Whether your home is old or new construction eventually parts of your wood floor begin to talk to you in annoying high-pitched squeaks and creaks. And other than sounding the alarm when kids sneak in past curfew, your floor should be seen and not heard. Here’s why your wood floor creaks, and what you can do about it.
Why Do Wood Floors Creak?
Typically, wood floors begin to creak after your house has settled and the flooring has dried out and shrunk. As you walk, floorboards press against each other or slide against nail shafts, which results in bothersome squeaks. This is most common with traditional hardwood strip flooring, however all types of flooring are susceptible. But you don’t have to tread lightly on this issue. Here are two quick tips to silence those irritating squeaks and creaks.
Quick Tips
Tip #1
Get rid of the squeal by sprinkling powdered soapstone, baby powder, or powdered graphite into gaps and spaces between your noisy floorboards. Put a cloth over the treated area and walk on it, back and forth, to push the powder deep into the cracks.
As the planks flex beneath the weight of normal foot traffic the powder will act as a buffer between the boards, reducing rubbing, and putting an end to those pesky squeaks.
You can find powdered soapstone and powdered graphite at your local hardware store. Baby powder can be purchased at your local grocery.
Tip #2
If the squeaky portion of your floor happens to be above an unfinished basement with an exposed ceiling, or over a crawl space, have someone walk across the floor while you listen from below so that you can identify the exact spot where the floor creaks. Have them knock on the floor to verify the location. Take a wood shim, coat it with carpenter’s glue, and tap it into the space between the floor joist and subfloor to eliminate any flexibility in that portion of the subfloor, and keep your floorboards from moving and creaking.
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