Just moved into a new house, well not new 9 years old.
The upstairs floors make a lot of noise when walking on them
You can hear it downstairs creaking and sort of banging.
I will presume they are chipboard as with most modern houses
as I have not looked, any suggestions?
Thanks
It's either, previous occupiers have had parts of the floor up, though would think that a little unlikely with a house of that age or it's a result of the nail holes have enlarged slightly so the boards are not secured.
Remedy is to screw them down at each joint. I recommend 2" - 2.5" No 10 twin thread wood screws.
Floors made with anything but proper floorboards are cheap and very nasty, in my opinion anyway.
Presumably you haven't looked because the floors have fitted carpets that are fixed to the floor around the sides of the room with either gripper rods, glue or adhesive tape. Or the carpets may be lose laid. The only way to cure the noise is to lift the carpet edges, roll the carpets back, and fix the lose boards either with nails or screws through the boards and into the joists. Hopefully there are some nails in some of the boards that can be used as a guide for placing the new nails or screws. You can tell if there are gripper rods by feeling for a ridge parallel with and close to the skirting board. The carpet edges have to be lifted up from the gripper rod pins and replaced with the same tension as far as possible. If there is no ridge then the carpet is glued, taped or lose laid. If glued or taped, the carpet edges may get damaged as you pull them off the adhesive, depending on their age and quality. Floorboards are normally tongue and groove softwood planks. Chipboard is difficult to lift without damaging it, in order to do electrical or plumbing work, unless it has been screwed down.
Exercise a little caution in the placement of additional nails/ screws in case of wiring/ pipes in the area. Investment in one of the piping/ wiring locators prior to starting may be a good idea.
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