HomeAbout Sharon FalcoBlogFix Those Squeaky Floors in Your Home
Fix Those Squeaky Floors in Your Home
Posted Wednesday, April 17, 2013Got a squeaky floor in your home? It can be an aggravation and leave a bad impression on prospective buyers walking through your home. You can fix squeaky floors fairly easily. Here are some options:
- Sprinkle talc or powdered graphite over gaps in wood flooring. If your squeaks are caused by loosened boards rubbing against each other, graphite can act as a lubricant and take care of the squeak.
- Face-nail boards back into place. If your squeak is caused by wood rubbing against loose nails, carefully nail them back down.
- Shim it. If your problem is a gap between your flooring and joist, get someone to bounce on the squeak while you’re in the basement. When you can see where the gap is causing the squeak, insert a shim in the gap. The shim can either be made of tapered wood or recycled plastic. Don’t make it any thicker than it needs to be; you could cause another squeak.
- Nail up through joists. If your squeaks are caused by sagging floor joists making your floor boards flex, you may be able to screw up through the joists and snug down the floor boards. Make sure your screws are a quarter-inch shorter than the depth of your flooring so they don’t penetrate your floor boards. This technique works whether you have wood floors or carpeting in your home.
- Try a product like Squeeek No More. This is a solution for carpeted floors, allowing you to secure subflooring to joists through the carpet, and then break off the screws below the carpet pad.
- Next time, install ceramic tile. It’s quiet and solid.
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Links
Face-nail
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,229967-2,00.html
Squeeek No More
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT4iqi69ADw
Ceramic tile
http://tile.networx.com/info/ceramic-tile-benefits/