Squeaky Floors
When we moved into our home 25+ years ago, our general contractor fixed the squeaky parquet parlor floors and sub-contracted the refinishing of the floors. It’s time to get this done again. My specific concern are the squeaky floors: they really are a nuisance and they extend all over the parlor floor, from the entrance…
When we moved into our home 25+ years ago, our general contractor fixed the squeaky parquet parlor floors and sub-contracted the refinishing of the floors. It’s time to get this done again. My specific concern are the squeaky floors: they really are a nuisance and they extend all over the parlor floor, from the entrance door to the far corners.
My question is this: do I have to hire a different contractor to fix the squeaky floors from the company I hire to refinish the floors? Will a good refinishing company be able to (I assume) screw down the squeaky floorboards, fill in the holes, and sand and refinish the floor?
TIA
There is a screw system that is made for carpet, you screw it down and break off the top of the screw flush with the wood below. You might be able to do something similar with the bare wood, just drive it a bit further in and then fill the hole will filler. I guess you cannot fix this from below? There are brackets made for that.
Wood floors move, it’s the nature of the material being used. Parquet tends to squeak more than most because you have end grain butting up against side grain. If it’s just the flooring that’s squeaking, there’s a possibility that the refinishing will take care of the problem, the varnish acting almost like a glue. An old trick that works a lot of the time to see if it’s the joist squeaking or the flooring is to sweep some talc, or baby powder on the floor. Sweep it back and forth so that you’re getting as much of it into the joints as possible. Don’t worry about the white color, that disappears very quickly. The talc will lubricate the edges of the flooring, so that while it is still moving slightly, it isn’t sticking or binding and giving off the squeak. Hopefully this will significantly reduce, if not eliminate the squeaks. Trying to fasten down the flooring at this point is going to result in a repair that’s going to be very difficult to hide. Finish nails really don’t provide much holding strength and screws have large heads, so there’s really no good solution there unless you can get at the sub-flooring from underneath.
There is a chance that the squeaking is a result of joist issues, not the parquet. That’s not the work of a finisher.