creaky floor

[carol8242]

I have had laminate flooring on my kitchen floor for years and have lifted it up as i wanted to go with a cushioned vinyl flooring. However the floor creaks a lot when you walk on it its not individual floorboards so not keen to put nails in floor to stop noise as someone had suggested. Would plywood put down first stop the noise

thanks............................

[dasherman]

Screws would do a much better job than nails. While plywood, imo, would potentially create more creaks.

[Clanad]

There are a number of reasons a floor squeaks. Ironcially, one of the most common is the fact that original floor was put down with nails, which have worked loose and when one walks on the floor, the flooring moves up and down on the nail, producing the noise.
First, if the subfloor can be reached from underneath, such as from a basement, there are devices like this:

http://www.installers...vW28K0CFYXd4Aodm3F8sA

That I can attest work very well, are reasonably priced and are easily installed.

Barring that, if you'll locate the floor joists (the heavy duty, usually 2 inch wide supports for the floor structure) and if the house is reasonably new... and if building codes in the U.K. are similar to ours in the U.S., they'll be 16 inches on center apart. Meaning, when you locate one, the next would be easy to find, just measure. Once located, drive at least a 2 inch 'deck' screw through the squeaking area into the joist. Drive it far enough to somwhat 'sink' the screw so its head is below the level of the flooring. Continue until the squeak is amended...

[The Builder]

Sounds like tongued & grooved chipboard, Carol. Notorious for squeaking if not fixed properly.
Nothing to add to Clanad's post.......... except to translate the 16" to 400mm (but only on property built in the last 40 years or so...... before that 16")

For many years, best practice for T&G c/board has been to glue and screw (glue in the T&G joints).

If the joists are very old, you may need a 2 1/2" (65mm) screw.
Countersink pre-drilled holes first.
No need for ply if it's well fixed c/board.

[marden40]

it sounds to me that you have only experienced this creaking since you took up the laminate flooring......chipboard flooring should be glued along all joints and then fixed on every joist with 4 screws across its width, however doing this at a later stage is difficult as you don't have any indication of pipe and cable runs under the floor, therefore running the risk of causing damage.....if you are intending to put vinyl onto this floor, i would indeed lay 6mm ply over the entire floor first this would distribute the weight of the walking traffic a bit more and could eradicate some of the creaking.....it must be fixed using 25mm screw at 150mm centres over the whole area so lots of screws are needed, make sure the screws are slightly sunk into the ply, then fill over the screws...this sounds like a lot of work but if this is not done, over time you would see all the screws through the vinyl...keep the ply sheets as large as you can.....this method could solve the creaking completely but if not, the only real solution is to replace the floor.