I got a call about a squeaking floor in a duplex, so I headed over to check it out. The first thing I notice is that the squeak seems to be in or at the floor at a wall with a pocket door inside it.
Also, whatever was used under the vinyl (guessing 3/4″ particleboard) terminates inside the wall.
To further complicated matters, there is a plywood seam at that termination.
Here is a photo.
The red line is the seam of both the plywood and the underlayment. The floor joists are 9.5″ TJIs, 16 OC, with a 15′ span. The floor is 3/4 T&G, glued down with what looks to be PL. The squeaky joint is about 6′ from one edge of the span. I have already tried running 1 1/8″ scres up from the below the plywood into the area around the end of the underlayment. 150 screws later and the squeak is exactly the same.
The crazy thing about it is that if you go into the carpeted area and are ANYWHERE on the 15′ TJI span, you can make the same spot squeak…but not anywhere else.
Ideas? Thoughts? I would REALLY like to be able to fix this for this client.
Replies
Floor squeaks have three possible causes that I know of:
1) Sheathing or underlayment going up and down and rubbing against a nail.
2) Edges of sheathing or underlayment rubbing against each other.
3) The entire floor going up and down and causing a squeak as the nails holding a wall plate slide in and out of the floor.
I'm guessing that #3 is your problem.
Yeah...but there's not really a wall plate there, since it's a pocket door. Any ideas on how to fix it?
Well, you could sawzall the nails holding the "plate" down, but probably you should try running screws up into the "plate" from below. May just transfer the squeak to a point higher up, though. (Or you may already be hearing squeaks in the door framing vs the plate/floor boundary.)Also worth adding some blocking between adjacent joists in the area, if there is none.The "right way" fix would be to open the walls, remove fasteners holding the bottom plate down, and replace them with lubricated pins.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
Jesse, first, wedge a 2x4 up under the joist to see if that stops the squeak when you walk above. If this stops the squeak then it is probably movement between the wall and floor
Rich
rich,thanks, good call. a mini wall was built underneath and the squeak is gone. 45 minutes and 3 2x4s.