Dan
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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Recently moved in a 6 year old house.
The upstairs master bedroom has the worst creaking/cracking/squeeaking/noisy floor i have ever heard.
Before i had my new carpets fitted, i hit it with alot of screws to try quieten it down. That didnt make a shits worth.
As the carpets were all booked etc, i just left it in hope that the carpets would quieten it down.
Did it fuck.
Its horrendous. I cannot walk on it at 5am without waking the missus up.
I had a carpenter mate come look today, and he said he cant really do much, without either lifting the whole upstairs floor, or taking the ceiling down in the lounge to get to the joists etc.
He says it really needs strengthening with extra joist parts and opposite ones to make it more rigid.
After hearing all this, i was thinking maybe this will be covered by the nhbc it still has.
I called them up and they have said they will send out a surveyour in the next few days. But they do not cover creaking floors unless the fault is due to in adequate joists or a fault in the structure. It also has to be over £850s worth of work.
Will i be covered??
Its doing my head in, and i cant really afford to pay someone to come in and do it, and i dont want to tackle it myself as its not exactly my thing, although push come to shove id have a crack.
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AndyKent
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Registered: 3rd Sep 05
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Only a survey will find out what the problem is.
If the the floor has been constructed properly with the right type of timber and the correct noggings/strutting then theres nothing NHBC will do.
NHBC guarantees are shit anyway to be fair - they try and get out of any expensive claims as it obviously costs them money.
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Dan
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Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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So what will the surveyour actually do to find the problem?
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AndyKent
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Registered: 3rd Sep 05
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Really he will have to lift the carpet and floorboards and look underneath.
That said, a lot don't come with the tools to refit carpet. In fact I've never seen a surveyor carry a carpet kicker. Up to you whether you let him look or not I suppose, but without seen what is actually in the floor you can't say what the problem is.
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Dan
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Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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I pulled the carpet back up this morning, so thats ok.
So he will cut an inspection hole or take up a whole board or something then?
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AndyKent
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Registered: 3rd Sep 05
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Chipboard I assume? Should just take up a sheet.
This is assuming NHBC send a proper surveyor. Half of me expects them to send a random guy to make it look like they've tried.
Can you tell I don't trust them
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Dan
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Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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Haha, they said its there main surveyour for my area.
Yea its chip board. The main place you need to lift the boards is under a partion. Thats the place where the noise comes from alot of the time
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AndyKent
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Registered: 3rd Sep 05
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He won't take it up under a partition. In fact you can't. Should take one up nearby and look along the length of the joists.
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dannymccann
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Registered: 9th Aug 06
Location: Doddington, Lincolnshire
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I have this on my third floor in a very certain place in my ensuite, although the last time they sent someone round to look the fucker stopped doing it Im going to get them back in because the shower tray has started squeaking again as well, and like you say its impossible to not wake someone up if you step on it.
However mine is less than a year old so they are still coming out for those little jobs, cant remember what they are called now, but its something like the first 2 years they come and do everything
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Dan
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Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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Yea, year 3-10 is when they only do serious issues i get the impression.
Im thinking im not gonna get nout sorted. But for a 6 year old house its bloody terrible
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Jules S
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Registered: 24th Dec 03
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Nails? Lol
If I ever spec chipboard it gets screwed down
FYI
http://www.reluctant-diyer.co.uk/creaky_floor_boards.php
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Dan
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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Its not really a creak. ITs a really loud cracking type sound. Its so loud its unreal.
Ive already put a shit load of extra screws in and it hasnt made a shits worth.
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Jules S
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Registered: 24th Dec 03
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You said creaking in the OP
Without hearing it, it's hard to say then. I think ive heard similar, and that was a very 'tight' squeak ; not something you would associate with chipboard, as its not dense in nature.
As Andy said, it might be a lack of noggins, or maybe the noggins/nails are creaking...or perhaps wood (not chipboard) rubbing against wood.
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Jules S
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Registered: 24th Dec 03
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Right,
I think I've solved this (hopefully)
I've found a post where (if im reading it correctly) the poster has identical issues to you....and it's the noggins squeaking/cracking not the floorboards.
Here it is....in short the boards aren't screwed to the noggins to stop them flexing:-
quote: I spent the last few days trying to solve our creaking chipboard floors. Downstairs and even outside, you could hear anyone walking on the upstairs floor. I searched the forums and tried out several solutions, but this is the one worked for me. Having screwed down the boards next to the nails, applied talc between joints and further screwed at 100mm intervals, the damn floor kept on squeaking. As a last ditch attempt I cut out a section of the floor near a squeaky section using a couple of pilot holes and a jigsaw (obligatory waring about pipes and wires). Here, I could see that the pipes and mains cables were laid against the plasterboard ceiling below (and therefore not at risk from cutting). Crucially, though a quick wiggle of the 'noggin' (piece of wood perpendicular to and in between the joists) revealed the same hated squeak. I also noticed that in my situation the noggins were lined up although slightly offset along the length of the floor. So my solution was to fix back the cut out and drill, coutersink and screw 80mm chipboard screws down through the floor surface and into the offending noggin. A quick walk test and it was obvious that this cure could be rolled out along the entire upstairs floors. The remaining noggins were located by drilling into the floor at stategic locations - if the drill went straight through - no noggin, if the drill met resistance all of the way down through the floor and into the noggin - you had found the next culprit. I hope this solution helps someone out there save themselves a whole saturday of pondering! Thanks for other comments on this forum.
HTH
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Dan
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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Hmm its a possibilty.
Ill let the surveyor have a look first, if i dont get anywhere, ill take up a board/make a hole and see whats going on.
Cheers
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Jules S
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Registered: 24th Dec 03
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No need for you/the surveyor to get hacking stuff apart IME
The chipboard boards should be nailed/screwed on all four edges. Battens at the joints which run perpendicular to the joists might be needed depending on the thickness of the chipboard/whether its T&G etc
There should be a separate line of nails/screws where the floorboards are fixed to the noggins.
I would knock you out a plan of the fixings/joists/boards but it doesn't seem I can host it on PB
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Jules S
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Registered: 24th Dec 03
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Ok,
I've done a fixing plan on CAD (for my own reference)...and dont hold me on the content
I'm going to copyright that shit though
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AndyKent
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Registered: 3rd Sep 05
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Christ Jules, effort
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Jules S
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 03
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quote: Originally posted by AndyKent
Christ Jules, effort
Boredom and future reference plan
It didn't take that long to do....copy/mirror etc
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Dan
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
User status: Offline
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What do i do with that
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Jules S
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Registered: 24th Dec 03
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Too much time on my hands and I was trying to help somebody out Dan
Thats a plan of your floorboards and where the nails/fixings should be positioned.
If you cant relate the nail/screw position to the boards/noggins print it off and tell the NHBC surveyor thats what you should have in place to stop things knocking and squeaking.
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Dan
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
User status: Offline
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Ok cheers
Ill pull the carpet up later today and have a look, see if it looks the same
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