How To Fix Squeaky Floors
Posted by Jim Johnson in Flooring
Words in this Post: 277
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Floors get squeaky — especially in dry weather — because the wood dries out Then you get one or more of four problems:
- Subfloor nails pop loose from the floor joists.
- Edges of unevenly spaced subfloors rub together.
- The floor joists are warped and twisted.
- Floorboards pull loose from the subfloor.
You can eliminate the noise by fixing the floor underneath, working in the basement or crawl space. You need a helper, chalk, shims, scrap wood, screws or nails, carpenter’s glue, and possibly metal angles or cleats.
If there’s a finished ceiling under the floor, your problem will be a little harder to fix. You may just have to be content with having a squeaky floor!
Here’s what to do to fix squeaky floor:
- While you’re in the basement, have your helper walk across the floor and stop when it squeaks.
- Mark the spot with chalk where your helper is standing. He may have to bounce up and down a couple times until you identify the exact location from below.
- If you notice the subfloor has separated from a floor joist, drive a shim between the joist and subfloor. If one shim isn’t thick enough to fill the space tightly, put a couple together and drive all of them in.
- If you have access below the floor, you can screw the subfloor to the underside of the finished floor to stabilize it.
- Otherwise you can countersink screws or nails into the boards from the top.
If you have a finished hardwood floor that you want to preserve, you can countersink the screws deep enough to add a matching plug on top of them. Sand and stain (or use a prestained wood filler) and varnish the board to match the floor.
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