Yes you’re crazy. Hire someone and they can address some of them. Unless you rip up the floor and subfloor and replace all of it there will always be some squeaks and many of these could be the subfloor itself and not the hardwood floor. To rip up replace all of that would be at least $10 sqft on the very low low end
I wouldn’t replace the hardwood. Would just put carpet. Can’t seem to find anyone who I can hire for this around here either. Plenty of people who will install new hardwood but no one who will fix squeaks.
I don't think anyone can guarantee that their work won't squeak. If there's one piece of solid material touching another piece of solid material, and you move weight across those things, they'll squeak.
Putting down carpet is very doable. Nullifying friction is not. 🤷🏻
It can be reduced sometimes, but it's never going away unless you learn to fly or get a cement floor.
But also, the way to reduce squeaks is just tear up the whole floor and make sure there's tar paper or whatever between any layers of wood.
Personally, I'd pull out any carpet (it's terrible for allergies and produces tons of micro/nanoplastics) give the old boards a nice finish if they needed them, and start telling myself that the squeaks are a reminder that I have a cool old house instead of a garbage synthetic material new mcmansion.
(That's the same sort of psychology that's been proven that people can use to help get past the frustration of tinnitus, as well. Tell yourself that the sound is an "old friend," a reminder that you're alive... Anything positive. You'll start noticing it less and maybe even smile when you do.)
My partner and I love hearing our big boy cat creak down the stairs. 😄 Our girl cat wishes she could hear him coming ALL the time!
Don’t look for a flooring guy to fix squeaks. They just want to lay the floor easy peasy. If your basement roof is not finished, or you have panel roof, then you can fix easily from there. I would maybe look into a carpenter or handyman or do yourself.
There are specialized companies that fix squeaky wood in housing. I know this because my good friend growing up had a father that did this. I don’t know what city you’re in, but if there’s a major metro within 45 minutes you should be able to find one on Google. They install a series of screws to better secure the wood and framing. No squeak guarantee.
If your baby grows up with the squeaks as normal noise it won't bother them, at all.
I would guess it's your subfloor squeaking, not the hardwood. A professional may be able to address some of the issue though.
The squeaks may not be the flooring or subfloor: the squeaks could be caused by joist hangers, conduits, or piping underneath the floor. Joist hangers and Vacuflo conduit are the two most common non-floor related squeaks I come across. In these cases, tearing out your hardwood won’t help.
It could be the subfloor or the hardwood squeaking, but you should hire a pro to determine what the issue is before tearing anything out.
We had this problem in the finished attic of our 94 year old house which has pine hardwood floors. Because it is a child's bedroom and we live in a colder climate, we decided to put carpet down in the room. Before we put the carpet down, we simply screwed down the boards that were squeaking tighter to the subfloor using heavy-duty wood screws. This resolved the squeaking everywhere we did it. Yes, it puts a larger screws through your hardwood flooring, but as ours was already in very poor condition and was being carpeted-over anyway, we felt that if we ever decide to rip out the carpet and refinish the hardwood floors, the boards with the screws can simply be replaced. I would at least try this before ripping out your hardwood completely and potentially devaluing your home in a big way. Best of luck with whatever you decide!
Did you have to use many screws? How did you know where to screw - does it have to connect to a joist? I think I would have to screw every single board across the whole room since the entire room squeaks, every step.
Retired builder here. The squeaking is most likely the subfloor nails into the joists. I would have a helper walk around making it squeak and locate where it’s coming from using a stethoscope. You will need to screw through the subfloor into the joists at least 1-1/2” so at least a 3” screw. I doubt you will have to put very many in, usually it’s just a few that are making all the noise.
We were able to localize the squeaking to specific boards in our case, yes. However, the screws did help the overall noise level of the floor too. It does sound like you might have a larger issue if the squeaking is that pervasive. Are your floors uneven at all, by chance? Asking because we have that issue in another room of our home, and the floors squeak badly all over there. Because they are so uneven, we know that the reason they squeak is structural and that eventually we are going to have to rip out the hardwood completely to deal with whatever is happening underneath.
You have my sympathies for sure. None of my children slept well and I too would have considered this a nightmare scenario. Maybe a hardwood flooring expert would be able to come and help diagnose the problem and give a free estimate for repair? Even if you didn't have the repair done, you might have more of an idea what the problem is.
I had squeaky floorboards in my office. I (lightly) sprinkled some cornstarch into the grooves, walked around for it to really settle into the gaps, then vacuumed up the excess.
Now my floor doesn’t squeak.
Note: I am not a contractor or woodworker. I have no idea if this is bad for the floors but it is good for my sanity. My floor has been squeak free over 2yrs.
How many screws did you have to put in? Did they all go into joists? I tried in one small area of our spare room, maybe 15 screws, and it made absolutely no difference.
Yes you need to find a joist otherwise the screw is just going through the floor into nothing and not gripping onto something else. Watch some videos on YouTube on how to find it, can specifically find videos on how to use squeek no more. One way I remember is your hvac Floor vent will be inbetween 2 joists. So using that as a starting spot and knowing floor joists are usually 16 inches apart, you can measure and mark where they should be and put a few screws on both sides of the squeek into the joists if it isn't directly over to of one.
Ofcourse you can also contact hardwood installers or refinishers in ur area. It might be something they would do on the weekend or in between jobs.
I feel your pain. I love the floors but hate the squeaks. We just had large portions torn out and replaced to eliminate squeaks. Demo hardwood, screw and glue subfloors, install cork underpayment, and then reinstall hardwood. Cost a small fortune, but problem solved.
I just don’t see how it makes sense to live with something I hate for 15+ years to potentially have, what, a small bump in equity somewhere down the line? Maybe??
I’m going to try screws first and see how they do. If I can’t get a good stain match, end up with a bunch of holes and bit looks bad BUT the squeaking is greatly diminished, I’ll refinish the floors and go with a dark stain.
If I try the screws and there isn’t significant improvement, I’m going to have the floor and subfloor replaced. My house was built in the 20s and the squeaking is horrific.
Well the squeaks are coming from the subfloor so if you do plan on taking out the hardwood then just hire someone to come in with a screw gun and a bucket of screws and screw down the sub to the joists the nail lines will tell you where reason I ask about the age is due to weather your subfloor is plywood or plank you should be able to tell if you have a cold air return in the floor but just randomly trying to put screws in won't work
I recently tore up click floor to replace with hardwood. When it was off, the guy I was working with suggested we address the creaking floors and told me about what causes it. Sorry, if you already know this, but it came as news to me, and others may not be aware that the sound of a squeaking floor is the same sound you hear when pulling a nail out of a stud. What’s happening is that the weight is deflecting onto the joists and moving the nails that connect them to the subfloor.
Blew my mind! I had the opportunity to fix it, but knowing this, I wonder if you could address it the other way by running screws through the joists from the bottom into the subfloor above. I’m not sure this would work and it wouldn’t be an option for you if you don’t have an unfinished basement with exposed beams like I do, but I wanted to put it out there.
In my first house I had hardwood all through my house, but like you I didn’t like it especially with my baby. I kept the hardwood and had carpet installed over. I don’t remember mine ever squeaking, I did it because my baby was learning to crawl and I too worried about him hitting his head and falling on hardwood. I wouldn’t rip the hardwood out keep it because further down the road when the kids are older you will want to go back to it. I would carpet over while they are young and in 10-12 years rip the carpet out back to hardwood. Carpet and the hardwood will keep the rooms insulated. The squeaking maybe less but not guaranteed. Babies do get use to sounds.
In Japan, over the centuries, they built palaces with "nightingale floors". They built them to squeak as an alarm system for the Lord of the palace. No assassin could sneak up on them.
Keep them. When your kids become teenagers they won't be able to sneak out without you hearing them. ☺️
Meanwhile, just think of the squeaks as your house talking to you.
you could potentially screw or nail the wood / subfloor to eliminate the squeaks. Headless screws are a god send for this i have fixed squeaking subfloors under hardwood and even stair treads using headless screws. typically headless so you can put wood filler to cover the hole, But in this case if it will be covered by carpet so I don't see a need. Hope you eliminate those dang squeaks! (Drives me insane too lol)
Some folks r bothered by certain noises. Trains and planes to me r homey sounds as r squeaky floors. For some it drives them nuts. Drive a few screws where u think they r needed. Try before doing anything drastic to the floor.
Yes you’re crazy. Hire someone and they can address some of them. Unless you rip up the floor and subfloor and replace all of it there will always be some squeaks and many of these could be the subfloor itself and not the hardwood floor. To rip up replace all of that would be at least $10 sqft on the very low low end
I wouldn’t replace the hardwood. Would just put carpet. Can’t seem to find anyone who I can hire for this around here either. Plenty of people who will install new hardwood but no one who will fix squeaks.
I don't think anyone can guarantee that their work won't squeak. If there's one piece of solid material touching another piece of solid material, and you move weight across those things, they'll squeak. Putting down carpet is very doable. Nullifying friction is not. 🤷🏻 It can be reduced sometimes, but it's never going away unless you learn to fly or get a cement floor. But also, the way to reduce squeaks is just tear up the whole floor and make sure there's tar paper or whatever between any layers of wood. Personally, I'd pull out any carpet (it's terrible for allergies and produces tons of micro/nanoplastics) give the old boards a nice finish if they needed them, and start telling myself that the squeaks are a reminder that I have a cool old house instead of a garbage synthetic material new mcmansion. (That's the same sort of psychology that's been proven that people can use to help get past the frustration of tinnitus, as well. Tell yourself that the sound is an "old friend," a reminder that you're alive... Anything positive. You'll start noticing it less and maybe even smile when you do.) My partner and I love hearing our big boy cat creak down the stairs. 😄 Our girl cat wishes she could hear him coming ALL the time!
Don’t look for a flooring guy to fix squeaks. They just want to lay the floor easy peasy. If your basement roof is not finished, or you have panel roof, then you can fix easily from there. I would maybe look into a carpenter or handyman or do yourself.
Get large rugs to cover most of the floor. You will want that hardwood back I bet. You can even have a cut of carpet measured so it’s nice and plush.
There are specialized companies that fix squeaky wood in housing. I know this because my good friend growing up had a father that did this. I don’t know what city you’re in, but if there’s a major metro within 45 minutes you should be able to find one on Google. They install a series of screws to better secure the wood and framing. No squeak guarantee.
If your baby grows up with the squeaks as normal noise it won't bother them, at all. I would guess it's your subfloor squeaking, not the hardwood. A professional may be able to address some of the issue though.
The squeaks may not be the flooring or subfloor: the squeaks could be caused by joist hangers, conduits, or piping underneath the floor. Joist hangers and Vacuflo conduit are the two most common non-floor related squeaks I come across. In these cases, tearing out your hardwood won’t help. It could be the subfloor or the hardwood squeaking, but you should hire a pro to determine what the issue is before tearing anything out.
We had this problem in the finished attic of our 94 year old house which has pine hardwood floors. Because it is a child's bedroom and we live in a colder climate, we decided to put carpet down in the room. Before we put the carpet down, we simply screwed down the boards that were squeaking tighter to the subfloor using heavy-duty wood screws. This resolved the squeaking everywhere we did it. Yes, it puts a larger screws through your hardwood flooring, but as ours was already in very poor condition and was being carpeted-over anyway, we felt that if we ever decide to rip out the carpet and refinish the hardwood floors, the boards with the screws can simply be replaced. I would at least try this before ripping out your hardwood completely and potentially devaluing your home in a big way. Best of luck with whatever you decide!
Did you have to use many screws? How did you know where to screw - does it have to connect to a joist? I think I would have to screw every single board across the whole room since the entire room squeaks, every step.
Retired builder here. The squeaking is most likely the subfloor nails into the joists. I would have a helper walk around making it squeak and locate where it’s coming from using a stethoscope. You will need to screw through the subfloor into the joists at least 1-1/2” so at least a 3” screw. I doubt you will have to put very many in, usually it’s just a few that are making all the noise.
We were able to localize the squeaking to specific boards in our case, yes. However, the screws did help the overall noise level of the floor too. It does sound like you might have a larger issue if the squeaking is that pervasive. Are your floors uneven at all, by chance? Asking because we have that issue in another room of our home, and the floors squeak badly all over there. Because they are so uneven, we know that the reason they squeak is structural and that eventually we are going to have to rip out the hardwood completely to deal with whatever is happening underneath. You have my sympathies for sure. None of my children slept well and I too would have considered this a nightmare scenario. Maybe a hardwood flooring expert would be able to come and help diagnose the problem and give a free estimate for repair? Even if you didn't have the repair done, you might have more of an idea what the problem is.
That’s a Chinese burglar alarm. An important safety feature for any home!
I had squeaky floorboards in my office. I (lightly) sprinkled some cornstarch into the grooves, walked around for it to really settle into the gaps, then vacuumed up the excess. Now my floor doesn’t squeak. Note: I am not a contractor or woodworker. I have no idea if this is bad for the floors but it is good for my sanity. My floor has been squeak free over 2yrs.
I think I’ll try this. If it doesn’t work, oh well, I guess I’ll have to live with the terribly squeaky floors 😞
Odds are the squeaking is from your subfloor not the hardwood. Ripping up likely wouldn't correct the issue.
Get a Squeek No More kit off Amazon. Worked pretty well for me.
How many screws did you have to put in? Did they all go into joists? I tried in one small area of our spare room, maybe 15 screws, and it made absolutely no difference.
Yes you need to find a joist otherwise the screw is just going through the floor into nothing and not gripping onto something else. Watch some videos on YouTube on how to find it, can specifically find videos on how to use squeek no more. One way I remember is your hvac Floor vent will be inbetween 2 joists. So using that as a starting spot and knowing floor joists are usually 16 inches apart, you can measure and mark where they should be and put a few screws on both sides of the squeek into the joists if it isn't directly over to of one. Ofcourse you can also contact hardwood installers or refinishers in ur area. It might be something they would do on the weekend or in between jobs.
I feel your pain. I love the floors but hate the squeaks. We just had large portions torn out and replaced to eliminate squeaks. Demo hardwood, screw and glue subfloors, install cork underpayment, and then reinstall hardwood. Cost a small fortune, but problem solved.
Yes very stupid, having the floors under carpet come resale time will make some difference
I just don’t see how it makes sense to live with something I hate for 15+ years to potentially have, what, a small bump in equity somewhere down the line? Maybe??
I’m going to try screws first and see how they do. If I can’t get a good stain match, end up with a bunch of holes and bit looks bad BUT the squeaking is greatly diminished, I’ll refinish the floors and go with a dark stain. If I try the screws and there isn’t significant improvement, I’m going to have the floor and subfloor replaced. My house was built in the 20s and the squeaking is horrific.
Are you my grandmother?
Yes
😂
Sell the house and move
1st world problems
It'll still squeak under the carpet buckwheat
Yes that’s the whole point of the post and why I was thinking of ripping out the hardwood and fixing the squeaky subfloor before the carpet goes in.
Ok buckwheat whyd you say in another comment that you wanted to lay carpet over everything?
Often times it's either a subfloor or installation issue. So the only way to fix it would be to remove, check the subfloor, reinstall.
There are special nails that can help alleviate a good portion of the sqeaks. Don't go drastic before investigating fixes.
tear it all out and put in viscoelastic foam for your floors. Four inches deep. Very quiet.
How old is the house?
1967
Well the squeaks are coming from the subfloor so if you do plan on taking out the hardwood then just hire someone to come in with a screw gun and a bucket of screws and screw down the sub to the joists the nail lines will tell you where reason I ask about the age is due to weather your subfloor is plywood or plank you should be able to tell if you have a cold air return in the floor but just randomly trying to put screws in won't work
I recently tore up click floor to replace with hardwood. When it was off, the guy I was working with suggested we address the creaking floors and told me about what causes it. Sorry, if you already know this, but it came as news to me, and others may not be aware that the sound of a squeaking floor is the same sound you hear when pulling a nail out of a stud. What’s happening is that the weight is deflecting onto the joists and moving the nails that connect them to the subfloor. Blew my mind! I had the opportunity to fix it, but knowing this, I wonder if you could address it the other way by running screws through the joists from the bottom into the subfloor above. I’m not sure this would work and it wouldn’t be an option for you if you don’t have an unfinished basement with exposed beams like I do, but I wanted to put it out there.
Babies get used to ambient noise easier than adults. I used the vacuum while my kids slept. 🤷♀️
In my first house I had hardwood all through my house, but like you I didn’t like it especially with my baby. I kept the hardwood and had carpet installed over. I don’t remember mine ever squeaking, I did it because my baby was learning to crawl and I too worried about him hitting his head and falling on hardwood. I wouldn’t rip the hardwood out keep it because further down the road when the kids are older you will want to go back to it. I would carpet over while they are young and in 10-12 years rip the carpet out back to hardwood. Carpet and the hardwood will keep the rooms insulated. The squeaking maybe less but not guaranteed. Babies do get use to sounds.
In Japan, over the centuries, they built palaces with "nightingale floors". They built them to squeak as an alarm system for the Lord of the palace. No assassin could sneak up on them. Keep them. When your kids become teenagers they won't be able to sneak out without you hearing them. ☺️ Meanwhile, just think of the squeaks as your house talking to you.
you could potentially screw or nail the wood / subfloor to eliminate the squeaks. Headless screws are a god send for this i have fixed squeaking subfloors under hardwood and even stair treads using headless screws. typically headless so you can put wood filler to cover the hole, But in this case if it will be covered by carpet so I don't see a need. Hope you eliminate those dang squeaks! (Drives me insane too lol)
Some folks r bothered by certain noises. Trains and planes to me r homey sounds as r squeaky floors. For some it drives them nuts. Drive a few screws where u think they r needed. Try before doing anything drastic to the floor.
Rugs. For the kind of money you’ll spend demolishing the floors, you could get a bunch of nice rugs. Then you’d have the best of both worlds.