Whether you have engineered wood, laminate wood, or hardwood flooring installed in your home, they can all make creaking and squeaking sounds. In addition, even if you have luxury vinyl planks installed, subfloors often make sounds beneath them. But why is my floor noisy? Is the floor going to get damaged if I don’t fix it? We have written this post to ease your concerns about the sounds your wood and wood-like flooring make.
Need help figuring out what the noise coming from your floor means? Call or email Flooring Masters & Professional Remodelers today for a free consultation.
Loud Floorboards
The most common sound coming from your floor is a squeaky floorboard. This is the most common complaint from homeowners with hardwood, laminate, and engineered wood flooring. There are many things that can make your floorboards noisy. Changes in temperature and humidity are usually the culprit, but installation affects this as well. When the rapidly changing weather is affecting your mood, it is affecting your flooring. No matter which type of wood flooring you have, the change in the weather may cause it to chatter.
The best way to combat this is by keeping the humidity in your home at or near 50%. If the humidity gets high and it causes your floor to creak, it could make your floorboards warp and cup. Running the heat and air conditioning usually controls this well, but you may also need a dehumidifier. Older homes where the environment is harder to control often have hardwood flooring, and hardwood is the most susceptible to humidity. It is important to get this problem solved or run the risk of having to replace those gorgeous old hardwood floors.
If it is not humidity, you may need to repair your subfloor to solve the problem. Most often, a screw has worked loose from being walked on for years, and just needs to be tightened down. However, the subfloor may need to be replaced. We would be happy to solve this problem for you.
Popping Sound From the Floor
When you walk across your floor and hear a popping sound, it’s important to get to the bottom of the problem. There are several different causes for popping in flooring. If your flooring is nailed to the subfloor, it could be coming from the nails. The nail works loose and then pops against the subfloor. If the head of the nail is up out of the floorboard, use a hammer and a nail setter to drive the nail back in carefully. Do not use a hammer alone or you will damage your floorboard. If you have easy access beneath the floor, driving a screw into the floorboard from below will also fix this issue.
However, this problem is sometimes caused by installer error. If the floorboards were installed before they had the proper amount of time to acclimate to the home’s climate, or without a moisture barrier, it is a serious problem. In this case, the flooring needs to be replaced.
Need help figuring out what the sound coming from your floor means? Call or email Flooring Masters & Professional Remodelers today for a free consultation.
