Fixing floor board creaks - the mr dogdy way.

[MikeT]

Well that's how my proposed approach sort of feels ...

Had my floors done recently. Used that treatex stuff and they came up ... well ... a treat. They're Cypress pine and although the timber is a bugger to work with it looks great.

What were heavily creaking floors are now much quieter after punching the old nails - but not quite quiet or solid enough. I expected this as there are a couple of slightly splitting joists and a couple of spots with quite substantial movements of boards despite them being fixed well to the joists. The boards weren't originally laid very tight and they're only 75mm width so I can't expect to much from them with my weight bouncing around on top. This is the first time they've been sanded so there's still plenty of meat in them. It's mainly a prob in the high traffic areas - probably because of wear combined with this area being a little more convoluted in its construction (stairs and corners and so shorter lengths of board).

Anyway, I had a couple of ideas to fix this. In the lighter traffic areas I was just going to glue (construction cement?) a length of floorboard parallel to the joists flat underneath the boards - though I have a concern that it won't allow enough lateral movement of the boards under expansion. Perhaps limiting the length may work. I don't want to screw it underneath as it'll pull the above boards out of flat on top. There's only a few places to do this. In the heavy traffic area I'm thinking of getting some chipboard and slicing it to fit between the joists underneath, supporting it by a couple of pieces nailed to the joists - with a flexible glue/filler between the boards and the chipboard. I'm a little concerned about letting the boards breath enough - perhaps a bunch of holes in the chipboard will be enough.

Am I totally off track here or is this a reasonable approach. In some ways it sounds a little like overkill but they could have a more solid feel underfoot anyway plus given the boards were much looser beforehand in these areas I'd rather prevent them slowly working loose over time and popping the putty.

thanks,
Mike

[Larry McCully]

I have heard that talc powder does the job. But i would look at the floor framing first. If you are able to get under your floor and inspect the bearer and joist system ,then you may discover that you may have loose framing, or at the ends of the joists are worn or are effected by dry rot or have shrunk over the years and are loose on the bearers. packing and wedging at the support point will tighten up that section and reduce flex on the floor boards reducing board movement reducing squeeking.Squueking comes from timber rubing against timber or timber rubing against steel. If you stop the movement you will stop the sqeek.

[MikeT]

Thanks for the reply Larry.

It's more than creaking floors here. There is substantial movement of the boards despite them being fixed into the joists. (I've got head room under the main problem section). Standing on a board can result in them bowing up to a few mill. They aren't adequately tied in to the surrounding boards. This is only in a few locations.

This is mainly in areas where I've had to replace boards but also in at least one place elsewhere. I think there's a couple of reasons for this. The boards weren't originally layed tightly together. There are up to 3mm gaps - mostly around 1mm. Some I suspect have broken tongues - perhaps because of the previous reason (ie - boards aren't tight enough and so a small movement allows impact on the tongues and cypress being brittle it eventually snaps - perhaps on a knot - well that's my theory anyway).

The replacement boards had different tongue shapes / positions to the old and needed a bit of reshaping to get them in. So throw in a little bit of my dodgy work. It's also in a main traffic area and the boards only span two joists, and that the reason they had to be replaced was because they had worked loose as the joists had splits in them and someone had decided a thousand tec screws was a reasonable solution - it wasn't - they still moved. So I'm not confident they won't work loose in the future without some help.

I guess after all this waffle I'm thinking about supporting the boards underneath with chipboard or something - sliced to shape and placed between the joists to add extra support. It's only a few square meters worth.

The more I think about it the more I can't see anything wrong with this.
I'll drill some holes to allow the boards to breath and as the boards won't be perfectly flat underneath I'll use a semi flexible glue/filler to take up the last couple of mil which should be enough to allow them to flex with the temp changes.

Unless someone pipes up and says why it won't work.

Cheers,
mike

[Dusty]

Go for it, Mike.

Being pro-active is better than just thinking about it and I think your approach will improve your problem. Good luck.

[Bloss]

What you propose will work fine and has been done for yonks - my Dad had me doing that job as a builders labourer 40 years ago using casein glue and nailing up under the floor boards!

Cyprus is good flooring but dries out and gets very brittle with age. With many knots the tongues often crack or break off as you say.

No need to worry about air to board etc. Use chipboard cut to size or timber and I would use screws of the correct length. Whack on plenty of construction adhesive (No More Nails, fullers or the generic cheap stuff from Bunnings etc) and screw away to you hearts content.

Might need to do some rough marking with a pencil so you screw into the boards in the centre and not through the tongues.

BTW - if you do have squeaky boards that are otherwise a tight fit talcum powder works a treat. Just sprinkle and brush in. Does leave the white powder on the surface for a while but gee it smells nice ))