Why Do My Floors Squeak

While noisy squeaky floors are a common household annoyance they sometimes indicate serious structural problems.

Why do my floors squeak.

When wooden floorboards are causing the noise. Eliminating floor or stair noises can be problematic when the space underneath is finished and you don t have access to the floor joists or subfloor. Annoying floor squeaks common in many homes typically occur after the house has settled and flooring lumber has dried out and shrunk. Reasons for squeaking floor squeaks can originate from the subfloor or the floor covering.

Floors squeak when floorboards rub against each other or against the nails securing them to the wood subfloor. When this occurs you may want to re attach or secure the floor back down and apply a sealing compound to the flooring which helps prevent this type of problem. Floor squeaks are caused by wood rubbing against a nail other wood or even ductwork and piping. Glued floors come loose or the nails pull loose.

Squeaks happen when a house settles and wood flooring dries and then expands. If your floors squeak year round or there are a few spots that are squeakier than others there might be a problem with the flooring joists. Finding the squeak can be difficult but if the squeaking floor is open from below you re in luck. When the subfloor is squeaking it s usually because the installers used nails and the nails are pulling.

And sometimes begin to hear a squeaky wood floor in our homes. Cause of squeaky hardwood floors 2. Engineered wood floors v. This can lead to the inevitable squeaking you can either repair or live with.

The fact is floors in your home are generally made of wood and wood materials can change over time. Why floors squeak hardwood engineered and laminate flooring planks expand and contract with changing temperature and humidity and in their contraction phase they may rub against each other when you walk on them. Squeaky floors may alert you to kids sneaking in past curfew but they ve got little else going for them. As soon as you turn your heater on you re removing even more of that precious moisture from the air.

As temperatures start to cool the levels of humidity in the outside and inside environments are also shifting from balmy to dry. Why a floor squeaks. This causes the floorboards to rub against each other or against the subfloor or against the nail casings.