and a creaky hallway floor) I’d suggest not doing anything too drastic.In a year or two your kids will sleep through ANYTHING. Creaky floors are a part of old house living–IMO trying to solve every “problem” like this could drive anyone crazy
Last Christmas my wife bought me a brad nailer, finish nailer and compressor combo from Amazon.(Actually, i bought it, but she wrapped it up and gave it to me.)
I have used the finish nailer to secure loose parquet flooring in my parlor. I have used the brad nailer to secure squeaky hallway planks to the joist and stairs to their framing.
One of the best gifts i’ve gotten in a while.
Whatever you do, don’t use finishing nails- they’ll only wiggle back out. Get flooring nails; they’ll have a twisted, fluted shank that will resist backing out.Obviously you want to be sure that you’re nailing into a joist, and try to angle the nail while driving it.
In truth, though, what you’re seeing there IS the subfloor and probably had a more stable layer of oak over it.
We took ours up, leveled the joists and then put plywood down before reinstalling the planks. But we were doing a whole renovation at the time. If you just want a temporary fix, guess nails are the way to go.
Try this site:
http://www.squeaknomore.com/
I had squeaky floors once. Bought a kit for ~$45 from a company called O’Berry Enterprises (800) 459-8428 (not sure if that number was operational).
It fixed the squeaking. Wasn’t around long enough afterwards to tell if the squeak came back 1 or 2 years later.
You might want to have a handyman do this if you aren’t 100% confident about doing this on your own.
Great floors by the way.
From the picture it looks like this flooring is actually the sub floor with no finished flooring on top.
The only way to really fix it is to rip em up and the subfloor and put in a new subfloor and floor.
I wonder too about running the boards in the other direction. Would that look too nuts?
Isn’t that just a temporary fix? Many of our boards have been re-nailed, and they eventually start to creak again..
I’ve heard the same – but nail at a 45 degree angle so that they stay in.