materials and tools, work order (video)

The squeak of natural wood floor leaves no one indifferent. Even the most inveterate lyricists, who consider the creaking to be music at home, will eventually lose their temper. Not surprising, because this is not the most pleasant sound will have to hear daily, and perhaps even at night. Here and before the nervous breakdown very close. Remove creak will. Before you begin to solve this problem, you will have to determine the reasons for its occurrence. And this is not entirely simple, since there may be several reasons. Why does it appear and how to eliminate the creak of a wooden floor?

Creak is the sound of friction that occurs when moving. There is friction (and creak, too) in those places where there is an uneven deformation of the material. For a wooden floor, such places can be the joints of the boards themselves, the fixing points, the joints of the boards with the logs, and the fixings of the baseboards.

Cause of squeaks

Consider each case separately. Unevenly laid logs will sooner or later lead to the creaking of the wooden floor, since under the influence of the gravity of the occupants of the house they will constantly be deformed, which will lead to the lowering of the fastener. Simply put, the nails will no longer press the boards tightly against the logs and when the board is pressed, this part will move along the let-down part of the nail. The creak will appear awful. The same happens in the case if not completely dried material was chosen for the floor: the boards dried out, slightly deformed and decreased in thickness. The result was as described above: the movement of the board on the nail causes an unpleasant sound. Creak can boards themselves. This, too, can occur for several reasons.

It is possible that the lags under the floor were laid too far apart, and the wooden floor board is not sufficiently thick. So the board is deformed when you click on it. It turns out that the boards move relative to each other and there is a creak from their friction.

How to permanently eliminate the nasty sound of your wooden floor, if you do not know the reasons for this squeak? Of course, this is unreal. First you have to be patient and follow the dynamics of the wooden floor. Ask one of your family members to walk on the floor, and see for yourself how the board moves. If the board bends exactly in the place where the person is standing, then you will have to reinforce the floor with additional lags or replace leaky lags. The work is laborious, as it is necessary to raise part of the wooden floor, but otherwise the creaking will not work.

It is possible that you will see deformation of the board along the entire length, that is, one end of it will bend. This indicates that it is necessary to strengthen the fasteners of wooden floor boards.

Required materials and tools

We assume that you have determined the cause of the creaking and are ready to eliminate it. To do this, you will need:

• nails;
• hammer;
• screwdriver or drill;
• self-tapping screws;
• glue;
• talc;
• wood putty;
• trowel;
• floor paint and brush;
• construction level.

Work execution

If the cause of the squeak of the wooden floor is lags, then part of the coating will have to be removed. It is not necessary to raise the entire floor - it is enough to raise the strip of the floor, the width of which is able to provide access to the logs. On the logs, lay a flat board along the entire length and observe whether there are no gaps. If there are such gaps, they will have to be eliminated. This can be done in various ways: either with the help of a wooden wedge, or simply by increasing the thickness of the waterproofing. By the way, an increase in the waterproofing layer can eliminate the unpleasant sound by itself, as it will be a kind of shock absorber when moving the lag.

Replacing fasteners and processing seams

If everything is in order with the lags, then replacing the fastener or its reinforcement will help you to remove the creak of the wooden floor. Recommend for these purposes can be self-tapping screws. Self-tapping screws are not able to reliably pull a wooden board towards the lag. Therefore, this work has to be done with the help of nails. Only then do we make a through hole in the board. The upper part of the hole should be deepened with a drill of larger diameter. And now only comes the turn of screws, we wrap them as closely as possible.

It will be completely useful to use metal washers for fastening with self-tapping screws. They will create an additional area of ​​support screws for wood, which will increase the reliability of fasteners. The grooves above the caps of the screws are filled up with putty. Such fasteners will be reliable and will ensure the elimination of squeak.

The joints between the wooden floor boards need treatment. Many tenants successfully use talc for this. Eliminating the squeak will not fully provide it, but will reduce it many times. But a special glue or silicone helps to eliminate the squeak of a wooden floor for a very long period. There is only one problem: if moisture gets under the floor, treated in this way (and such a probability cannot be completely excluded), the floor can be quickly damaged. Evaporation will not have the possibility of free movement and will lead to damage to the wood.

Using additional coverage

There is another less common way of dealing with scratches and noisy boards - additional coverage. You already understood that the elimination of squeaking is a decrease in the movement of the elements of a wooden floor. A reduction in movement can be achieved by redistributing the load.

The additional covering of the wooden floor with wood sheets successfully solves this problem, especially with the use of a soft substrate.

A few years ago, this was the way to solve the problem of how to eliminate the squeak. The way, of course, simple, but not the most effective. Firstly, it is also not an absolute guarantee, as over time a muffled creak appears. To remove this nasty sound already will be more difficult, since it is necessary to completely dismantle the entire coating. And secondly, this method is not suitable for rooms where there is increased humidity (for example, for baths), although the wooden floor in them is a tradition.

In the old days, a very simple way of dealing with squeak was used - lubricant. It is clear that special substances were not used then. In the course went the usual soap. All the joints of the wooden floor and all attachment points were rubbed with a dry piece of soap, then the entire floor surface was wetted and wet cleaning was performed. Soap, trapped in the seams, removed all the questions about how to remove the creaking. With the recurrence of unpleasant sound, the procedure was carried out anew. Reliable, cheap, fast and accessible to everyone. Still, our wise people!