Eco-Remodelers

I’ve got some seriously squeaky floors…

Many of the rooms in my house have them. I decided to take care of it when I prepped our dining room for the installation of bamboo flooring I just bought. I removed the old royal blue carpeting and took it out for recycling. The pad underneath, I was forced to throw away. Those carpeting pad generally cannot be recycled.

If you have a squeak under your carpeting, linoleum, vinyl or wood floors, there’s a good chance it’s in your subfloor. The subfloor is the plywood that is nailed to the floor joists. The problem with using nails is that wood tends to expand and contract when the weather changes. Those pesky nails loosen up and when you walk on your floor, the subfloor goes up and down on those nails. That causes the squeak.

And if you happen to be removing your flooring (to install an eco-friendly cork or bamboo floor!) it is the perfect time to fix the squeaking.

I removed the carpet, pad, carpet tack strips, and all those staples that held down the padding. After that, I vacuumed the floor to get up all the small pieces of junk that I had created. Next, I pulled out my drill and some floor screws. I used inch and a half screws and followed along where I saw nails.

The subfloor nails usually go in a straight line, along the same path as the floor joist underneath. I put in screws close to the nails to really help hold down the plywood. After screwing in about 40 nails across the dining room, I was done.

I walked back and forth on all those same squeaky spots and there was no sound. I went down into the basement and looked up at the floor joists to make sure I didn’t have any screws that missed or that had caught onto anything dangerous (like electrical wiring) or expensive (like HVAC ducts.)

Had the squeaks persisted, I would probably have gone back down to the basement and put 2 x 6 boards up in between floor joists and nailed them together. Floor joists are usually 12 to 16 inches apart. I could have cut several 2 x 6 boards to that length, inserted them perpendicular to the joists, and attached them with nails. That gives longer joists added strength and can prevent those squeaks.

Next, I have to install the bamboo floors. I bought several cases from Lumber Liquidators yesterday. Once I pick them up, I’ll leave them in the dining room for 5 to 7 days. This allows the bamboo to acclimate to the temperature and humidity of the room and I’ll get a better fit (and less squeaks!) once they’re installed.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 10:07 am and is filed under Eco-Friendly Products, Home Improvement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.