Creaking Floor

ovy_2

I've got a problem with creaking flooring.

In my flat, in some areas the flooring creaks, it is chipboard below the laminate/carpet. In some spots it creaks and makes a horrible noise, and i always feel awkward when going to sleep early hours, in case it wakes up the neighbors.
The way i believe it was constructed was concrete flooring which then had polystyrene laid down, with chipboard on top, no joists etc.

How can i stop this creaking noise?, it's not really the case of screwing it down, as the only thing below it is polystyrene.

Is there any way i can secure this?

dampdaveski

Ovy,
it sounds like the floor hasn't had the joints glued when it was laid, floating floors of this construction don't 'usually' creak that much
The only real way of treating it is to take the chipboard up and relay new with glued joints etc and subject to budget putting down some acoustic matting. a company i've heard of is 'instacoustic' if you google them you should find them.
I've seen their products used, but never dealt with them myself.

Hope this helps
DD

27col

That's what I was going to say davedampski. I put down a chipboard floor in a garage conversion that I did. I glued all the edges of the boards with PVA and just laid them on polythene covered 50mm insulation slabs. The whole lot rapidly became so heavy that there is absolutely no movement in the floor. I was going to fix it all down using battens fixed to the concrete, but the Building Inspector said that it was not necessary, and he turned out to be quite right. If the existing floor does not have glued joints it would be fairly simple, although very disruptive, to lift the floor boards and relay it, having glued the joints.

sillygoose

Whatever you do, don't go just driving screws into the boards. Last time 'someone I know' :whistle: did that I, erm I mean they, ended up replacing a 3 foot length of central heating copper pipe and a lot of mopping up. :embarasse

ovy_2

You may be right about the joints, that sounds like the problem, unfortunately the flooring was put down before the inside walls so the boarding was placed down then the walls on top ?! don't ask me why! but it could be awkward to get some glue in the joints, i'll have to check it out this weekend and see if i can get to it at all.

Thanks for your help guys!

ariba10

If you can get some powdered French Chalk to the parts that are making the noise, it should at least quieten it down.