levelling floors

catford

When my house was thrown together about 25yrs ago.it seems that the ground floor was built and the upstairs floor laid-then the upstairs walls were built.--onto the floor!!it may have common practice at the time but is causing grief now!Every floor creaks and groans at the tiniest move and can be felt in the room sharing the floor panel.also the floor has settled and it is now impossible to have two of the doors level with the floor when closed and open.There is either a massive gap or the door sticks. Firstly how can i stop the floors from squeaking,and secondly,how can i level up the worst floors ??? Please dont suggest a builder ,i need to diy!many thanks for any help.

robowen

Sounds to me like you need a structural surveyor

If you got movement in the floors and walls, you need to find out why.

Its possible you could have subsidence. Might be a broken drain somewhere thats washing the soil away and causing the subsidence.
Most household insurance policies cover this sort of problem,

so I wouldn't worry about builders...........unless you have no insurance ! :eek:

rob

njm_2

The cause of squeaking floors is likely to be because there is movement between the floor board and the joist that supports it – this often happens when floorboards are lifted, to gain access to the void beneath to fit additional lighting downstairs or run some new plumbing, and to do so the tongue and groove which joins adjacent boards is cut through. The first (cheapest) thing to do is identify where the squeaks are and lift the floor covering to see what is underneath. A flooring nail may be raised and simply hammering it home will solve the problem. If there is nothing obvious then driving a crew into the joist closest to the squeak will secure the board.

Uneven floors may have been caused by previously lifted boards and the cheapest option is to lift those boards and put packing underneath to make them flush. If there are a number of uneven boards then it is probably better to fit thin ply/hardboard over the whole floor as this will even out the floor.

If there is apparent movement in the joists then I’m afraid a builder is probably your best course of action.