Tips for Silencing Squeaky Floors

Floor squeaks happen, and when they do, most of us just tolerate them as a part of the “charm” of living in an older house! But as annoying as squeaking floors can be, they have a rather simple cause and solution – and squeaks rarely indicate a structural problem forming under foot.

No matter what kind of finish flooring you may have — carpet, vinyl, tile, or hardwood — unless your home is built on a concrete slab, underneath it’s wood. And it’s that wood that causes the squeaks — well, sort of. Usually, the squeak is a loose nail rubbing inside the hole it was originally driven into. Lumber that’s used to build homes contains a certain degree of natural moisture, which makes the wood easy to cut and minimizes splitting when it’s being nailed together. Unfortunately, as the wood dries, it shrinks — a natural process that can take years. When the wood shrinks enough, once tightly seated nails can loosen and rub when the wood flexes below the pitter-patter of foot traffic, creating the familiar irritating sound: a floor squeak.

The good news is that floor squeaks aren’t as tough to fix as they are to listen to! They’re not difficult or expensive to repair, and with a little guidance, you can avoid the frustrating part of the task: actually, finding the cause of the squeak.

Finding the squeak

The first step in repairing a floor squeak is to find the nail that’s rubbing up against the wood floor — a task akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Here’s a trick that I use to pinpoint a floor squeak so that I can make a repair: Use a short length of garden hose as a stethoscope. Hold one end of the hose to your ear and the other end on the floor while someone else walks across the floor to make it squeak.

Fixing the squeak

If the problem is a loose subfloor (the wood floor beneath the carpet, vinyl, hardwood, and so on), the repair can get sticky depending upon the type of finish flooring you have. However, if access below is available (that is, you can get to the subfloor through the basement or crawlspace), installing a wood shim shingle between the subfloor and the floor joist is a quick and easy means of preventing the subfloor from flexing, and it quiets the squeak. Just squirt some carpenter’s glue on the thin end of the shingle and tap it in with a hammer.

Most squeaks can be solved by driving an extra screw through the subfloor to the floor joists directly underneath the squeak. But when the floor is covered with wall-to-wall carpet, that can require taking the carpet up. Here’s a shortcut: take a 12d finish nail (use a galvanized nail — it holds better) and drive it through the carpet into the subfloor and joist below. You’ll find this leaves a divot in the carpet, which will no doubt have you (or your spouse) thinking you’ve just ruined the rug! Ah, but not so fast! Just grab the nap of the carpet above the divot and pull it up until the nail pulls through the carpet backing. Voilà, the divot will have disappeared right along with the squeak!

Another means of quieting a squeaking floor by preventing it from flexing is a nifty gadget called a Squeak-Ender. It consists of a metal plate and threaded-rod assembly that’s screwed to the underside of the subfloor and a steel bracket. You slip the bracket beneath the joist and over the threaded rod; then you tighten a nut onto the rod to pull down the floor and close the gap. For more information on the Squeak-Ender, go to www.squeakender.com or call 586-978-3377.

If access below is not available, after you locate the culprit nail, the next step is to create a better connection. Don’t use nails to make the repair — use screws. Just follow these steps:

1. Locate the squeak using the method discussed in the preceding section.

2. Locate the nearest floor joist under the squeak.

   The floor joist is the horizontal floor framing member that the wood subfloor is attached to. If the subfloor is exposed, this is easy — just look at the nails, which will line up over the floor joists. If not, you can locate the joist using a stud finder, an electronic tool used to locate wood studs to joists below walls or floors.

3. Near the existing squeaking nail, drill a small pilot hole through the wood subfloor and into the floor joist.

   Drilling a small pilot hole in the floor joist makes driving in the screw easier. You can leave the old nail in place, or, if it’s loose, remove it using a nail puller or pry bar.

4. Drive a construction screw into the pilot hole, through the subfloor, and so on.

   When working on a hardwood floor, countersink (recess) the screw head so that it can be concealed with hardwood putty. Use a putty knife to install hardwood putty. Touch up the floor finish with 400- to 600-grit wet/dry sandpaper.

   Drive a screw into the pilot hole.

I recommend construction screws because they’re easy to drive and they grip like crazy. You can purchase screws with a finish head (like a finish nail), which makes them a particularly good choice when working on a hardwood floor. You simply countersink them slightly and place putty over them. A construction screw’s coarse threads and really sharp tip make it the perfect fastener for old, dry wood. The sharp tip gets through harder lumber more easily, and the coarse screw threads go in faster and hold better.