How to Drown Out Creaky Floors in an Old House
Living in an old house is a challenge for many reasons. From architectural details you no longer see, to layers of paint and wallpaper, to customizable built-ins, there are features hidden everywhere.
However, some of the quirks of old houses are hard to ignore, let alone miss – such as a leaky basement, tiny toilets, or flickering electricity – which relatives commonly refer to as “character” and / or “charm.” Squeaky hardwood floors also fall into this category.
It’s one thing to betray you at night by making noise as you sneak into the kitchen for a bite to eat. But old floors also have a tendency to make a squeak and crack, even if the house is empty.
And even if you know that this is not an extra set of steps, your mind can play pretty cruel jokes with you in the dark. Here’s how to get the floors to calm down.
How to keep wood floors quiet
So why do old floors creak at all? “Squeaks happen when a house collapses and wood floors dry and then expand,” writes Lisa Kaplan Gordon in an article for Realtor.com . “This causes the floorboards to rub against each other, the sub-floor or nails.”
Luckily, she also has ideas on how to stop the creak. But first you have to identify its source – she says it is the work of two people.
Ask one person to go down to the level of the house below the noisy floor (so if there is a creak on the first floor, go to the basement), and the other walks on the creaky floor. The person at the lower level should be able to accurately (or approximately) determine where the sound is coming from.
From there, you have several different options, depending on whether you want a quick fix or something more permanent, and whether you want (or more realistically, be able to) tackle the problem from the top or from the bottom.
From below
There are several ways to fix a noisy floor below, according to Gordon :
- Apply construction glue or wood glue to a thin piece of wood, then tap it gently between the joists and the sub-floor or two floorboards, “being careful not to hit so hard that you lift or bend the floor,” she notes.
- If there is a large gap, you can use a compaction gun to fill it with construction adhesive between the subfloor and the joist.
Above
Meanwhile, here are some ways to make your floors quieter from above, once again, according to Gordon :
- Sprinkle talcum powder on the noisy cracks, cover the area with a towel or cloth, and gently walk over it to settle. “The powder acts as a lubricant that stops friction causing noise,” she explains.
- “Drive ring-shank floor nails (covered with small rings that prevent the nail from slipping out over time) or cement-coated floor nails into the joints between the rubbing parts,” says Gordon.
- If the squeak is caused by the floorboards separating from the subfloor, you can drive two nails at opposite 45-degree angles into the joists (which you can find with the nail finder) and then use the hole putty.
If none of these options seem feasible, Gordon suggests several other options in his article .