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Q&As
How can I Stop my Floating Floors from Creaking?
Hi,
I have all but finished my self-build project but have one problem in the build that I have yet to solve.
My original intention was to have solid floors throughout, but for reasons I won’t bore you with, that never happened. So I have floating floors decked out in Caborboard which appears to have been glued and screwed in the correct fashion. My problem is that, on the first floor in particular, they all creak.
Do you have any suggestions for solving my problem? On the ground floor it is not such a problem as I have ceramic tiled much of it which has provided extra strength. Obviously I could do the same on the first floor, but I would prefer not to, as carpets are preferred. Could perhaps a further layer of plywood or sterling board screwed on top provide a solution?
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Phil Siddons
One Answer
It’s really difficult to diagnose why timber suspended floors creak as it could be the floor deck moving on the joists or slightly loose solid blocking between the joists. And when you fix one area, sometimes you just transfer the problem to somewhere else. It also depends on what type of joist has been used ; i.e. engineered versus solid timber.
It sounds as if your joists have some deflection in them if they are all creaking and it could be that their bracing and/or blocking details is, for whatever reason, not sufficient. If the caberboard has been adequately glued and screwed to the top the joist then it unlikely to be the joist/board interface which is the culprit. So an additional layer of flooring grade plywood over the whole area might help to stiffen the floor but there is no guarantee here and it will of course, affect your staircase.
My experience for creaking timber floors is usually with solid timber joists and a failure of the solid blocking between the joists which rubs when the floor deflects under load. Sorry not to be more help but only trial and error or a more detailed site investigation would help.
– Tim Doherty, Build It expert