Stopping your floor from making noise

It is normal for hardwood floor to make some noise over time whenever you walk across the floor. This is due to the dry environments where the floor will shrink, while in wet conditions it will expand. The noises are created from two sub-floor boards that rub against each other, some loosen-up nails or tongue-and-groove joints which also rub against each other when the wood has dried. This shrinkage and expansion situations can create cracks between the floors if not taken care of. Below are some of the steps to be taken to stop your floor from making squeaking noise;

Wood flooring:

What you need:

1. Talcum powder (this is to be use as a temporary solution)
2. Wood shims
3. Carpenter\’s glue
4. Screw (1 1/4-inch)
5. Drill
6. Hammer
7. Screws (square headed – 1 1/2-inch to 2-inch long)
8. Countersink drill bit
9. Wood putty

Method:

1. A temporary solution can be use which is a quick fix technique, for example using talcum powder (or baby powder) if the squeaking sound coming from your uncovered wood floor. You can sprinkle the powder into the joints where the squeaking sound coming from and leave it for a while.
2. After that, you need to place a piece of newspaper on top of the affected area and then step on the newspaper and move it over the boards for the powder to reach deeper inside its joints. When you have finished doing that, remove the newspaper and vacuum or sweep the remaining powder on the floor.
3. Other method that can be used is by reaching the underneath of the wooden floor. Determine the exact location or area where the noise comes from and then you need to coat a wood shim together with carpenter\’s glue. You also need to tap the wood shim in between the floor\’s joists and its sub-floor by using a drill to drive a 1/4-inch screw through the joist and shim and into the sub-floor to adding further support to the floor.

Stop your floor from making noise:

1. In the case where you are unable to access the floor from below, you can use different method to fix the squeaking sound. The first thing that you have to do is pre-drill holes through floorboards only (but not through the sub-floor) at an angle at least 1/2 inch from the edge.
2. After that, use a nail set in order for you to drive the nail heads below the surface of the floor and also fill-up the hole using wood filler (use color-matched wood filler which has the same colour as your floor).
3. Then, for each of the screw, you need to countersink it by using a countersink drill bit and also fill-up the screw hole using wood filler (use color-matched wood filler which has the same colour as your floor).

Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5387082_stop-hardwood-floor-making-noise.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4543778_hardwood-floors-squeaking-creaking-noises.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/17603/how_to_repair_a_squeaky_floor.html?cat=6
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/flooring/how-to-repair-floors.htm

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garrettc/119759047/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joanandbarry/3154254846/