help! my floor is so noisy
I knew my hardwood floors were noisy, but last night I finally recognized just how loud they really are. There is a loud creaking nearly every step of the way from one end of the apartment to the next. Is it possible that since they switched on the heat in my building, the floor boards have gotten creakier? Is there anything I can do? –Erica P.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:31 am
My last house had super squeaky wood floors - it’s annoying, for sure. It didn’t bother us too much until we had a baby and worried he’d be woken with every loud squeak. It always seemed worse in Winter — I assume the wood was contracting with the cold and just rubbing more.
There is some kind of graphite powder you can buy to sprinkle into gaps and help the boards slide past each other and not rub noisily. If you google things like “fix sqeaky wood floors” you’ll find tons of ideas. It helps if you have access to the basement and the subfloor. If you can’t fix it from the bottom, we tried small finish nails that we nailed right thru the flooring in the loudest areas. The hope was we’d catch a joist or bit of subfloor and it would hold the floor in place and stop some of the squeaks. We used a nail set to countersink the nails so they didn’t stick up - it does leave a tiny visible dot in the floor though, but I was willing to live with it if it helped. (This method helped in some places, not at all in others.)
November 10th, 2008 at 6:50 am
I have the same problem. I’ll keep checking back to see if anyone has any great solutions. I’ve thought about the finish nails, but the place that I’m having real trouble is on the second floor…therefore no going from up above.
November 10th, 2008 at 7:23 am
If the heat did just go on, the wood could be dry. We used to have a humidifier built into our heater because the wood floors & antiques of previous owners benefitted. However, the motor on that died and I have noticed that the wood seems to shrink a bit in the cold weather and when the heat is drying it out.
Can you get a humidifier?
November 10th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Get a great ipod! hee hee. No really-that is a drag. you can send a few nails in with a nail gun to teh squeak spot if there is a “area”. that may help. good luck
November 10th, 2008 at 11:22 am
The problem is caused by air between the boards. You can sprinkle baby powder into the cracks and it should help.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Here’s an article on fixing squeaky floorboards from the Sweat Equity column of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Good luck!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/20/HO4B12VBAR.DTL
November 10th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I’ve done the baby powder thing. It works, but it gets messy. Even moreso if you have animals that try to help.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I’ve had trouble with old flooring in my 1920’s apartment and baby powder always helped to dampen the noise.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
go get a cool mist vaporizer. you can find them in the pharmacy section of your fav superstore. they will improve the humidity (think less dry air/static electricity…) and you’ll get fewer colds/coughs because dry mucous membranes (throat, lungs, sinuses) are much more prone to infection.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:04 am
[...] 5. You can quiet a creaky floor with a common household item. Hannah advices Erica: :The problem is caused by air between the boards. You can sprinkle baby powder into the cracks and it should help. Click here for more advice on noisy floorboards. [...]