Creaking Florboards

caspar9

I have a 7 year old house with creaking floorboards on the first floor landing. I presume the nails have lifted slightly from the joists following settlement.

I am planning to remove nails from the board and replace them with screws to avoid hitting any pipes. However, the nails are flush to the board. I am thinking of using a chisel to make a small indentation around the nail before using a nail puller for extraction.

Or does anyone have any other suggestions as to how the nails could be removed easily from the floor?

Ebe_Scrooge

Is there enough space between the boards to get a crowbar or a sturdy screwdriver in ? If so, you could lever the board up a smidgeon, push it back down, then you should be able to grab the nail with a pair of pincers.

lg13mza

or leave the nail and put a screw down the side of it.

Grenage

Actual floorboards, or chipboard sheets?

For chipboard I'd do as suggested above, and just screw alongside the nails. Saves a lot of effort, and you won't risk chunks of chipboard coming away in your hands.

caspar9

They are chipboard sheets. I've had the carpet up and the boards don't move at all when pressed. The creaking starts when the floor warms up after the heating has been on and people walk over the floor.

I thought it might have been safer to remove the nails and replace with screws. Do you think there is likely to be any pipes or wring directly to the left and right of each nail?

Grenage

caspar9 wrote: »

Do you think there is likely to be any pipes or wring directly to the left and right of each nail?

There is, unfortunately no way to be sure. You can take an educated guess. You can get detectors, but I have no idea of their worth.

malc_b

You can get a tool for getting out nails, see here. Use that with a hammer to chisel out around the nail, grab the head and lever the nail out. I would maybe grind the end down so it tapered. That way what wood you removed would better match a screw head countersink and it would be easier to chisel with.

There is no sure way to tell what's under a floorboard without looking. Cables are unlikely to be near the surface as you drill a hole in the centre of the joist and thread cables. Pipes are very likely to be just under the floorboards, unless plastic was used. Copper pipes don't thread so you notch joists for those.

firefox1956

Strange that they have used nails for chipboard sheets.
Are you sure they are nails & not screws with the slots filled in with dust etc ??

Ant555

caspar9 wrote: »

They are chipboard sheets. I've had the carpet up and the boards don't move at all when pressed. The creaking starts when the floor warms up after the heating has been on and people walk over the floor.

I thought it might have been safer to remove the nails and replace with screws. Do you think there is likely to be any pipes or wring directly to the left and right of each nail?

Same here - our upstairs chipboard floors went creaky-crazy after we had new windows - I'm assuming its no coincidence and the area was simply warmer and has been part of the cause.

Anyway, I looked under one piece as it seemed to have been put in afterwards and there is indeed a pipe VERY close to one of the nails so I would assume there is a real possibility of hassle if you do this without checking.

Hope this helps.

Ruski

firefox1956 wrote: »

Strange that they have used nails for chipboard sheets.
Are you sure they are nails & not screws with the slots filled in with dust etc ??

Nail gun in all new builds now

Although they should be bonded to the joists/I-beams with gripfil or the like...

HTH

Russ