Loose floorboards?

[cshenk]

The house Mom is planning to go see soon (not yet visually inspected in person) has a little more detail from a realtor.

Aluminum siding. Appears in good shape, just needs washing. I take it that the stuff will be hot in summer and cold in winter, but fairly durable at least.

Loose floorboards. No better description except the house is habitable right now, so I take it not too radical. Any guesses on what to anticipate there or causes to look for that might mean trouble later? (Omit termites, got that info covered for Mom).

My guesses at this stage is the house wasnt heated this past winter (empty, slow market) and dampness from the crawlspace underneath may have built up enough for a little warpage. Treatment if so seems to dehumidify, possibly add insulation under floor in crawlsace with vapor barrier, let settle, then re-nail what needs re-nailing. If any are seriously warped, replace.

Any other ideas?

[Joe]

=A0>snip<

Floorboards or flooring? If the former, it sounds like a sloppily built cabin in the woods. If the latter, serious damage has occurred. Hardwood (the usual type) won&#39;t take to renailing at all well. Try as you will, it will never look right so waste as little time on it as possible. Cover it up with Pergo or carpet and get on with the other major problems you are sure to find...sub-standard electricals, decrepit roofing, tired plumbing, etc. Get inspection help if you feel the need. But if the price and location are that important, then best of luck.

Joe

[DerbyDad03]

re: Loose floorboards.

What does that mean?

Squeaky hardwood over sub-floor?

Squeaks under carpet - don&#39;t know what&#39;s underneath?

Squeaks under carpet, you know there&#39;s is/is no hardwood underneath?

Actual subfloor - (Plywood? Tonque & Groove?) - flopping around?

Loose floorboards doesn&#39;t tell us much.

[cshenk]

Wording was &#39;floorboards&#39; and house was built 1901. Sorry to be so non-specific and I realize this prevents any solid answers. Mom plans to go down there and look it over sometime soonish.

Ok, sounds reasonable. I think she wants to put down some large area rugs over the floor so hopefully the &#39;loose floorboards&#39; arent too bad or are just in a few spots.

She&#39;ll have the place professionally inspected before making any offers for sure, but there&#39;s lots of things she can check herself due to experience. I&#39;m helping nibble at the ones she&#39;s not that experienced with. She&#39;s never actually refinished a wood floor (that was my job the 2 times we had to do it) nor had &#39;loose floorboard&#39; to deal with. Loose exterior decking boards yes, she knows that one. She gets to repair the one I built her 25 years ago every now and again (grin).

Possible causes are the main concern. If it&#39;s just a little dampness (without wood rot or termites) then it seems workable. If it&#39;s just a few boards that have curled a bit, I can replace&#39;em once I locate a &#39;real wood yard&#39; that can match the size right, then refinish.

[cshenk]

Sorry. I&#39;m a bad girl. I can&#39;t say more yet til she actually looks at the place. Given date of construction, it should be fairly wide (5-6 inch?) thick boards of hardwood. There may be plywood under them then the beams then below that, crawlspace. May be a layer of tar paper someplace (especially if no plywood).

Recent settling unlikely. Dampness seems main likelyhood? If so, have to fix the cause before fixing the floor or it would just come back.