The main advantage of wooden floors is their naturalness. Such material will not be replaced by any other, although there is one big flaw in it.
No matter how well the wooden boards are laid, after a while, when you step on the floor, it produces an irritable and unpleasant creaking sound. Immediately on the mind comes the idea that the entire construction will have to be dismantled. So how can you eliminate the creak of a wooden floor reliably and without significant waste? In this article we will consider several solutions to this problem.
Why do wooden floors creak?
As a rule, the main reason for the appearance of squeaking in the floor is in the properties of wood, sometimes the cause is high humidity . When the board is deformed or lags settle, the entire wooden construction starts rubbing against each other, and we hear a creaking sound. Determine the area in which friction occurs quite difficult, because the cause may be one board, and several.
How to remove the creak of a wooden floor?
To get rid of the unpleasant squeak in the house, you can completely replace the wooden floorboards. However, this process is very costly, and it takes a long time. We will consider several ways how to eliminate the creak of wooden floors without opening, much faster and cheaper?
As the simplest option, you can use a mounting foam. When the solution enters the empty space between the boards, and completely fills it, it gives the floor a stiffness, so that the wooden covering ceases to creak. However, this method can not be called very effective, since it is impossible to remove the scratch of the wooden floor for a long time in this case, and it will soon have to be leveled again. Over time, the foam breaks down, and the creak appears again.
The method of wooden wedges is considered more effective. They are nailed down, between weakly shattered boards and lags, which prevents friction between them. Such wedges are driven by a simple jackhammer.
Decking of chipboard or plywood will be an excellent option if you plan to eliminate the creaking of the floor before laying another floor covering. To do this, you need sheets with a thickness of 12 mm or more, which should be fixed directly to the floor surface, using self-tapping screws, with a pitch of 15-20 cm. If you do everything correctly, the question of how to remove the creak of a wooden floor will not bother you for a long time .
If the creaking of the floor occurs as a result of the friction of the floor board against the lag, it will be very effective to tighten the screws without having to break the cover. It will be most difficult to find lags. To do this, raise 1-2 boards to determine the distance between them, then find the beam, with the placed lags on which the boards are rubbed in place, their intersections. Further, through the board, self-cut screws (2-3 pcs.) Are screwed into the found bar, so the board fits snugly to the bar, which prevents the appearance of a squeak. This method is rightfully considered the most practical, reliable and at the same time inexpensive.
How to remove the creak of a wooden floor installed on a concrete slab? In this case it would be appropriate to mount metal anchors. The process is long and rather expensive, but it justifies all costs. For repair, you need 200 anchors, which you need to attach to the base through the wood, then the cover is firmly attached to the base, as a result, the floorboards will not bend.
Now you know what to do if the wooden floor creaks, although there are cases when it is possible to solve this problem only by completely overmolding the coating, in this case it is better to use the services of professionals.