How to Fix Squeaky Hardwood Floors - 6 BETTER DIY Ways!

[@soundproofguide]

More Information and Links on this topic! - soundproofguide.com/how-to-fix-squeaky-floors-9-ways-you-can-do-it/

[@Chiroman527]

THX for the video, good info. In my case in a ranch house, I have a known deflection in the floor (LR to DR area). The deflection was NOT discovered by my home inspector when I bought the house 38 years ago. After the purchase, a friend of mine (a House Contractor) who felt the deflection when he was helping me move boxes into the house. In fact, he scolded me for not having him inspect the house - He was Right!!. Whejn we went into the basement which was an abortion of a finished area, there was wood paneling on a separating wall that spit the basement down the middle, running along the wood main beam. When we took the paneling down.... we discovered a Sears Screw Jack had been inserted under the main beam in that affected area. The main beam was actually 4, 2X8s placed together (they were not Bolted together as best we could determine). The one end of this "beam" rested on a steel lally column . However, on of the clad together beams was NOT sitting on the column. After taking down the crap celeotex ceiling, it was further discovered that 2 of the cross beams running form the edge of the main beam to the basement wall were "Cupped", slightly warped. That stayed that way for some years. Then circa 2007-8 I had the basement finished - all new sheetrock walls, and Ceilings , constructed a pantry closet, laundry room/area, separate boiler room and Playroom (now my Mancave). I had a House painter /contractor look at it soon after that. He had recommended shoring up the main beam, take it out and insert a new Steel I beam. But upon some further eval, that would have hoisted the house up - which would have created more problems with cracking the walls (Plaster) igniting a nightmare. The basement contractor, simply inserted 2, 8 X 8 Pressure treated Landscaping Ties, 1 at the area of the deflection and 1 toward the end of the house. He banged those ties in under the subflooring to the concrete basement floor. When he did so, The whole house Shook! But no damage to any walls. He had experience as Greek Contractor who repaired many Old Houses. However, I do not recall if he did any correcting of the Cupped cross beams? Now the finished flooring above as described above have begun to squeak. I'm going to try the nailing method because I can see that some of the oak hardwood boards are Moving - must have loos as described here.

[@andrewb8074]

If the issue is caused by the subfloor warping/raising off the joist, wouldn't the screw method be ideal? It seems like wedging stuff in between the joist and subfloor would help at first, but potentially exacerbate the gap issue over time with whatever processes (e.g. temperature/humidity fluctuations) that may have led to the issue in the first place. I have creaks in my house at places where the prior owner apparently applied glue in the gap in the past.

[@CdA_Native]

I have a new home (well, 2 years old!) and out of the 1850 sq ft...... about 1500 of it has noisy subflooring, and the rest has squeeky vinyl plank flooring! I won't tell you the builder, but it rhymes with KB Homes. I like your idea of the 2x4 at 6:01 in your video and wonder if putting construction glue on the top side of the 2x4 would help as well? And regarding the idea of using just the glue at 6:49, that sounds like a quicker fix for my problem, otherwise I'll need about 100 pcs of 2x4! And why would a new home have such noisy flooring? I checked and about 50% of the sub floor nails missed the floor joists!

[@blondyagace]

It is a common mistake. They should have used screws instead of nails for the ground.

[@charlym9550]

If your home is that new you should have warranty. Contact the builder and try your luck

[@iceicebabys]

Hello. Thanks for the tips. How do you know where your floor joists are? My entire floor squeaks :(

[@amylambert2365]

Drilling into floors might be dangerous, right? Do you have to worry about electricity lines - gas lines? Thanks for tips. Luckily I can try from under the floor - no ceiling.

[@andrewb8074]

If you 100% know there is a joist where you are drilling there SHOULD BE no risk. No wires or pipes should be running between the joist and subfloor. If you use a strong magnet (100+ lb rated) you can detect where the nails in the subfloor are (through hardwood anyway) which tells you where the joists are.

[@dougjohnson69100]

What do you you if you have put a filler in the crack and it still squeaks?

[@gangstaBJK]

The screwing method looks like it makes sense the most. But i am afraid to try it. Is there a possibility of any wires or pipes running through the floor?

[@soundproofguide]

You definitely can have wires and pipe going through the floor. It all depends how the builder places those wires and pipes in between floors.

[@kurtgally526]

Can you use baking soda instead of baby powder?

[@AlexSolomovich]

Thanks a lot, for a year I didn’t know how to fix that quick right before my fridge (a very popular area to step in 😊) your method with shim worked.

[@soundproofguide]

Fantastic!

[@MrDbz9001]

Can you use expanding foam instead of construction glue? Will it cause a wedge ?

[@soundproofguide]

The problem with foam is that it doesn't get very hard after expanding. It will fill the gap but not enough to make it stop squeaking for good.

[@gerritjongkind8538]

Helpfull. Thanks. Greetings from Amsterdam.

[@baysidelad1]

My experience was: 1) Graphite or talcum powder DOES NOT WORK! Floorboards that are tight together means the graphite can't get between the floorboards and stop the squeaking. 2) WD40 works! Step up and down on the floorboards that are rubbing against each other and leave the WD40 overnight.....it eventually gets between the floorboards. 3) I have no access underneath, so drilling a hole in the floorboards and squeezing a wood glue into the cavity with (as an example), a meat syringe fills the void and stops the squeaking.

[@randomrazr]

ur house now smells like wd40

[@baysidelad1]

@@randomrazr for maybe 24 hrs there is a slight smell, but it goes away pretty quickly

[@johnkim1656]

@@baysidelad1 sqeaks still gone after months?

[@baysidelad1]

@@johnkim1656 needs a quick touch up every 3-4 months

[@robertreed1199]

@@baysidelad1 so you touch it up yet?

[@lakhiranighosh8883]

Hello Sir. I am a mechanical workshop of steel fabrication nature. There is a continuous noise of cutting, grinding & shearing. The workshop is in open area and the shed is covered will brick wall. My concern is the noises emitting out of it which causes disturbances to the neighbour. What is the best way to soundproof my workshop so that the inner noises of the workshop doesn't come out of the shed Or it can be reduced to maximum level. Kindly help me out.

[@radicalgreek99]

You can use dense foam insulation and soundproof panels.

[@lakhiranighosh8883]

@@radicalgreek99 Should I use it at inner wall?

[@kvil1537]

@@lakhiranighosh8883 Yeah, like mass-loaded vinyl is dense enough to reduce noise transfer. Acoustic/foam panels will only make it sound better inside the room to you, AFAIK.

[@lakhiranighosh8883]

@@kvil1537 Thank you so much. Will install MLV in the inner walls of the workshop

[@tammyowens7776]

no plywood subfloor in my 70 yr old house, screwed down nearly every single piece of wood floring to the beams and thick floor boards with snap off screws, whole floor is ruined, and still noisy as heck. i hate hate hardwood floors. i feel I have no solutions. even covering it with click flooring isn't going to quiet it down.

[@GeorgeCostandi]

Same issue like mine.. have you found a solution?

[@christophermahoney7143]

I have been unable to use the tapping method to actually locate the joists underneath due to the carpet on top and the proximity to the side walls in the hallway. It is between floors in multiple locations, so going through from underneath would require removing ceiling sheetrock. Any suggestions?

[@soundproofguide]

Have you tried a stud finder? That might work in locating the joist and the screwing down through the carpet. It works great if you have thick bushy carpet that would hide the small hole a screw would leave. works actually better on carpet than hardwood floors. I will have a couple more followup videos on squeaks from carpeted and also laminated floors since the methods are a bit different than hardwood floors. Great question!

[@christophermahoney7143]

@@soundproofguide I've tried 2 different ones so far. But I think the reason they are being blocked is the plywood going across the joists is triggering it to read as the entire thing is a stud. I can wait for the follow up videos. I've been looking around for weeks and everyone just suggests tapping with a hammer and listening to the change in sound. The carpet is negating it in my case. I just don't feel confident enough to start drilling in multiple places on a low confidence tap.

[@scottbholmer]

I took the floor base trim off and buried several long screws into the base plate. It tightened everything up and squeaks disappeared.

[@annawoodford7121]

How to stop LAMINATED WOOD FLOOR FROM SQUEAKING

[@victoryfirst2878]

How about pulling on the nails that perturde into the basement living space ?? All with just one tool pull down and bend over the nail heads and you are done. Thanks for the other ideas. Will use one on my sisters house. Peace vf

[@tammyowens7776]

my floors are terribly noisy, and I cant use anything from above because all of that powder will fall right onto our tv and Funiture in the basement. we have no sheeting, plywood or 'subfloor', what we have in our old house is wide oak angled main floorboards, with hardwood flooring right over top. so when we look up at the floor from the basement we can see the hardwood strips. we think the people who built this house was pinching pennies and they did a lot of things that short changed the quality of the house. we have no clue how to quiet them down, or to prevent dirt from contently falling into the basement living area without spending thousands of dollars on ceiling tiles.

[@soundproofguide]

Can you seal the crack between the hardwood strips with caulking? Of course you’d do it from the basement but you could use acoustical sealant since it won’t crack when it dries up.

[@wyd-astro9943]

But why do my floor creaks on its own without steeping on it

[@miguelsalmeron626]

Ghosts 😅

[@ThatGuy-cb3yv]

Humidity. The wood expands and contracts

[@Michelle-tx3mg]

So if there is carpet would thicker padding help. My neighbor above me keeps me up all night with the squeeking🤦🏾‍♀️

[@soundproofguide]

Yes it would defiantly help.

[@pizza_killer5610]

White noise app on my phone really helped me

[@IDMtv]

What about flour if u don’t have baby powder?

[@soundproofguide]

No.

[@apbtbulldogs8826]

Never take advice from a guy who calls screws, nails.

[@Theboys12345]

Lol

[@doosteto]

The problem is that in construction almost everyone thinks that he knows better than the other guys and his way is the best way. You sound like one of those guys. The guy has a good presentation, give some credit to the guy….

[@shittylib749]

@@doosteto The problem is people are lazy and don’t want to learn the proper names for tools and hardware. You’re probably the guy that calls a driver a drill and vice versa. Stick to the accounting gig and leave the heavy lifting for the men. 😎

[@shittylib749]

“Hey Mehdi, go and grab me a handful of those T-20 3” screws, will ya’?” Mehdi comes back with a handful of nails. 🤡

[@mosaicmonk4380]

@@shittylib749lol agreed

[@willberger96]

Great video! Thanks!

[@soundproofguide]

Happy to hear! Thanks for commenting 😊

[@virginiaisforlovers24]

Could you provide that nails info?

[@jean-pierredoucet8328]

Ton presentation est tres bien!

[@soundproofguide]

Merci! :)

[@McPhailHunt]

Shims will eventually pop out unless you restrain them somehow.

[@GarreTTTurncoaT]

3:47 screws.. nails get hammered in

[@raynolin5751]

😊

[@duanemeichels9375]

never use graphite its a filthy messy stuff.

[@truthseekerKJV]

WD-40 has toxic fumes that should never be used on wood floors.

[@GarreTTTurncoaT]

Not toxic.

[@Eiight8]

Squeaky squeaky

[@jrros9828]

wow this guy talks way to much get to the point

[@deannaweeks-he7yo]

Well, you don’t know how to use proper grammar. 🤷‍♀️ Instead of being a bully, maybe just skip the video turd!

[@truthseekerKJV]

Temporary fixes are a waste of time. Using graphite, wd-40, or powder will only work for a short time, but will not fix the problem.

[@berhanuwosenu3196]

😊