Loose floorboards, or rather, butchered floorboards....

[King Herald]

I have pulled up some carpet in our upstairs, to lay some 1/4" marine ply, then vinyl, but where the central heating was installed, by persons unknown years ago, some joists have been hacked about so there is next to nothing to support the boards in a few places.

I was thinking of pumping a bed of No More Nails on the places the board 'sort of' rests, and laying the board, getting it nice and level, then giving it time to heal in place. It is only in a few places, but they tend to be where you walk/creak a lot.

Reckon it'd work?

[robinhood21]

Might work for a while, but will probably fail in the long-term. Best to take up floorboard and add extra timber to joist to give additional support. Not always easy to do, as pipes may be in the way, but will be the best solution if at-all possible.

[MonkeyHanger]

Get some timber off-cuts and screw them underneath the boards either side of the ones that have been cut.

Edited by MonkeyHanger on Tuesday 12th August 14:16

[King Herald]

MonkeyHanger said:

Get some timber off-cuts and screw them underneath the boards either side of the ones that have been cut.

The theory is good, but there are copper pipes lurking directly where I'd need to fit the extra timber. If the pipes were lower, then I could fit a batten, but there's about a half inch max space above the pipes.

[Baby Huey]

Bodge it, forget about it, if it goes in the future think about doing it properly.

Houses are easier to bodge up than cars, this fact should be taken advantage of.

[Tom_C76]

If you've got space at the threshold and under the door, up the ply to 12mm, and lay it on a glue bed. That way all the boards will become a composite with the plywood. Works best if you screw it down too, at least while the glue goes off.

[Tony*T3]

No more nails isnt really a long term solution. Eventually it'll dry up and crack especially if its flexing with foot traffic.

Floorboards creak when you walk on them if securred by nails. The wood shrinks/drys over time and the nails cant hold them securly. Use screws and they wont creak.

[King Herald]

Tony*T3 said:

No more nails isnt really a long term solution. Eventually it'll dry up and crack especially if its flexing with foot traffic.

Floorboards creak when you walk on them if secured by nails. The wood shrinks/drys over time and the nails cant hold them securely. Use screws and they wont creak.

I've been screwing the ply to the floorboards as I go, but it is hard to screw the boards down to the joists as much as I would like when there are a bunch of pipes running hither and yon underneath.

It is not so much the occasional squeaker I'm worried about, just that a few flexed down a quarter inch when stepped on. I glued them up/down tonight, in the worst places, and I'll set to again with some ply tomorrow, maybe even glue it all down. If it has to come up again it'll be for a major incident, so no worries there.

[KANEIT]

NOGGINS