Repairing wooden floorboards & stopping creaking floors

Nothing is more annoying than the sound of creaking floors. The sound of creaking floors is really frustrating. Whether it is the hallway disturbing the house at night or the living room making a noise with every single step you take, creaking floors are a common problem in older houses with wooden floorboards.

Fortunately, fixing floorboards and understanding how to prevent creaking floors is not that hard. You can actually do something about creaking floors. This article will take you through the common causes of loose or damaged wooden floorboards and the simple fixes you can try yourself before calling a professional to fix your creaking floors.

When wooden floors creak, it's because two surfaces are rubbing against each other. This creaking sound is really annoying.

There are reasons why wooden floors creak. Here are the common causes:

* Loose floorboards rub against the joists. This is common with floors.

* Wooden boards. Contract with temperature and humidity changes. This happens a lot in old homes.

* Loose nails or screws cause creaking. They just need to be tightened.

* Splits in the boards, especially old ones make a creaking sound.

* Gaps, between the floorboard and the joist cause a lot of creaking especially when you walk on them. Wooden floors creak a lot because of these gaps.

Before you start fixing things:

* Walk slowly across the floor to find where it makes noise

* Mark those spots with chalk or tape so you can find them later

* Check for loose nails, raised boards or any damage you can see

This will help you figure out if the problem is with the boards being loose or if it's something wrong with the floor underneath.

The common reason for squeaky floors is loose boards.

To fix them, you should do the following:

* Use screws that are made for floorboards, not nails because they hold better.

* Make holes first to avoid splitting the wood.

* Screw the board down to the beam below it.

A helpful tip is to make the screw heads go below the wood surface, then fill the holes with wood filler to get a finish.