What Causes Creaky Floors

Uneven subflooring can cause gaps between the floor and the subfloor.

What causes creaky floors.

Squeaky floors can be caused by a loose subfloor. When this occurs you may want to re attach or secure the floor back down and apply a sealing compound to the flooring which helps prevent this type of problem. This will cause creaking in the floors. Loose wooden floorboards are often the cause of annoying squeaks but even carpeted rooms can be noisy if the plywood subfloor isn t firmly attached to the joists.

Glued floors come loose or the nails pull loose. Squeaks happen when a house settles and wood flooring dries and then expands. As temperatures start to cool the levels of humidity in the outside and inside environments are also shifting from balmy to dry. As you walk across the floor boards rub against each other or slide against nail shafts to produce a cacophony of squeaks and creaks.

Cause of squeaky hardwood floors 3. Signs of foundation problems in your house. This is usually the act of being stepped on. Finding the squeak can be difficult but if the squeaking floor is open from below you re in luck.

As soon as you turn your heater on you re removing even more of that precious moisture from the air. In this case when you put weight on the floor the subfloor rubs against the flooring joists causing the floor to squeak. How do you stop your floor from squeaking. You ll have several options to stop it.

Uneven subflooring maybe the problem isn t a loose joist but an uneven or loose subfloor. It s pretty rare for a wood floor to squeak on its own. There is however one core cause of a squeaking floor. For floor to squeak it requires some impetus to move and a place to move to.

Hence due to damage in floor joists the floor may start creaking as sections of flooring rub together or the nails becoming loose. The opposite occurs in colder weather or winter when the wood shrinks. Environmental changes occur from weather changes and humidity. Floor squeaks are caused by wood rubbing against a nail other wood or even ductwork and piping.

During the summer months wood tends to expand when exposed to high levels of humidity. This causes the floorboards to. And sometimes begin to hear a squeaky wood floor in our homes. If there is a significant differential settlement there are more chances of damage to subfloor which may be the cause of squeaky floor.