How to fix squeaky floorboards

Fix Squeaky Floorboards

Squeaky floorboards can be very annoying – particularly if you feel you can’t fix them because you don’t want to remove or wreck the old carpet.

However, they can be fixed without ruining the carpet. So, in this article we’re taking you through a few  steps to help you understand why your floorboards might be creaky and what you can do to fix them. We’ll also give you some precautionary measures to take so you don’t wreck the floors and don’t injure yourself either.

What causes creaky floorboards

  1. You might find that the boards have been nailed down. Nails shouldn’t be used because they always become loos after a short period of time and usage.
  2. On the other hand there might be screws which sometimes aren’t the right screws for the job. Screws also become loose and cause creaking too

How to fix them. a quick guide

  1. Lift the carpet up and find the culprits
    1. Fid a corner to see where’s best to lift the carpet up from
    2. from the loose bit of carpet work your way along the side of the room – be careful when doing this because there are likely to be sharp carpet grippers behind the carpet.
    3. Pull the carpet back to reveal the underlay – always keeping your fingers away from the carpet grippers as you don’t want them to pierce your skin
  2. Lift up the underlay
    1. It may have been stapled down or stuck down with double sided sticky tape – be careful making sure you don’t rip it at this point
    2. On the other hand, it may have been already lifted in the past for some other work such as electrical or pipe work.
  3. Find the boards that are doing the creaking – start with the worst sections first
  4. Remove the old screws that are squeaking
  5. Lift the boards up to see if there are any pipes underneath – if there are, then mark out on the non-squeaky boards where the pipes run. That way, when you put the
  6. Screw the boards down with some flooring – where possible, do a direct replacement with the one you’ve removed.
    1. Never randomly put screws into floor boards because you just don’t know what’s under the floor. Especially in the UK we are well known for running pipes and cables very close to the floor boards. You definitely don’t want to screw into one because you could lose you whole electricity in one foul swoop.
    2. Make sure the screws are no longer than the joists themselves, because once again you don’t know what could be under the joist in terms of pipes and cables.