My girlfriend bought a 40’s built house with oak flooring … not tongue and groove but 2″ straight sided planks of random lengths. Trouble is a previous owner tried to stop the squeek by nailing brite finish nails all in a line where he thought the joists were. The floor still squeeks, has lines, every 16 inches, of hundreds of finish nail heads across the floor surface. I think that the floor is squeeking as the oak flooring rubs up and down against the shank of the nail … in the squeekyest areas the floor is “jacking up” the nails…… now what do I do?
Any ideas or help appreciated.
Thanks
Replies
Greetings H,
That's a rough one so this post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again.
Perhaps it will catch someone's attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. A bird sings because it has a song.
Thank you!
View Image
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. A bird sings because it has a song.
The squeek is either wood-wood or wood-nail. One solution would be to drill holes at every board-joist intersection, puul it tight with proper screws, ans then plug the holes with wood plugs. Use face grain plugs to minimize them, or contrasting wood for an accent. Sand smooth and applyfinish.
You might also check here hardwoodinstaller.com
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Thanks, This is probably my best option. I'm a little hesitant as the previous owner nailed the floor with nails that were only a 1/4" longer than the flooring is thick. If someone had that limited fastening experience then I doubt that they knew where the floor joists were. The floor below has a drywall ceiling and there is hydronic heat plumbing.I suppose that I should remove some of that ceiling, find the joists / spacing and with a small drill bit, drill up through the floor (as near a wall as I can measure).... then re-fasten and bung the screw holes.Makes me almost want to cry though to see how much damage someone did to this otherwise great looking though squeeky floor.Guess I'm hoping someone has a magical answer ........
How about pulling the baseboard to find the joists. It won't matter if you make exploratory holes where the baseboard will cover them.
first you said
>>> in the squeekyest areas the floor is "jacking up" the nails
then you said
>>then I doubt that they knew where the floor joists were
then these "jacked up" nails must have hit a joist, no? then at 16" spacing from each side there should be another joist? where is the difficulty?