squeeky floor help.

[Robwjm2]

I have a 35 year old house and am having the floors finished Mon. One section of the floor squeeks really badly. When you step on the floor you can actually see the flooring move. I opened the ceiling up underneeth this section and it loos to me as if one 4 X 8 sheet of plywood subfloor has gone bad. when I press up on it it sqeeks. The main problem seems to localized above this piece of wood. I have tried screwing 1 1/4 inch sheetrockscrews up into the plywood to try to hold grab the floorboards tighter butit does no good. It feels as if the layers on the plywood have even seperated. There is also about ac1/8 of an inch gap between the floor joists and the plywood in this area. I tried shimming it but it dows no good. The plywood is not even nailed into the beams. when they built the house they missed all the beams in that section by about 1/4 inch. any sugestions on how I can fix this without rippig up the floor ?

[abekl98034mypants]

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What you do really depends on your priorities. I've gone through similar decisions in the past myself.

If you really love the house and want things "right," call the finishers and delay the project. Don't take it personally if they seem annoyed, just tell them you found a structural deficiency that needs to be corrected first.

Given that the subfloor has delaminated, is not properly attached to the floor joists (what you're calling the beams), and therefore not providing proper support for the wood flooring, the "right=expensive" way to fix it is to get a flooring contractor (or yourself if you're handy) to:

1. map out the affected area from joist to joist in both directions.
2. remove the hardwood flooring, salvaging as much as possible.
3. remove the subfloor.
4. install (screw and glue) a new section of subfloor with subfloor grade plywood (not the ACX-grade crap) that bargain installers use.
5. re-install the hardwood flooring, substituting new pieces of the same wood where necessary.
6. Sand and finish the floor.

There are intermediate solutions also, such as replacing the affected areas of subfloor from beneath, and side nailing then into the floor joists.

(Remove mypants to reply by email)

[Tomcat14]

I can't disagree with doing the job right. However, if it's a small area you could eliminate the squeak by using shims over the floor joists. I guarantee you they are doing that in brand new houses where they have a complaint after the finish floor is installed.

[donald girod]

If you are actually refinishing the floors, then you should absolutely tear up the bad section (if you can afford it) and replace the subfloor as suggested. If the plywood has really not delaminated (I'm not sure how you have concluded that this is the case), you could possibly get away with just screwing the old subfloor securely to the joists. But if the plywood is flexing and sagging between joists, then yes, it is useless and you won't ever have a satisfactory floor if you don't replace it. A floor that flexes and moves around is going to be a never-ending source of annoyance as well as something that a potential buyer of the house (should you ever want to sell) is very likely to notice.

Assuming that the flooring is a standard type (2 1/4" wide 3/4" thick strip flooring), it is pretty easy to find stuff that will blend in, and you could do the re-flooring yourself. Once the room is sanded and refinished, it will look fine.

[Andrew Duane USG]

Go to a good flooring or hardware store. Not the big box store. There are a large variety of fasteners for just this purpose, that will attach from below and fasten things down better. Which one you get depends on what kind of problems you have (warping, broken screws, etc.)

It's tough to do it from below, but there are ways to help.

[Tomcat14]

The poster said he tried to screw from below and found the plywood wouldn't hold. Some of those storebought contraptions might not hold either. The Rheimer floor repairman I know just uses wood shims which will work even if the plywood is delaminated. This would be a 10" job if he has access as he does.

[Art Todesco]