Creaking floors - replace chipboard with floorboards?

NibblyPig

I made a post on here recently asking about rectifying some creaking floors. My house is a relatively new build (2008) and it creaks like you would not believe when walking around and when the heating comes on.

I spoke to a builder about it today, who said that they can lift up the chipboard and put cladding on pipes, and then reattach it, and use screws on the chipboard to try to eliminate the creaking, but that it was a horrible job, the chipboard might not go back down again after it's lifted requiring new chipboard fitting instead.

I did some googling, cos I thought well my old house (1900s victorian terrace) had wooden floorboards, which were solid. Soooo, why not just pull all the chipboard panels up and replace them with floorboards.

Is that a crazy idea? It just seems like it might eliminate the creaking and give me a much higher quality floor. I will be getting karndean LVT after this work is done, if that makes any difference. Any thoughts are welcome. I thought I'd google it but oddly I saw many posts about replacing floorboards with chipboard!

I also have no idea of the cost, it might be 'sure, great idea, if you have £xxxx to throw away'. But I just moved in and I plan on living here for many many years, which is why I want to fix these issues ASAP and enjoy them for many years!

grumbler

IMO, timber boards can creak too and don't necessarily give you higher quality because they are prone to cupping(?) - unlike good quality chipboards.

Jeepers_Creepers

Agree. Floorboards are every bit as likely - more so, I'd say - to creak because there are far more joints to do 'creak', and they expand and contract over the seasons - so become looser and tighter.

This ain't the floor's fault. It's likely to be either that the joists are too springy - too much movement - or the T&G chipboard flooring hasn't been laid properly.

Have you seen the floor - has it been uncovered? If so, is there a visible like of glue running along the joins, which has been trimmed flush afterwards? This should be obvious - it'll either look like 2 sheets which have been pushed tightly together but still has a thin slot, or it will be 'filled', and possibly some traces of the glue smeared on the surface around the joint.

If the joints have been glued, then that's more worrying. How many screws have been used to fix it down? If it's been glued AND well-screwed, then I guess it needs to come up to assess what the cause is.

But a properly glued-and-screwed chipboard floor should have these issues.

If replacing them, consider going 22mm rather than what is currently almost certainly 18mm = really solid.

As for the pipe noise - this could be completely unassociated; pipes being run too tightly against surfaces, clipped too tightly, coming up to rads through too-tight holes through the floor. Basically, summat is too tight... If it makes a ticking sound when heating up, try and trace where - then check there when the floor is up. If it's clearly from where a pipe is coming up to a rad, you could try dousing the pipe where it disappears with silicone spray.

fenwick458

I don't think replacing chipboard with floorboards is even an option in an occupied house, you will find that there are stud walls build on top of the chipboard , so in turn to lay new floorboards down you'll need to add a lot of structure, and in turn you will find a lot of pipes and cables in the way.
plus it might not solve it

NibblyPig

Thanks, so perhaps floorboards is not the way to go then. 
I have pulled the carpet back to have a look. An electrician has been doing some wiring and he cut this bit open and lifted it out but I can't seem to open it up myself and I am worried about breaking it. When he comes back tomorrow I will take another photograph.

I also took some confusing photos using a boroscope which I am sure do not help. 

TELLIT01

Simply adding more screws to hold the boards down would be the cheapest first step to stop the creaking.  Although it would only cost the builder pennies, they probably didn't put as many in as they should when the floor was laid.

Doozergirl

If you're having Karndean then you may need a thick plywood down as a solid base.  I would speak to your Karndean contractor
or you may end up doing a job twice.
 

I wouldn't be putting floorboards down though.  

NibblyPig

Yep I believe the karndean guy will put plywood on top.
More screws might do it but they need to come up first as I believe the pipework is rubbing and creaking

Doozergirl

NibblyPig said:

Yep I believe the karndean guy will put plywood on top.
More screws might do it but they need to come up first as I believe the pipework is rubbing and creaking

Okay, well my point is that plywood is a solid, stable base.  It can be laid straight to joists!

Putting floorboards under it would be pointless if something like a 22mm ply will do the whole job.  Speak to them again. 

NibblyPig

Ahhh hmmmmm thanks. Is it doable to remove the chipboard and replace it with plywood then? Or does it present any problems at the edges of the room or anything?

cpbackhouse

I recently replaced the flooring on our landing and bedroom. I think a central heating installation somewhere in the houses past had left a jigsaw of chipboard not properly supported.
I cut the chipboard away as close to the walls as I could using a small circular saw set to the depth of the wood. Anywhere there was wood joining I added extra noggins to support the joint. I replaced the whole floor with large sheets of plywood laid straight on the the joists as suggested by Doozergirl. I probably used too many screws (and will regret it if I ever come to take it up again) but figured while I knew where I could screw to support it, it made sense.
It's made a massive difference as we can now walk across our floor in silence without waking up the whole neighbourhood!
One extra thing I did do was make sure to mark the new flooring with where all the pipes and cables were running if I ever needed it in the future.