Question: I have a floor that every single time I step on it I get the most annoying sound. I don't know what it does to me or why it bothers me so much. My kitchen floor squeaks and actually moves up and down if you are standing on it. The whole floor moves. How do I stop it from moving and squeaking. Help Me Greg!
Answer: It sounds like you have a broken floor joist. You are going to have to go under your house. If you have a basement this will be a little easier to fix. It is my guess that you don't have a basement or you would have seen the broken floor joist by now.
Have someone stand on the floor in the spot that squeaks and have them move up and down while you are under the house. Don't have them jump up and down while you are under the house. This could cause more damage to the structural framing of the floor. Once you are in the right position under the floor you can have them start moving slowly. What you are looking for is one of the floor joist that are moving.
If you see one of them moving. Look to see where the damage is. Is it a split, crack, wood rot or a big knot in the wood that has loosened up and fell out. Once you find the damaged floor joist you can now think about repairing it.
If you don't see any floor joist moving. Have the person on top start moving a little bit more and you can even have them jump on it a few times until you see something out of place. If you still don't see any broken floor joist. Start looking at the sub-floor, this will be plywood of some form, 1 x 6 or 2 x 6 materials.
What you are looking for is movement of any kind. Is there a separation or movement between the sub-floor and the floor joist. If you still can't find the problem maybe it is time to call in a professional.
The main thing you are going to be looking for is movement of any kind.
Most squeaky floors are caused from the sub-floor rubbing up and down on a nail. If you have carpeting and you have a squeaky floor you can do your best to locate a floor joist and screw right through your carpeting into the floor joist.
For more help on fixing squeaky floors visit http://gregvan.com/wood_repair.htm
Thanks for the great question. I hope it helps.
Greg Vanden Berge has been in the home building and remodeling business for over 30 years. With this knowledge he has created a few websites that provide useful information for home owners as well as contractors. His main goal is to educate professionals in the home related businesses, dealing with problems that can easily be avoided with just a little bit of information.
His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.
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1 comment:
Fixing squeaky stairs is no easy task. Most squeaks come from the back of the finished tread and face of the kicker (riser). Normally nails on the backside of the kicker will work themselves loose from the tread or break in half because of stress. Other squeaks may occur between the bottom of the finished tread and the top of the stringers.
To fix the squeaks correctly between the finished tread and face of the kicker you'll need access to the back of the risers and treads. In most cases the back of the stairs is finished, unfortunately the finished wall will need to be open so you can pull any nails that are loose and install screws back in place.
The tread is a little easier to fix. I agree that putting a nail back in to place would not be a wise choice unless you are planning to use galvanized finished nails. One product I can recommend though is the Counter Snap Hardware. It’s a screw that will break off an 1/8" below the surface giving you the look of a set finish nail but a secure bond of a screw. This product is also great for use on hardwood floor squeaks. To learn more go to MySqueakyFloors.com.
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