On 8 Feb 2007 03:36:19 -0800, wrote:

On Feb 7, 8:08 pm, DK wrote:
On 7 Feb 2007 13:31:07 -0800, wrote:





On Feb 7, 3:22 pm, DK wrote:
On 7 Feb 2007 10:13:33 -0800, wrote:

On Feb 7, 12:40 pm, DK wrote:
On 7 Feb 2007 06:55:24 -0800, wrote:

On Feb 7, 9:37 am, DK wrote:
Sell the house and get a house with a slab and you won't hear any
creaks.

Or face the facts. All housing is temporary and 2 story houses are
more temporary than one story houses. Nothing lasts forever and your
house is aging and settling normally. All houses age and settle.
Face the facts.

It is not normal, nor does anyone have to accept this. Sure, you can
have an occasional floor creak problem, but if the house is properly
constructed, a few screws should solve the problem. I've been
living 10 yrs in a 22 year old 2 story frame house, with basement and
I have not had a single floor squeak creak problem. And I've seen
condos, like the OP has, where the whole living room floor squeaks
like hell and it's a very real problem.

Yes, it is perfectly normal for a condo and is NOT a structural
defect.

But, not to worry, it will dissipate with time as the building
settles.

The most common source of this type of noise is well known to be
between the subfloor and the joists. It is caused by not using
adhesive and sufficient fasteners in trying to cut corners and save a
couple bucks, resulting in the subfoor being able to move ever so
slightly against the joists when weight is applied. It has nothing
to do with settling. So, tell us how this is going to solve
itself. Anyone that has actually had this problem knows it doesn't
fix itself. And that is precisely what the OP is seeing, because it
hasn;t gone away.

It has everything to do with settling. Gravity is pulling some of
the structure down more than other parts, thus the change over time.

Explain how gravity is allowing the plywood subfloor to move against
the floor joists and only when someone is walking on it. First, you
dismiss the guy with flipant BS remarks and tell him to just face the
facts and live with it because it's part of a normal house. That
leads me to conclude you don't have a clue, because its a real and
very annoying problem that should not exist if a home is built
right. This is caused primarily by NOT USING CONSTUCTION ADHESIVE
AND ENOUGH FASTNERS. And nothing has to settle for it to start
squeaking, it can exist in new construction. The house I'm living in
is of frame construction, I've been here 10+ years, the house is 22
years old and there is not a single floor squeak because it was built
right.

That's right, dumbass. Go back and read it again. The house you
are living in now creaked badly the first 5 years, then it creaked
less and less. By the time you moved in, it had finished settling and
you didn't hear a thing.



Here's a reference for you that says exactly what I told the OP from
the start, while you dismissed it as a non-issue:

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/inffloor/infsqe.shtm
Squeaks are caused by movement in wood seams between sheets of
subflooring, friction noise in tongue and groove or shiplap flooring,
and fingernails-on-blackboard rubbing against loosened nails. Stop the
movement and you stop squeak.

Throughout, you will hear me mention the use of construction adhesive
to reinforce and lengthen the life of the repair. Just a it has
reduced nail popping in modern drywall installations, construction
adhesive also reduces squeaks in subfloors when used during
construction. Unfortunately, for what I consider false economy to save
a few dollars, many builders don't use this product routinely when
installing subflooring.

No, it doesn't fix itself, but as it settles, the repairs last longer
and longer because it settles less and less. Also hopefully, the
repairman gets better and better at fixing the creak.

And I agree with you as to the cause and cutting corners. If you
want it done right, do it yourself.

If it bothers you, then hire a contractor and ask for a 10 year
warranty that he will keep your house creak free. Pay him well and he
will come out every year or two and remove your flooring and tighten
all the screws and you will be happy.

On 7 Feb 2007 03:52:45 -0800, wrote:

I hope someone can help me with this problem. We bought this townhouse
two years ago. When we first saw the house it was empty. We had the
home inspection and nothing really was wrong with the house. Then the
day we moved in, after the movers were gone, we found that the second
floor was very, very creaky. It was really, really bad. The worst part
was the master bedroom. We called a few people to look at it and a
carpet company came over and they lifted all the carpeting and screwed
down the floors. It was great. There was one problem area, about a
three foot area next to the wall adjacent to the master bathroom (the
master bath has creaks too, but that wasn't screwed down because of
the tile). The guy put shims between the floor and the wall and it was
fine. We had no squeaks or creaks at all. That was done in May 2005.
By December 2005 the creaks were back, but just in that one area by
the wall. But this time it sounded different, like the joists were
making the noise. These were louder cracking sounds. We called
contractors about this and one guy came out and noticed that the floor
in that area dipped down a bit. He removed part of the subfloor to
check the joists and thought they were okay, except that one of them
was a bit lower than the other. He put a different piece of wood back
and suggested that we get all new subflooring and hardwood floors
installed. We weren't too sure about that and decided to get in touch
with the builder and the warranty company (the house has a ten year
structural warranty, and we were in the 7th year). They came to check
it out and said that there was no structural problems. That was in May
2006. A neighbor was there that day and he pulled the carpet back
again and screwed down the floors a second time. Again, no more noise.
Now, Dec. 2006, the noise slowly comes back and today it seems that
the subfloor is not creaking, but it is the joists that are making
this loud cracking sound. The sound also appears in the bathroom and
runs along about three or four joists and it sounds like the wall
makes a noise too. This is driving me crazy. It
is also worse than before. I don't know what to do anymore. I thought
it might be because there is one piece of subflooring that is
different than the rest of the floor or that the bathroom subflooring
is the culprit. I hope someone can point me in the right direction
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DK, how does this explain my situation? My house is 8 years old and
the creaks are getting worse.

I don't really know as I'm blowing smoke about the settling. But I
would guess that you have a subfloor built with really green lumber or
else you have a terrible moisture problem. Something is moving and it
could be the lumber swelling from moisture and then drying and
shrinking. Or it could be temperature changes alone that is doing
it. It could be green lumber used for the joists and they are moving
back to their original shape and in so doing pulling out the nails and
screws.

Nevertheless I can't see how any contractor worth his salt doesn't
fix the problem after the 2nd call. Rip the flooring out and use the
necessary screws and adhesives and sealants to make the flooring one
solid piece that never moves again for the next 100 years.

Creaks should get worse - until they are repaired. The controversy
is why the repairs don't hold, not that the creaks are getting worse.