We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide
My floorboards creek!
ReflexReaction
Posts: 83 Forumite
OK, so I've just bought a new house and one of the things I instantly noticed is that the floorboards heavily creak when you walk over the floors in the bedrooms upstairs.
Now I've moved in, I pulled up the old (skanky) carpets which revealed that instead of standard long rectangular floorboards, there are instead sheets of wood, I assume attached directly to the floor joists.
It's the edges of these wide square "sheets" of wood that are rubbing against each other. There is very little room between each sheet of wood, unlike standard floorboards which usually have big gaps between each board.
I suspect they did this to reduce the cost of building the house (built in 1955).
What are my options here? Do I need to pull up these square sheets of wood and replace with traditional floorboards? Or could I instead just pull up the "trouble" boards and use a saw to introduce a small gap between the boards. I would then re-sit the boards and screw back down.
My only concern with replacing these existing boards is that I don't believe they are as thick as proper floorboards would be. I'm not sure if this will be a problem, but obviously I don't want to raise the floor to the extent the doors need to be planed etc! If I do have to go down this route, could someone recommend what type of wood I should buy from Wickes? I have read that soft wood is OK for this, but I assume there is some other requirement regarding it's thickness?
Any advice welcomed!
Thanks,
RR
Now I've moved in, I pulled up the old (skanky) carpets which revealed that instead of standard long rectangular floorboards, there are instead sheets of wood, I assume attached directly to the floor joists.
It's the edges of these wide square "sheets" of wood that are rubbing against each other. There is very little room between each sheet of wood, unlike standard floorboards which usually have big gaps between each board.
I suspect they did this to reduce the cost of building the house (built in 1955).
What are my options here? Do I need to pull up these square sheets of wood and replace with traditional floorboards? Or could I instead just pull up the "trouble" boards and use a saw to introduce a small gap between the boards. I would then re-sit the boards and screw back down.
My only concern with replacing these existing boards is that I don't believe they are as thick as proper floorboards would be. I'm not sure if this will be a problem, but obviously I don't want to raise the floor to the extent the doors need to be planed etc! If I do have to go down this route, could someone recommend what type of wood I should buy from Wickes? I have read that soft wood is OK for this, but I assume there is some other requirement regarding it's thickness?
Any advice welcomed!
Thanks,
RR
0
Comments
-
Our upstairs (new self build) is all done with caberboard except the bathrooms. Like OSB but much finer.
If it was me I would try a few decent length woodscrews into the joist and see how that goes.
0 -
Agreed. Get a number of decent sized screws (more the better) and get those boards down properly so they don't move. If they don't move, doesn't matter how close they are, won't squeak. But do be sure you check what you are screwing in to. Last thing you want is to put a screw through a cable or pipe....0
-
A cheap trick to do is pull up boards and sprinkle talcum powder on to joists before fixing,done this many a time.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 354.4K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 455.4K Spending & Discounts
- 247.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 604K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178.4K Life & Family
- 261.5K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards