| I’m sure most of us have experienced this – it’s late at night and you fell asleep watching a movie. Everyone has gone to bed so you creep down the hallway to avoid waking the others only to have you efforts thwarted by a squeaky hardwood floor. So annoying! There are several reasons as to why a hardwood floor would be so noisy and I am going to cover them as well as tell you how to deal with it. |
A hardwood floor that squeaks is usually a sign of an underlying condition. All hardwood floors will expand and contract throughout the seasons. This movement can sometimes result in boards rubbing up against one another which can cause the noisiness. These environmental changes can also cause the hardwood floor to make contact with the plywood subfloor which can also cause the squeaking. Now, this expansion and contraction is a normal process that happens every year but rarely results in a noisy floor. Usually you’ll see small gaps or slight cupping but you shouldn’t be hearing too much noise. This means there may be a lack of nails or glue in the problem area resulting in additional movement of the boards. One solution could be to shoot some finish nails in strategic locations to better secure the boards. The nail holes can be puttied. If adhesive was used (engineered floors), a glue injection kit can be used to diminish the noise.
Another culprit can be the subfloor itself. Any unevenness in the subfloor will manifest in the hardwood floor itself and cause the boards in the problem areas to sit higher or lower than the other boards, however slightly. This will result in the unwanted squeaking when the floors are walked on. If the unevenness is caused by sagging, a carpenter could jack the subfloor up if there is access from below. Of course this fix can be very involved as it points to structural issues.
Sometimes a squeaky floor is simply the result of loose boards. Again, if there are too few nails or too little glue, the boards in the problem area will react by squeaking. As mentioned above, there is a solution to this which is pretty straight-forward. Now, all of these issues can be avoided! A thorough inspection of the subfloor can reveal any inconsistencies so they can be addressed prior to the hardwood floor being installed. In regards to squeaking caused by seasonal expansion and contraction, a professional hardwood flooring contractor knows to leave a 1/4″ gap between the floor and the walls. This will allow room for the hardwood floor to go through this normal process without resulting in a noisy floor.