How To Repair Loose Hardwood Floor Boards

Squeaky Floorboard Repair
How to repair loose or noisy woods floor

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Wood floor noise or loose board repairs: this article describes repair procedures for wood flooring that is loose, noisy, squeaky, bouncy or otherwise getting on your nerves.

We explain the steps in repairing loose noisy floor from above or from below, describing the use of nails, glues, screws, wedges, or additions support, depending on what's needed and what admission is possible. Shown at page summit, an older wood flooring in Rockefeller Hall, Vassar College - DF.

We as well provide an ARTICLE INDEX for this topic, or you can endeavour the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need.

Loose or Squeaky Floorboard Diagnosis & Repair Suggestions

Reader Question: 3/23/2014 Nick Ellicott City said:

The floors I need help with have loose boards, gap at the summit step tread and the firm doesn't accept air conditioning.

The floors were laid in 1939. Would sub flooring take been laid this long agone and is that why in that location are loose boards and is very squeaky in places? No pet stains, no dark spots should I sand or just fill with sawdust slurry and oil.

[Click to enlarge any paradigm]

OK so the "floor" we show at left is a bit extreme - it'south not really a floor. simply walking into this barn on the hay-covered floor shown from below, I virtually killed myself stepping through the "flooring" - watch out.

Reply: use sawdust to fill woods floor gaps?

Nick I'm unclear on what we're discussing here, and then tin merely brand some guesses.

By 1939 many homes had forest floors installed over wood subfloor - the way to notice out is to examine both sides of the floor, just ane can likewise often infer or guess or discover the floor construction just from the top surface past noticing the floor type (wideboard vs. newer solid oak or pine narrow lath flooring) and by probing gaps between floor boards to see if a subfloor is encountered.

The 19th century wideboard pine flooring shown below was installed directly to joists.

Virtually using sawdust to fill wood floor gaps

Actually?  Though I understand the claim that information technology's flexible, I would not fill gaps in wood floor with sawdust and oil nor anything else, both because I'm uncertain nearly scent and fire safety issues from the mixture y'all describe and because gaps in wood floors vary in width seasonally as temperatures and wet modify. And I think it looks ugly too.

Filling gaps betwixt woods floor boards invites later buckling or causes farther compression of the edges of boards when they next aggrandize. Y'all can come across that'southward what'southward been happening with the putty-filled wood flooring gaps in my parquet woods floor gap photo at left.

When I re-finished the 1860's flooring shown below (28 W Street, Wappingers Falls NY) I actually removed as much of the ugly yellow wood filler as I could, and I left gaps that were equally wide as three/sixteen".

Larger gaps can exist a dangerous trip hazard for people wearing fasten-heeled shoes.

You can meet my "before" and "after" photos.

We put no stain on this floor. I removed old stains and droppings, hand-sanded, set loose boards, and polyurethaned the issue.

One time the poly was in identify the floor was beautiful.

I prefer to vacuum out dirt and debris after sanding so re-stop. If gaps are and so wide as to be a hazard, say iii/16" or larger, then it might be appropriate to cutting in a loose-fitting filler strip just that's rarely needed except in areas of actual floor damage. I've done this using a woods similar in grade and grain as the original, staining it to match.

Run into GAPS Between FLOOR BOARDS for details.

Lookout out: making any gap filling repair in a wood flooring invites further compression, future gaps, and flooring damage if the repair does not leave adequate motion space for the seasonal expansion and compression that occur in woods. How much space is needed? Information technology depends on the wood species, building wet levels, and where the floor is located . For example a wood flooring over a potentially damp clamber expanse is going to be bailiwick to more than moisture and more than expansion.

Mayhap if I saw some abrupt photo (employ the CONTACT link on our pages) I could comment more usefully.

Follow-upward:

Thanks Dan. I will examine the underneath and encounter if there is subflooring. They are very squeaky in some places. Can I smash down the squeaky areas? I saw the sawdust on a Youtube video. This is my first DIY project, practise you advise hand sanding? I also saw cleaning the floors with vinegar. The finished stain color is ideal. I don't want to do also much and ruin them. Your thoughts.

Respond: filling wood floor gaps (don't) & sanding wood floors during a restoration

I made a DIY video on how to perform micro-surgery on a broken talocrural joint myself, but I wouldn't recommend post-obit my advice. An orthopedist will do a meliorate chore. More seriously, ...

How to repair a squeaky wood floor from below

Squeaky woods floors are acquired by move in ane or more boards that rub together as you walk over them or as building temperatures and wet level modify.

Start by walking around to find just where the flooring is loose or squeaky. If possible also inspect beneath since what y'all tin access and what you tin meet volition help make up one's mind how the floor can or should all-time be repaired.

If the flooring structure itself is bouncy you may want to practise more than just secure loose floor boards, calculation cross-bridging between joists (photo at left), calculation sister joists or calculation an intermediate girder or beam below.

Our photo at left shows 3/4" solid oak floor nailed straight to the floor joists - there is no subfloor installed in this Haddonfield New Jersey abode built in the 1960'due south.

[Click to enlarge any paradigm]

Ideally we repair loose wood floor by screwing up or nailing-up from below the floor, through the subflooring or all-time on an bending through the flooring joists, through the subfloor (if present) and into the bottom 3/four of thickness of the finish flooring above..

Information technology helps to have a heavy-friend step near the loose board from in a higher place while we're screwing up from below - to assistance your from-below spiral pull the board downwards. Merely come across my pes-injury warnings below.

Using a wedge & polyurethane glue between the joist pinnacle and subflooring to quiet a noisy floor

If y'all can access the floor from below and see that it'southward the subfloor that has lifted off of a floor joist, effort driving a thin wedge into place betwixt the subfloor underside and the joist top. I put a dab of Gorilla gum on my wedge (if it's not a historic restoration job) knowing that the gum will expand and both hold and make full the joint.

I do Non bulldoze the wedge tight into the gap I leave it loose simply mucilage-coated - fugitive the risk of accidentally separating the subfloor from the joist top still further - making issues worse.

Tips for Working with Gorilla Glue or other Polyurethanes

Let the expanding polyurethane glue do the work. Allow the glue dry to its expanded foamy yellow country. If you need to make clean mucilage off of a finished woods floor surface, odorless paint thinner tin can dissolve this glue before it has cured. When it'south hardened information technology'southward easy to cut abroad backlog gum but trying to work on the glue when it's all the same wet is a mess that you lot'll never get off of your skin.

If the wood is very dry I wipe my wedge with a slightly clammy rag earlier gluing, increasing the expansion charge per unit of the mucilage.

Sometimes we can inject some mucilage into a sub-floor space itself earlier screwing downward. If you use an expanding polyurethane glue like Gorilla Glue™, the combination of that expansion + screwing will quiet down most troublesome boards.

Don't buy a large container of polyurethane mucilage to fix a small problem. I discover it doesn't continue.

Alternatively, for some floor board squeaks experts suggest shooting a bit of graphite powder into the squeaking articulation. I'thou not a fan of blowing graphite effectually simply for 1 or ii modest repairs you might requite it a try.

Calculation back up below squeaky loose floor boards

at left I'm inspecting the under-side and framing of an older floor (no subflooring) nailed right to the flooring joists. You'll notice the cantankerous bracing, but check out the crimson arrow - I'chiliad pointing to a spot where the flooring was lifted off of the joist acme.

IF we tin can't pull this floor down to stabilize it with screws driven along the line of my dark-green arrow from beneath nosotros'll try using an expanding glue.

The glue will both bond and make full the gap between joist top and floor under-side without making things worse by actually pushing the floor up still farther - every bit you might do if you over-bulldoze a wedge.

Thanks to the cantankerous bracing, even though these 2x8 joists were rather modest in dimension, this floor was not bouncy, only squeaky.

On a very old floor where no subflooring is in place we blast through the floor joist top or if there is a "floating" butt joint between two boards not catastrophe over a joist we may screw up a iii/4" or thicker solid plywood plate to the underside of the floor (if a wide area of support is needed) or best we nail 2x lumber of the same depth (or less) every bit the floor joists, as a block between flooring joists.

Locate the block beneath the squeakiest section of floor and spiral up through the top edge of the blocking into the subfloor and flooring.

For a horribly noisy wood floor you may need to add multiple blocks betwixt the joists, placing blocking about 4 feet on centre and nailed into opposing joists.

Watch out: for straight-up back up plate repairs to a loose or squeaky wood flooring be sure to use screws that are short enough as non to protrude through the terminate floor surface above, afterward assuasive for any depth to which the screw will sink into the underside of the board as you tighten it.

Do we use finishing nails, ring-shank nails or screws to secure a loose floor lath?

Ordinarily screws work better than nails to secure loose flooring, especially when repairing the flooring from below.

The screw can pull downward a lath while nailing it may have less satisfactory results.

If the thickness of the finished floor is less than almost 5/16" in thickness, working on an bending and with care you may all the same have success but at that place's a adept chance that your screws from below are non probable to hold.

The wood floor at left is 3/4" thick solid hickory - enough of thickness to concur a screw from beneath, only this wood is so hard that if yous are repairing it from above you'll need to pre-drill holes.

Watch out: don't use more than nails or screws than necessary or you may damage the board or even make things worse.

Spotter out: don't drill a screw upwardly through the finished floor or worse spiral your friend's foot to the floor above.

How to repair a loose or squeaky woods floor from to a higher place

If we cannot access the loose, squeaky floor from below (considering the neighbor won't allow us in or because there is a concrete structure or expensive ceiling in the way) we can even so secure the squeaky or loose flooring from to a higher place, driving trim screws or larger screws on an appropriate angle to pull the loose lath down and snug information technology upward.

Should you utilize nails or screws? If the board is loose simply not hard to pull down, using 6d stainless band-shank nails driven through a pre-drilled (smaller bit than smash) hole may piece of work best and will allow yous to counter-sink the nail head at least i/8" below the floor surface.

For flooring boards that are hard to pull down by nailing screws may exist more than constructive.

What nearly those ugly screw heads in the repaired flooring? For a more cosmetically perfect wood flooring repair we sometimes use a very sharp gouge to lift a bit of flooring off of the surface without breaking the wood-scrap abroad. And then nosotros drive and counter-sink our screw (or nail) in the depression provided by the gouge. When the fastener has been counter-sunk we mucilage the raised gouge dorsum downwardly.

An alternative to the floor repair using the "lift-a-chip" method is to drill out and countersink screws, filling the hole with a matched plug sanded and stained to be unobtrusive. I'thousand non a fan of this approach unless nosotros are going to be installing a regular and attractive pattern of plugs in the flooring and I'd avoid it entirely on a historic and valuable wood floor.

I utilize a fleck of waxed newspaper atop the floor gouge and weigh it down with a flat chunk of iron we go on effectually for that purpose. When the glue is dry the waxed newspaper lets me lift away the weight and if necessary remove whatsoever excess glue that seeped out of the repair. This process tin make a nearly-invisible repair in even a fine forest floor.

Sanding old wood floors: advice

About hand sanding versus power sanding, the respond is, as Marking Cramer says, ... information technology depends.

On a hardwood flooring with plenty of forest thickness and deep harm we might utilise a ability sander along with an edger.

On an antique (ofttimes soft-forest) floor like the one shown at left nosotros utilise a combination of sharp hand scrapers and paw sanding. In my opinion sanding an antique or historic floor dead apartment produces a weird and inappropriate cease.

In full general using the least destructive, least invasive method is all-time.

The floor shown hither was antiquarian wide pine board with ship-lap joints that had been installed around 1860. Nosotros discuss it farther and include a "before" photo

at Flooring Wood Historic period TYPES HISTORY

Reader Comments & Q&A

@Ann Hughes,

I don't love my solution simply don't know one better:

In the center of the squeeking area of the flooring, utilise a caulk gun to inject a blob of articulate silicone sealant - you don't need to make full the whole area, just squeeze in enough to brand an estimated blob size of an inch or ii in diameter.

Then wipe off the excess sealant using a clammy fabric, leaving your one/8" hole filled flush (or if you want to get fancy, recessed and so you tin can fill up information technology with an attempted match to the original floor). I remember yous'll notice the pigsty barely noticeable.

Then stay OFF of the floor in that expanse for at to the lowest degree 24 hours; 48 hours would be better because in my experience squirting silicone sealant into a tightly-closed infinite with niggling air tin take longer than normal to harden.

Yous could also use an expanding polyurethane glue like Gorilla glue that would work well, but yous'll need to accept a bit of odorless paint thinner on hand to clean up the over-spill: it's messier and harder to clean than silicone sealant and I worry that you could foul up the flooring's surface end, that's why I suggested the silicone sealant instead.

If you determine to use polyurethane, which has the reward of expanding into the open infinite below the flooring, y'all'll want to use blueish masking record over the insertion hole during curing or glue will continue to ooze back up out of the insertion opening as information technology cures.

I take an engineered wood floor all through my ground floor. At that place is a 3ft foursquare patch just every bit you lot step off the last stair where the sub flooring seems to be damaged as the boards are squeeking and dropping when you stand on them.

This is simply a modest patch and I do not want to take to replace the whole hall area for such a small piece.

Can you give me some communication every bit to what would exist the best form of activity. I understand that the wood has been nailed and glued. ?

Sure Sharon. A mechanics'due south stethoscope is in essence a dr.'s stethoscope just the round disc that amplifies sound is replaced past a solid steel rod. The tip of the rod is pressed against various surfaces to see where sound seems loudest. A mechanic uses the device to locate a bad bearing or other engine noise.

You can notice these at your local auto parts store or at Walmart or online, or you could brand your own if you lot have a medical stethoscope at paw.

Hither's an example since Comments box lost our earlier image

Thank you so much for your reply.

I will try a mechanic'southward stethoscope, which no i else suggested and which was unknown to me. I capeesh your knowledge and your sharing of it.

Your engineers guess is probably the all-time one from what you have told me. There are visitor specializing in dissonance analysis and diagnosis though I am non sure that it would be cost Justified for the situation.

Or you lot could try listening more carefully with a mechanic's stethoscope to narrow down the specific building components that are moving. Off of what people do is place the well-nigh likely culprit and effort to make some changes that will prove that that was the source when the noise allay's.

The April 20 2022 answer to Judith said "one would want a confident and accurate diagnosis of the cause of the problem". Ceilings and perhaps walls in two bedrooms of my firm take tapping and banging noises day and night, sometimes at most i/2 60 minutes intervals.

The structural engineer saw no cracks anywhere and said it was probably caused by the flat roof and New Mexico temperature variations and day/nighttime issues. The carpet guy tacked down some screws where the floor seemed to have movement. The HVAC man balanced the condenser on the roof. The racket persists. Who should I ask for a diagnosis?

Judith before assigning responsibility for who shouuld do what one would want a confident and accurate diagnosis of the cause of the problem you describe.

I agree that water or high moisture in a crawl space tin can be a problem in a home and in my Opinion is itself unacceptable.

Merely there are other causes for floor damage including installation error - depending on the floor type, materials, subfloor, etc.

Two year quondam dwelling encapsulated in crawl space our hardwood floors popular all over should the builder replace the flooring

...

Proceed reading at FLOORING NOISES in BUILDINGS or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE Alphabetize.

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Recommended Manufactures

• Floor NOISE CONTROL
• Flooring Wood Age TYPES HISTORY - home
• FLOORING NOISES in BUILDINGS - topic home
• WOOD Floor Harm REPAIR - home

Besides run across Mike Litchfield's RENOVATION fourth EDITION: Completely Revised and Updated, [Book sold via Amazon] Taunton Printing; 4th ed. (2012), ISBN-10: 1600854923 ISBN-13: 978-1600854927.

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