Upstairs Floor Creaking

jackster20

Hello, all. Just found this site...glad to be here.

If the description of the build is too lengthy below, then please just skip down to the problem below.

My crew did some extensive remodeling of a single story home earlier last year. Approximately 850 SQ FT was added upstairs. There is a loft, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms.

This is the largest addition I've done, but not my first second story addition and I've never had complaints about creaking floors before.

This house is finished with all permits and the homeowners have been living there again since August '06. The whole upstairs flooring is carpet & bathrooms are tile.

THE PROBLEM:
Both bedrooms and a hallway have areas where if you walk on the area a very loud creaking sound can be heard. Since the floors are carpeted and the areas below are drywalled, I can't access the joists to check for subfloor is lifting. One bedroom and the hallway just started doing this but the other bedroom has been doing it for a while. I'm afraid more locations will start this loud creaking.

My delimma now is how to quickly fix the issue without too much expense.

Do you have any ideas of what could cause this and how to fix it?

Thanks!

thom

Where there is carpet, screw through the carpet with drywall finish screws. Stand on the ply directly over the joist. Screw must pull tight into the joist.

The noise you hear is probably the ply sliding up and down on your nails. Either you didn't get it nailed tight or the ply was wet and swollen and has since dried and shrunk. That's why you use liquid nails (aside from the fact that it makes a more rigid floor). Do it right and you won't get squeaks.

jackster20

I came to the same conclusion as well but I wanted to see if anyone has encountered this before.

Liquid Nails is great stuff and I use it all the time.

I really don't want to pull up the carpet, but they have berber and it would be difficult to hide the screw heads. Maybe I'll try it and see how it works.

Thanks.

J DoubleD FLoor

I'm gonna say get the carpet stretcher warmed up ... sounds like a problem that isn't going to be solved by a couple hidden screws ... impress you client tear it up and fix it all now .... the more callbacks you get on this the more likely your reputation will backslide ... gl with it

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Teetorbilt

Isolate the sound before you start jumping through hoops. Is there adhesive between the joists and floor? What's the big deal with jerking the carpet? It will go right back down.

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brianosaur

This probably isn't the best fix, but it has worked for me on small squeeky areas in the past.

I've just located the joists and shot 15 guage finishing nails into the floor. 15g is big enough to hold, unlike 18g, but since there isnt much of a head on them they aren't very noticable & can be wood filled on hardwood, or just shot right through the carpeting.

If the gun is set right they will pass entirely through the carpet & padding and stop in the floor without driving all the way through. Put enough weight on the area to hold it tight to the joist before you pull the trigger.

jackster20

Thanks for your help, guys. I mentioned pulling up the carpet to the homeowners but that's a big hassle since there's a lot of furniture in the way.

If the carpet has to be pulled up then it will just have to be pulled up. It seems that nails will "give" over time but that is probably the easiest solution right now. Screws would be better since the threads would hold things together. There's no question about using screws if the carpet is pulled.

My first response about the liquid nails is to say that we always use it on joists & stringers. There's just no substitute. I can't really say if my guys applied it or not in this case because of the creaking. I can't imagine it wasn't used because I bought so much for this project. We did have some serious rain Jan-Mar of last year before the roof was put on. The project was tarped but water still got on the sub flooring. This goes along with what was said a few posts up.

J DoubleD FLoor

Not saying your guys did ... but just because alot was bought for it doesn't mean it got used at the site.
GL with it though ... I hope you don't have to pull it ... but most likely if you want to avoid further issues ... it will need to be

__________________
Quality is not expensive ... It's PRICELESS !!!
www.neoflooringco.com

jproffer

Go here and see what they have for you. I've never had occasion to try the breakaway screws, but it seems like a viable solution to what you describe. Also, if you do try this, post back as to what happened...did you still have to cut the carpet away a little so the fibers didn't rip out a line down the entire room? If you've done it , then you know what I mean.

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Jim P.

jackster20

Great Find! That was exactly what I was hoping for; something designed for such a problem. Home Depot and Lowes didn't have it but ACE did for 21 bucks. The master bdrm creaking is now fixed. Basically, the video on the link is exactly what you do. We spaced the screws 4" apart on three joists with five screws on each joist. We picked where the middle of the creaking seemed to be and worked out from there. Excellent Product! The screw heads snap off with a little more force that the video shows but the whole system works like a charm. You have to drill "test" holes with the searching screw to locate a joist but once one is found you basically measure 16" from that and you hit the parallel joist.

The other bedroom and hallway didn't quite work out though. After installing eight screws on two joists in the other bedroom I stopped to assess the situation. The creaking seemed to get better but it didn't go away. This time though the creaking seems to be located underneath a wall that runs on top of a joist. Same with the hall. Just to be clear, the hall wall and the other room wall are not near each other. I plan to remove the base boards and run some long screws through the bottom wall 2-by, subfloor, and into the joist on Saturday.

Your guys' input has been really great and I have to say thanks...a lot. Again, this engineered no-squeek system worked great. It appeared that I had two issues though. I'll let you guys know if shooting some screws on Saturday works.