3 Steps to Ensure a Squeak-less Floor

Squeaks, creaks and groans heard from any floors are caused by movement of the components. The trick to avoiding these noises is the use of proper fasteners and techniques to prevent movement from happening. While it may be impossible to prevent squeaky floors forever, a well built floor constructed on a well built subfloor will stay quiet through years of family life.

Here are 3 steps to ensure a squeak-less floor for your next remodeling jobs:

1. Build a Better Subfloor

As with most construction projects, floors are only as good as the support system in place. Failure to create a sturdy and durable subfloor will create a situation where the noises the floor makes are the least of your customers' (and your) worries.

To avoid squeaking from the subfloor, ensure that the subfloor sheathing used is adequately fastened. Noise from the subfloor is most often caused by the subfloor sheathing rubbing against each other. To prevent this, ensure that you're using a high quality fastener that has been driven in far enough to create a snug hold.

While screws offer a longer lasting hold, they're more time consuming to use. Nails are more likely to loosen over time, especially when driven into wood which expands and contracts with the seasons, but the use of a pneumatic nail gun makes it quick and easy to drive them all the way into even the hardest of substrates.

Recent innovations by The BECK Fastener Group® have given those in the construction trade another fastener option, one that offers the hold of a screw with the ease of use of a nail. It's called SubLoc® PRO SCRAIL®, and its use can help you to save time, energy, and money while creating a subfloor that won't squeak.

2. Use Kiln Dried Wood for All Components

Wood has a remarkable ability to expand and contract with changes in the temperature and humidity level. While this ability allows wood to survive for years in even extreme weather conditions, it can lead to squeaky floors if care is not taken.

The wood you use to construct any part of the flooring, including the joists, subfloor or the floor itself, must be completely dry when you install it. Dry wood allows you to get the really tight hold you need from your fasteners the first time. If you build with wood that's swollen from dampness, it will contract as it dries, leaving just enough wiggle room between the joist and the subfloor, the sheets of the subfloor, or the boards in the floor itself, to create that annoying squeak.

3. Use the Right Fasteners in the Right Places

Even high quality fasteners, like SubLoc® PRO SCRAIL®, that are designed to give you a tight hold that will last for years, will not prevent noisy floors if they aren't installed in the proper way. Fasteners, should be installed no more than 12" apart and aligned down the center of the joists. Where edges of the subfloor sheathing meet along a joist, the fasteners should be arranged in such a way that the fasteners in one subfloor sheathing are placed in the center of the space created by the fasteners in the other subfloor sheathing. In other words, when looked at from above, the fasteners should be no more than 6" apart on alternating sides of the seam, and the use of subfloor adhesive is recommended.

Want to learn more? Read our full eGuide: The Key to Correctly Preparing and Installing a Squeak-less Subfloor : 

Building a squeakless floor is all about attention to details. Download this helpful guide to review some best practices.