The floors are creaking, what can I do without taking them apart? How to remove the creaking of a wooden floor: getting rid of the creaking in the apartment yourself. Possible causes of squeaks

10.03.2020

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The floor may become deformed various reasons, for example, due to high humidity. If the floor has been installed for a very long time, it will begin to creak and then become completely unusable. But if you carry out repairs in right moment, you can save the floor and get rid of the unpleasant noise caused by the appearance of cracks. To get rid of the problem, you need to understand where the squeak comes from and what causes it.

Why do floors creak?

When installing a wooden floor, squeaking is guaranteed, although most people treat this normally and do not take any action. But there is another group of people who cannot sleep at night because of the eternal squeak, so they are looking for all kinds of ways to restore the floor. Before determining the cause of the problem, I had to familiarize myself with different types floors For example, wooden floors in dachas were most often installed by professionals, so they had no problem choosing required thickness boards, high-quality dry lumber, and installed joists wherever needed. This guarantees a silent wooden floor for at least several seasons.

Any floor will creak in five years, but this is very good result, since all floors begin to creak immediately after installation, and it makes no difference whether it is installed by a professional team or the owner of the cottage. The noise that occurs when walking on the floor is very unpleasant and can be heard throughout the house, although sometimes it is quiet. This is mainly due to the fact that the tree begins to rub against another tree, and an unpleasant sound immediately appears.

The boards can rub not only against each other, but also against the joists. This is due to the fact that the logs are installed unreliably, the mounting points are not mounted well enough, so unpleasant noise occurs. Although professionals should not make such mistakes, they do occur. When installing a board, it is ground against another, this ensures that there will be no displacement, and along with it, noise. Unfortunately, wood quickly absorbs moisture and reacts to the temperature in the room, so different seasons the tree begins to deteriorate under the influence of cold and moisture. For example, in spring or autumn, the size of the boards may increase as they swell due to exposure to moisture. This provokes movement and deformation of the floors. But then the most unpleasant thing happens - winter or summer comes, and the size of the boards decreases because they dry out. Because of this, gaps appear, which subsequently renders the floor unusable.

Several cycles of drying and wetting go through, so the gaps become quite large, the boards begin to run into each other and make an unpleasant noise. When a person walks on the floor, they bend and shift relative to each other, friction occurs, and a terrible squeak is heard. The chances that squeaking will occur after the first season are very high, since the floors are not installed well enough. If you are lucky and the floor was installed by real professionals, it will become unusable after 3-4 years of use.

Why do new floors squeak?

It doesn’t matter whether your floor is new or old, it will still creak for the same reasons. Of course, old buildings once had high-quality floors that dried out and became warped due to too much time passing. But even in new houses, problems arise, mainly because the floor was installed incorrectly, without following the laying technology. Although there are exceptions, if the house shrinks, which is quite rare, the floor will also collapse, but this is due to incorrect calculation of the foundation and does not occur so often.

There are several main reasons why the floor begins to creak:

Dried and low-quality materials were used during installation. Construction Materials. The boards and joists begin to dry out, the sizes of the plywood sheets change significantly, and between wooden surfaces gaps form;

There is no layer between the plywood and the joists; for example, installing a layer of waterproofing can significantly reduce noise. Also, noise occurs due to improper installation of the laminate or parquet substrate;

The boards and joists are installed poorly because the ends regularly shift relative to each other;

There is no technological gap near the walls.

The problem may arise due to incorrectly selected thickness of plywood, beams and joists, and boards. If the distance between the joists is incorrectly selected, the floor begins to creak. Please note that logs are made of timber, and they minimum size is 10x8 centimeters. It is necessary to maintain a distance between the logs of about 40 centimeters, a maximum of 60 centimeters. To prevent the boards from bending under your weight, you need to buy boards with minimum thickness 40 millimeters, and plywood with a thickness of 20 millimeters.

How to eliminate squeaking wood floors

When installing floors, the strongest wood is used, because the loads on the floor are very high. But as mentioned above, humidity and air temperature deform the structure of the wood, and this causes creaks and sagging of the floor in the most unexpected places. Despite the fact that many people face this problem, it can be solved quite simply. To get rid of squeaking, you need to acquire the following tools and materials:

Drill;

Hammer;

Nails;

Floor paint;

Nail puller;

Wood sawdust.

First, understand which boards cause the most squeaking. Just walk along the floor and listen to the sounds, in some places it will be louder. Check whether the creaking occurs in a specific place on the floorboard or whether the entire floorboard creaks. In most cases, sounds occur in boards that are poorly attached to floor beams or joists. When you find all the floorboards that are causing the squeak, write down their locations. Next, check whether there are any important communications under the floorboard.

Take a drill and make a hole on one side of the floorboard, you need to drill directly into the beam through the board. Screw a screw into the resulting hole the required diameter, you can also drive a nail, but a screw is preferable. Recess the head into the board, both when installing a screw and a nail. Walk the floor again where you did the work and check if there is any noise? If it creaks, but not as much as before, you can make a hole on the other side of the board and screw in another screw. Next, perform this operation with all floorboards that cause unpleasant noise. As a rule, the problem will be solved after this procedure.

If the problem persists, but the noise level has decreased, you can use wooden wedges. Install them in the gaps between the floorboards and joists. To secure tongue and groove boards, you will need screws with countersunk heads. If the boards are driven in very tightly and the heads of the nails are almost invisible, use a nail puller and lift the board. This way you can understand where the logs are installed.

The most common cause of squeaking is the friction of each board against the boards located next to it. When you find problem area, pour a little graphite powder or talc into the crack. Seal the gap with wooden wedges if you do not want to use powder.

Often, creaking occurs due to boards that have been destroyed under the influence of temperature changes and high humidity. The floorboards dry out and are placed in a different position, which causes squeaking. Prepare pasta from wood sawdust To thin it out, use floor paint. Seal every crack with this paste and the problem will be solved. To prepare the mixture you will need a small part of paint and about four parts of sawdust in the same quantity. When you apply the mixture and it dries, walk along the floor and check whether the unpleasant noise remains. Typically, the squeak should disappear.

You should also remember...

In order to reduce the chance of squeaking due to drying of boards and joists, you need to place a special damping gasket between the boards and joists. For example, insulation or waterproofing. Special underlays are used for laminate and parquet. But it happens that they are laid, but the floor still creaks - re-lay the underlay to solve the problem. You can reduce the chance of noise by loosely laying boards or boards, maintaining a gap between them with a distance of about a millimeter. This will not affect the quality of the coating, but the boards will not rub against each other. You can use wedges, but they are only used for plank floors. The ridges of the boards may be damaged, so this method is not very popular.

On this moment Spruce or pine boards are used, but it was once believed that these materials were not suitable for laying floors. They are used mainly in Europe, where high humidity and a pleasant climate. In Russia, you need to use wood that does not absorb moisture - cedar, oak, ash or maple. It is advisable to place fabric between the boards and joists. This will reduce the friction force of the boards, so the noise will be invisible or not appear at all. The method is quite effective, you can try putting thick fabric between boards even before you follow the recommendations from our article, which we described above.

Perhaps there is no stronger irritant than a creaking wooden floor. It is especially annoying if such a phenomenon occurs to residents soon after overhaul and you have to tear off the finishing coating. Today we will tell you what to do if your wooden floors squeak and how to avoid this in the future.

Causes of squeaking

Actually, there is only one final cause of a creaking floor - friction between two poorly secured parts. And here typical places In which such a phenomenon can be observed, a wooden floor has three.

In the simplest case, the floor creaks due to friction between adjacent floorboards: one of them bends under load and scrapes against the adjacent one. Such a creak has a characteristic dry sound and is quite easily detected when successively pushing through the floor boards.

A more characteristic creaking with a thin squeak occurs due to loose fastening of the boards to the joists with nails. Rusty metal inside dry wood it creates a really nasty grinding noise and it is much more difficult to determine the location of the occurrence due to the fact that the nail heads are usually hidden under several layers of paint.

Third and most rare view creaking - loose connections of composite joists and jumpers between them. The appearance of such a creak is typical for frame and multi-storey buildings with complex system wooden floors. The sound of the floor when walking in such cases is muffled and crackling.

Should the floor be torn down?

If the wooden floor was laid with tongue-and-groove boards for painting or covered with varnish, then there is no need to tear off the boards. It is quite possible to eliminate the creaking between the floorboards and from the surface, plus there is a reason to restore the wooden floor, smooth out unevenness with putty, and renew the paintwork.

In some cases, repairs may require tearing out the finished surface or the boardwalk underneath. For example, if the subfloor boards creak, on top of which a finishing floor is laid - laminate or linoleum. In such cases, the finished floor is sorted out, performing the required manipulations and getting rid of squeaks, and then laid back.

If the source of the creaking is the log system, then more extensive repair work will have to be carried out. The greatest difficulty lies in localizing the creaking joint, which is almost impossible to do blindly. Therefore, the breakdown of the floor planks cannot be avoided.

Wedging method

The creaking ends of the floorboards can be wedged together, thereby concentrating friction in several places and avoiding the string effect. For this, ordinary wooden chips or wedges with a thickness of 0.5 to 3 mm and a width of up to 30-35 mm are used.

This method is good for eliminating squeaks in old floors made of good-quality boards, where cracks of uneven thickness have appeared as a result of shrinkage and warping. At the widest point of the creaking joint, the first wedge is driven in, then a few more are added at an indentation of 50-80 cm. To make it easier for the wedge to fit in, you can widen the joint with a chisel, hammering it in by 3-5 mm.

Wedging is a rather meticulous process, but it is almost the only method of local repair of a creaking floor without tearing down the flooring. After compacting the boards, it is necessary to seal the cracks with putty; in the simplest case, a mixture of PVA and fine sawdust will do.

Reinforcement of the floor

The reason for the appearance of squeaking at the ends and fasteners of the boards may be that the flooring is not pressed tightly enough to the joists. This is a typical disease of a wooden floor: after several drying cycles, the nails can become loose and the entire flooring becomes loose.

The essence of strengthening the floor is to restore the tightness of the boards with self-tapping screws, which do not lose the quality of the pressure over time. The catch is that by pressing a warped board in one place, you can loosen the fastening at other points, so it would be correct to reinforce the entire floor at once.

Another subtlety is the need to drill the boards before screwing in the screws to avoid the threads getting caught in them. The method is ideal for eliminating creaking in rough floor. Finish coatings can also be strengthened with self-tapping screws, but traces from the caps will have to be masked with putty, which, moreover, must be matched to the tone of the wood when opening the floors with varnish.

The greatest difficulty is to determine the location of the joists if the traces of the flooring are hidden. Among all the methods, two of the most effective ones can be identified: drilling with control of the drill exit in order to determine the installation step of the joists and tearing off the outer boards.

Overhauling the boardwalk

A major overhaul of a wooden floor is the only way to eliminate squeaks with a guarantee, without requiring significant financial investments. And with creaking logs, there is practically no alternative to this method.

The idea is to sequentially tear down and reattach the boards without changing their order for a tighter fit. First, remove 3-5 boards from one edge, then, using good additional light, visually assess the space under the floor, the safety of the joists, and the presence of harmful organic matter.

When sorting through, they fix the first board and tear it down one by one after checking and fixing each subsequent one. All boards are checked for rotting and damage by pests; unsuitable ones are replaced with new ones of the same thickness, adjusting the ends with a plane for tight joining.

To avoid creaking between the floorboards in the future, you can hold the boards together on wooden dowels and tighten them tightly car jack. If there is no need for hidden fastening, it is recommended to use self-tapping screws - two for each attachment point to the joists.

Surface reinforcement

Not very budget, but very effective way To get rid of the subfloor from squeaking - lay plywood on it with frequent attractive fastening with self-tapping screws. The thickness of the flooring must be at least 12 mm, fastening is carried out in each board in two rows in a checkerboard pattern no further than 30-35 mm from the edge.

In addition to self-tapping screws, a mixture of sawdust or mineral chips with bustylate glue will help to achieve high-quality adhesion. It is important to arrange the sheets of flooring in such a way that the joints between them do not contribute to the deflection of the boards in the future. Ideally, you should divide the additional flooring into two layers of 6-8 mm each, fastening them together with an adhesive mixture and carefully consider the pattern of bandaging the joints.

The method is characterized by high technological complexity. In addition to high-quality tightening of screws and correct location sheets, you need to remember the layout of the boards so that each of them is reinforced and tightened. To do this, mark the location of the joints on the walls with marks along which they stretch the thread or beat off the lines with a dye cord.

Other options

There are also many “folk” ways to get rid of squeaks between floorboards or in places where they are attached. Contrary to popular belief, sealing cracks between boards with an adhesive mixture does not produce an effect, at least not long-term.

It’s better to properly heat the joint construction hairdryer and pour melted paraffin or stearin into it. The method of impregnating boards with Vaseline or vegetable oil. Just don’t use machine and motor oils, they are not environmentally friendly.

As a preventative measure to prevent squeaking, it is recommended to tightly join the floor boards using tongue-and-groove ends or oak dowels. You can also treat the ends of the boards with compounds that reduce friction - silicone sealant or rubber paste. Instead of regular nails, it is better to use rough nails, which are less susceptible to loosening.

Ecology of consumption. Estate: Perhaps you cannot find a stronger irritant than a creaking wooden floor. It’s especially annoying if this phenomenon occurs to residents soon after major repairs and the finishing coating has to be torn off. Today we will tell you what to do if your wooden floors squeak and how to avoid this in the future.

Perhaps there is no stronger irritant than a creaking wooden floor. It’s especially annoying if this phenomenon occurs to residents soon after major repairs and the finishing coating has to be torn off. Today we will tell you what to do if your wooden floors squeak and how to avoid this in the future.

Causes of squeaking

Actually, there is only one final cause of a creaking floor - friction between two poorly secured parts. But there are three typical places in which this phenomenon can be observed on a wooden floor.

A more characteristic creaking with a thin squeak occurs due to loose fastening of the boards to the joists with nails. Rusty metal inside dry wood creates a really nasty grinding noise and it is much more difficult to determine the location of the origin due to the fact that the nail heads are usually hidden under several layers of paint.

The third and rarest type of creaking is loose connections of composite joists and jumpers between them. The appearance of such a creaking noise is typical for frame and multi-story buildings with a complex system of wooden floors. The sound of the floor when walking in such cases is muffled and crackling.

Should the floor be torn down?

In some cases, repairs may require tearing out the finished surface or the boardwalk underneath. For example, if the subfloor boards creak, on top of which the finishing floor is laid - la minat or linoleum. In such cases, the finished floor is sorted out, performing the required manipulations and getting rid of squeaks, and then laid back.

Wedging method

This method is good for eliminating squeaks in old floors made of good-quality boards, where cracks of uneven thickness have appeared as a result of shrinkage and warping. At the widest point of the creaking joint, the first wedge is driven in, then several more are added at an indentation of 50–80 cm. To make it easier for the wedge to fit in, you can widen the joint with a chisel, hammering it in by 3–5 mm.

Wedging is a rather meticulous process, but it is almost the only method of local repair of a creaking floor without tearing the flooring. After compacting the boards, it is necessary to seal the cracks with putty; in the simplest case, a mixture of PVA and fine sawdust will do.

Reinforcement of the floor

Another subtlety is the need to drill the boards before screwing in the screws to avoid the threads getting caught in them. The method is ideal for eliminating squeaks in a subfloor. Finish coatings can also be strengthened with self-tapping screws, but traces from the caps will have to be masked with putty, which, moreover, must be matched to the tone of the wood when opening the floors with varnish.

Overhauling the boardwalk

The idea is to sequentially tear down and reattach the boards without changing their order for a tighter fit. First, 3–5 boards are removed from one edge, then, with good additional light, they visually assess the space under the floor, the safety of the joists, and the presence of harmful organic matter.

To avoid creaking between the floorboards in the future, you can hold the boards together on wooden dowels and tighten them tightly with a car jack. If there is no need for hidden fastening, it is recommended to use self-tapping screws - two for each attachment point to the joists.

Surface reinforcement

A not very budget-friendly, but very effective way to get rid of a subfloor from squeaking is to lay plywood on it with frequent attractive fastening with self-tapping screws. The thickness of the flooring must be at least 12 mm, fastening is carried out in each board in two rows in a checkerboard pattern no further than 30–35 mm from the edge.

In addition to self-tapping screws, a mixture of sawdust or mineral chips with bustylate glue will help to achieve high-quality adhesion. It is important to arrange the sheets of flooring in such a way that the joints between them do not contribute to the deflection of the boards in the future. Ideally, you should divide the additional flooring into two layers of 6–8 mm each, fastening them together with an adhesive mixture and carefully consider the pattern of bandaging the joints.

The method is characterized by high technological complexity. In addition to high-quality tightening of the screws and the correct arrangement of the sheets, you need to remember the layout of the boards so that each of them is reinforced and tightened. To do this, mark the location of the joints on the walls with marks along which they stretch the thread or beat off the lines with a dye cord.

Other options

It is better to thoroughly heat the joint with a hair dryer and pour melted paraffin or stearin into it. The method of impregnating boards with Vaseline or vegetable oil works in a similar way. Just don’t use machine and motor oils, they are not environmentally friendly.

All residents of old houses are aware of the problem of wooden floors creaking on joists over time. This can happen for several reasons, but you can easily fix this problem yourself.

In this article we will tell you detailed instructions how to make a floor that doesn't creak.

Causes of squeaking

Creaking may be a result of incorrect installation technology or due to deformation supporting elements and fasteners.

Namely:

Weak fixation of boards is the most common problem appearance unpleasant sounds when walking. How to prevent floors from creaking? It will be sufficient to secure the boards tightly to the joists. It is better to do this with self-tapping screws, because the nails will weaken over time.
Loose or improperly secured joist pads. Over time, they became unstable, and the floor began to “walk” when walking.
Gaps between boards. If you laid wet wood, it could dry out with the change of season. The ends of the boards began to rustle against each other and make creaking noises.
No temperature gap. If you laid the boards close to the walls without a 10 mm gap, then they could swell and swell. It will be enough for a squeak to appear. small contact with the wall, even if you just drove a small wedge into the crack.
Large distance between joists or thin boards.

Of course, the problem can arise from one or several of these reasons at the same time. Before you start doing anything, you need to determine the cause of the squeak. This can be done usually visual inspection, and sometimes you will have to remove several boards to check the condition of the joists.

But what to do if the floor made of chipboard or plywood creaks? In addition to the reasons described above, its creaking can also cause friction between the sheets. The fact is that sheet materials They are attached to the floor with a small gap, which is then covered with wood putty if necessary.

Eliminating floor squeaks

We will tell you what to do to prevent the floor from squeaking in most cases. After performing these operations, you will lose 90% of the sounds. At the same time, the price of such a house will cost only 400-600 rubles for the purchase of fasteners.

Screwing the floorboards

Previously, all boards were nailed, and in almost every old apartment Such floors have been lying there for several decades without repair. Naturally, the nails have become loose, and it is necessary to replace them with a more advanced fastening - self-tapping screws.

Instructions for scrolling the floor:

First of all, determine the thickness of the joists; to do this, drill a hole in the floor and measure the distance to the base. Or temporarily remove 1 floorboard. The screws will need to be taken approximately 1.5 cm shorter than the thickness of the floorboards and joists (together) so that they will almost completely scroll through them.

Advice!
To scroll you will need a powerful screwdriver with a good battery.
Cheap models will not be able to screw in long screws into a tree, or they will quickly sit down.

If your screwdriver does not take screws, try drilling holes for them in advance. Old nails do not need to be removed if the heads do not stick out much.
The logs themselves are approximately 60 cm apart from each other. To calculate the number of screws, multiply the number of joists by the number of boards in width. That is, at each point of contact between the log and the board there should be a tight fastening.
Then everything is simple: screw all the boards tightly so that the screw heads do not stick out. We mark the places where the creak remains with a marker in order to further fix this place later.
After this, you can level the surface by laying down plywood. It will also need to be tightly secured with self-tapping screws, in increments of approximately 15-20 cm. If you screw it less often, it will dangle.

Gaps between boards

If there are gaps between the boards, the next thing to do to prevent the floors from creaking is to fix them with wooden wedges.

For this:

Plan out strips of suitable sizes from wood.
Coat them with glue and drive them tightly into the gap.
When the glue is dry, cut off the excess flush with the surface.

But the rail will constantly need to be sharpened to fit the size of the gap so that it fits tightly into it, so this method is not very good.

More convenient option is to use a cord instead of a batten.

To do this, it is advisable to purchase a braided synthetic cord. It needs to be well soaked with wood glue or PVA. Using a punch or core, you need to insert the cord between the floorboards, approximately ½ of their thickness.
Seal the remaining cracks on top with homemade putty made from a mixture of sawdust and PVA. The consistency of the mixture should be similar to thick sour cream.
The putty is applied to the cracks in excess, and when it dries, the excess is cut off with a knife flush with the surface.

Repair of conventional floorboards

What should you do if the floors in your apartment creak not from a special tongue-and-groove board, but from a regular one? In this case, the floorboards sag greatly under load, because the neighboring elements do not support them in any way.

To fix this problem, you will need to tie the boards together.

You will need a long drill and wooden dowels.

Use a drill to drill a hole in the floorboard at a wide angle so that it extends to the adjacent board.
Lubricate the dowel with PVA glue and drive it into the hole. It should go about halfway into each of the boards.
We drill a second hole in the opposite direction in the adjacent board after about 20-30 cm. This is done so that the dowels support the boards, just like tongue and groove ones.

Temperature gap

We check for a 10 mm temperature gap around the perimeter and near pipes and doors. If we find driven wedges under the baseboards, be sure to remove them. If there is no temperature gap or it is small, you need to dismantle the outer boards and cut them to width, and then fasten them in place.

Loose logs

If you find that your joists are installed unstable, then most likely you will need to re-lay the entire floor covering of your apartment or house. If the problem occurs only in one place, then it can be solved locally - by removing the sheathing and placing new gaskets under the joists or the boards themselves.

Note!
The joists should lie freely on the pads; they should not be nailed or fixed to the floor.
This will only worsen the sound insulation.

Board thickness and lag laying pitch

Perhaps the sounds come from excessive bending of the boards when walking. This may be caused by the boards being too thin and the joists being laid at a large pitch.

Measure your dimensions and compare them with the data in the table. In case of large deviations, it will be necessary to completely redo the coating and make intermediate boards to ensure normal structural rigidity.

But you can temporarily solve the problem by screwing additional supports between the joists.

To do this, you will need to buy screws with large threads that will securely hold the floorboards.
Their length must be greater than or equal to the distance from finishing surface before concrete base.
A hole is drilled with a smaller diameter than the screw. The distance to the concrete base is then measured and the screw is cut to that length.
Then the screw is screwed in until it hits the concrete floor. This way it will support the sagging boards.

Conclusion

Note what to do with squeaky floors finishing coat pointless. Even a thick laminate will not save you from these sounds, and they will only increase later. Simple flooring won't help either. The video in this article shows in practice what to do to prevent floors from creaking." width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">

The larger the screw support area, the longer it will last. There is no need to screw in the sharp tips; they will quickly rub through the concrete.

Conclusion

Please note that there is no point in applying a topcoat to squeaky floors. Even a thick laminate will not save you from these sounds, and they will only increase later. Simple flooring won't help either. The video in this article shows in practice what to do to prevent floors from squeaking.

Wood floors are beautiful and eco-friendly, but they have one significant drawback. Over time, they cause many problems with their creaking. There are several options for what to do to prevent wooden floors from creaking in your house or apartment. The simplest of them is nothing. The creaking of the floor does not affect the strength of the structures, so nothing interferes with the operation of the room. This is an option for lazy owners who are willing to put up with minor inconveniences. If you want to fight the squeak, you need to start by finding out the cause.

Causes of squeaking

Various reasons creaking wooden floor

The main reason why a wooden floor creaks is the deformation of the boards, their displacement and friction against each other. Deformations always occur over time. There may be several reasons for this:

Natural aging process. Nothing can be done about the fact that the properties of the material deteriorate over time. This process always occurs for any material. But for raw materials of natural origin it is a little faster than for synthetic ones. The aging of wood can only be slowed down by protection from all possible negative influences.
Violation of installation technology. When constructing a wooden floor along joists around the perimeter of the wall, a gap must be provided to allow the boards to expand unhindered under the influence of temperature changes and load. If this gap is not provided during expansion, the boards will fit tightly to each other and friction will arise, causing creaking.
Drying of wood. Normal humidity wood for building structures- 12%. At low air humidity, this value decreases and the boards decrease in size. Such a violation of the design can also lead to creaking.
Violation of fastening technology. If the fastening is poor, the nails come out under load. If the fastening is not secure, all elements of the floor pie become loose and a creaking sound appears. If you don’t take action in time, it won’t be limited to just creaks, and eventually the entire structure will collapse.
High indoor air humidity. The process is the reverse of drying. Wood reacts very strongly to changes in the indoor microclimate. If the humidity exceeds the standard, the boards begin to swell and expand. Friction leads to squeaking.

All these reasons are related to the characteristics of the material. Eliminating them is almost impossible (except for violation of technology).

Careful treatment can be done to prevent protective compounds and maintain constant recommended indoor humidity.

But this will not prevent aging. In addition, maintaining constant humidity is an extremely labor-intensive undertaking.

Solutions to the problem

Before you remove the creaking of a wooden floor, you need to choose the most suitable way to do this. The problem can be resolved by doing the following:

Polyurethane foam is not strong, so it can only fix the boards temporarily

The composition is able to penetrate even the smallest cracks, filling them. Even those who have never dealt with repair work. To eliminate creaking in this way, you need to follow the procedure:

take polyurethane foam in a container;
insert the tube into the space between the ceiling and the flooring boards;
squeeze out required amount material;
wait for it to dry.

Squeaking is eliminated by fixing wooden elements. Polyurethane foam is not enough durable material, so she can fix the boards only temporarily. Afterwards, repairs will be required again.

Tamping wedges

Such repairs can only be made if the floor boards are slightly worn. If the damage to the flooring is severe, the actions will be ineffective.

To solve the problem, wooden wedges are made. They are driven between the boards in emergency places. The elements will prevent movement and friction of the boards.

Fastening to anchors

The principle of attaching anchors to eliminate creaking on the floor

This method of fixing floor boards will eliminate squeaking on concrete floors.

Metal anchors require reliable fastening, which cannot be ensured wooden floor. The disadvantages of this method include it high cost. Repairs must be made in the following order:

using a hammer drill or a drill, a hole is prepared in the ceiling;
a dowel is installed in the hole;
the anchor is driven in without disassembling it into parts;
I fix the floor boards to the fixed anchor bolt.

Using self-tapping screws

Options for eliminating squeaks on the floor

The use of self-tapping screws is suitable if the creaking area is located between the flooring boards and the joists located underneath them. The most difficult task in this case, determine the location of the joists without dismantling the floor. This should be done in this order:

dismantle the baseboards around the perimeter of the room;
determine the direction of the lag;
on the walls located across the joists, their location is marked with long and thin metal rods;
The rods inserted on both sides are connected with a cord, thus creating markings for work.

Self-tapping screws are needed 2-3 cm less than the total thickness of the boards, flooring and joists. This can be determined by placing a thin metal ruler in the gap between the boards. Next, you need to fix the floor structures with self-tapping screws along the stretched cord. Fastening is carried out using 2-3 self-tapping screws located close to the center of the log. Fastening should be done with the same step.

Laying plywood

Before you eliminate the creaking of a wooden floor with plywood, you need to make sure it is even. If the base is uneven, this method is not suitable. Plywood sheets are selected with a thickness of at least 12 mm. The plywood is laid out on the boards and attached to them with self-tapping screws. The fastening pitch is 15-20 cm.

Replacement of sections

The event is labor-intensive and quite expensive. Suitable for cases where the boards are severely damaged and the use of other methods is pointless. The floor in places where there is creaking is opened, dismantled and replaced with a new one. It is recommended to abandon nails as fasteners, as they can again lead to squeaking. Self-tapping screws are used.

The process of eliminating squeaks using plywood

Carrying out the necessary and correctly chosen repair measures will allow you to forget about the creaking of the floor for a long time and ensure comfortable living.