Working Inside the House
Wooden floors look lovely but it can be irritating if the floor squeaks when you walk on it. Here are some tips on how you can isolate the cause of squeaking floorboards and what you could do to fix it.

Most squeaks from floors are due to two adjacent boards rubbing together but in older homes it may even be a whole section of floor moving slightly on a sunken foundation pile.

Your first course of action is to try and ascertain the cause of the problem. A quick check around the squeaky area may reveal movement where the floorboards are nailed to the under-floor joists. (Joists are the beams that support the whole floor structure and are accessible from under the house). If this is the case then you need to replace the loose nails. If the old nails are protruding slightly, they can be removed carefully with a claw hammer or pliers. However, if the existing nails are embedded, you can leave them and add an extra nail close alongside the loose one so that when you countersink your new nail with a nail punch, the symmetry of two nails per board-end will remain. You may even be able to make the floor stable by simply punching the old nails deeper into the board.

Sometimes the squeak is coming from the area where two boards meet rather than on the joists. A simple way of getting rid of the noise here is to puff French chalk or talcum powder into the joint. This will not stop the movement between the boards though, what it does is lubricate the surfaces so that they do not squeak. To stop the movement the next method is to skew nail the two boards together. Skew nailing means driving a nail at a sharp angle (about 30 degrees) through one board and into the other. Floor boards are prone to splitting so always use a small drill to make a pilot hole for your nail.

Note: Whatever method you use, always drive the nails just below the surface of the board and fill the hole with wood filler the same colour as the floor.

Working with Fitted Carpets

Stopping floorboards from squeaking is easier if you have exposed wooden floors, however many homes have fitted carpets which makes the job a little more difficult. The best method is to fix the problem from under the house, if access is available. If you cannot get under your house then you could either lift the carept or try fixing through the carpet.

To fix through the carpet: Locate the squeak and then try to source if there is a joist nearby. This can be done by listening for a solid sound when you tap the area with a hammer (as opposed to the hollow sound when banging the floor between the joists). You could also purchase a stud finder from your local store. Stud finders use a magnetic field to find the existing nails in the wood. Part the carpet fibres until you expose the backing and hammer a jolt head nail right through the carpet and underlay. If the nail goes in too easily then you have missed the joist, check and try again.

Working from Under the House

In many ways it is best to work from under the floor when you are investigating what is making it squeak and also how you could fix the problem.

Hopefully access underneath your floorboards is easy. Because it is likely to be dark and dirty underneath the house, we recommend that you wear old clothes for the job, take a brush to get rid of cobwebs, use a torch and wear a disposal face mask.

The first things to check are the foundation piles. These may be concrete or wood. Running from pile to pile you will see a beam of wood, this is called a bearer and on top of this will be the joists that the floor boards are fixed to. Sometimes, as the foundation piles settle, a gap will form between the joists and bearer or between the bearer and piles. A simple method to check if there is a gap that`s causing your squeak is to get someone to walk around the problem area while you are under the house. As the person walks around, carefully check for any movement around the joists and bearer area. You must look closely because the smallest movement will cause a squeak. If there is some movement simply jam in some timber wedges or thin pieces of timber to suit. Hammer them in firmly and if possible, fix with glue or nails to hold them in place. Check the effect by getting your assistant to walk around again.

If your foundation piles are badly out of alignment or if there are large gaps on a whole series of piles, then call in an expert because you may have a serious problem. Also if the ground is very damp around where the piles are out of alignment or there is a musty smell with moss or mould in evidence, you should call in a builder as you may have a ground drainage problem. If however, you can see that all the foundation piles are fine, then the issue might be that the floorboards are loose and rubbing against each other.

Get your assistant to walk on the floor above you again and check the floorboards for movement. Place your hand on the underside of the floor and you may feel the movement. Once the movement is located the fix is fairly simple: cut some pieces of timber to the length required to cover the width of the problem area across the floorboards. Carefully drill pilot holes in both the timber pieces and the floorboards, be really careful not to drill right through the floor, and using woodscrews fix the pieces to the floorboards. The size of the screws will be dictated by the thickness of the timber pieces you use (number 8 or 9 by 35 - 40mm long screws should do if you use 30mm timber). If you want to do a really solid job use glue as well!