Creaking stairs/floors in new build

Joined
11 Sep 2006
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Location
London
Country
United Kingdom
We've recently moved into our first home, which is only 5 years old. The staircase and all of upstairs are extremely creaky (currently carpeted), which can be a nightmare when our 3 month old is trying to sleep. Does anyone have any economical suggestions for combatting this?

Many thanks
:rolleyes: :LOL:
 
Sponsored Links
Hi there,

We are in a similar position. We moved into our new build when it was totally new six months ago, and a few weeks back we started to notice that the main bedroom and landing upstairs had developed creaky floors.

Fortunately for us, our home is warranted by the developer and they are sending some chaps round next Monday to remedy it. When they came to investigate they said it either needed the boards screwed down or could be something to do with pipes. My guess is honestly for former, having read various other posts here and with the knowledge that the developer nail guns boards down in the first place (and the house has had a little bit of movement).

Our house is also carpeted, so we are fortunate that they will be lifting the carpet, doing their thing and then re-fitting. The carpet is what would bugger me if I had to do something myself ...

I'll let you know what happens.

D.
 
Hi there

That's a really good point - We've still got 5 years of the builders warranty left (Crest Homes) so I will give them a shout to see if they can cover this.

Thanks again I never really thought to give them a try.

Please do let me know how you get on though, just incase they can't help.

Many thanks
Charmaine :D
 
Not sure if this is a little late form the original post but when we moved in we had a similar problem and basically when they lay the sheet flooring the use a glue system rather than screws and as the house settles (5 years on I presume it has settled) then things start to move. They came in and placed a couple of screws here and there to resolve the problem. I have also been told that if you have creaky floorboards you can use talk between the boards to stop the squeek.
 
Sponsored Links
Zooming....Mmmmm 'talk' I think you ment chalk. :LOL:


Edit''Or was it 'TALC'
 
Hi Charmaine (and all),

I'm interested to know how you have got one with Crest, or how you do get on.

We moved into our home new new (if you know what I mean - we're the first owners) only seven months back.

Crest Nicholson's sub contractor came and lifted the carpets and tried putting in some screws but that didn't actually help. Over the course of the next couple of days they cut up some of the floor boards and identified that there were some small gaps between the joists and the boards in some areas (suggested as due to the settling / moving process). They packed these with thin soft wood and put the main bedroom and landing back together.

The landing is fine but, since then, a creak has returned to one area of the bedroom. So, they came back on Friday and did some more packing in a different area (this time they haven't fully re-fitted the carpet - they're coming back next week to see if there has been any recurrence before doing so).

The chap who's been doing the work says that quite a few of the new houses on our development have had this sort of problem. I mentioned the talc trick but he was of the opinion that the noise isn't between the boards, it's actually the aforementioned gap underneath them. I agree.

Which Crest development do you live at? We're at Ingress Park in Kent.

Best wishes,
D.
 
It seems like you are lucky. I purchased a new build two years ago and have had a nightmare with the builder - one of them being the creaking floors all over upstairs which he said was due to shrinkage!!! Anyway, it took getting the NHBC involved and he came and apparently screwed the floors down - it lasted a couple of weeks - now he says he put 500 screws in the floor (in a couple of hours) and there is nothing further that can be done!!

Got the NHBC coming out again in two weeks to start the whole bloody process again.

Cheers

SL
 
Maybe not that lucky Lawrenso. There was a recurrence, in that the creak "moved" over the weekend to a different area of the room. So yesterday, they cam back and did some more packing before re-fitting the carpet.

It was fine at the time but today there is some creaking again. In all honestly it is far better than before, but still present so somewhat annoying. I don't think it is for want of trying by the sub-contractors, so we're going to leave it for a couple of weeks to see what happens. After that I might try (a) talc and / or (b) "squeak no more" screws!

Annoying - but I also think that one becomes somewhat sensitised to creaking (i.e. I'm listening out for it).

Are there any other tricks out there - seems like a common problem?
 
Well, spent a pleasant couple of hours yesterday (really!) moving furniture, taking up the carpet and investigating myself.

I can see that the builders have put some bracing in between the joists in the affected areas and have indeed screwed the boards back down. It seems like a reasonable effort, but as I have said the creaks have moved around.

It is almost like the creaking comes from beneath the boards. And - if you "stamp" on the floor in the affected area it stops creaking for a day or so.

Anyway, have liberally applied talcum powder in, around and under the affected areas to see if it makes any difference.
 
Hi Dunder

did you have any joy with the powder towards resolving your creaks.

We seem to have a cracking noise as well with ours that actually seems to come from below the floor - ie the cieling downstairs.

well - only 7 days until the NHBC and builder comes round yet again and if that fails (you should see the list of all the problems) it will be off to court.

I am also considering suing him under the property misdescriptions act as he advertised it as "notable specification" however, he will only do minimum specification and I am sick of finding out that everything he has supplied is the cheapest of cheap.

Cheers

Lawrenso
 
Hi

We have just moved into a new build and on the landing and main bedroom the floor dips. It does also creak in some places (mainly where is rises up again) do you think that this might mean that the joists need repacking? Its interesting that on most of these treads that it is the landing and main bedroom that the problem. We were thinking of paying for someone independant to come and have a look, but they cost a lot of money. If it is likely that it is the joists we could just get the builder to do it.

Any thoughts?
 
Hi all

Thanks for all your replies about my original post. We're at the Crest Nicholson development in Newbury Park and the NHBC warranty that's supposed to be for 10 years is proving useless! Apparently they won't come out to see us as there aren't any structural defaults that accompany the creaking i.e cracks etc. (It's interesteing that they came out to investigate the development in Ingress Park though!). Can I ask how you got them to come and see you Dunder?

On top of this we've also had problems with the central heating that has a mind of its own among other things.

I'm not impressed with Crest or NHBC to be honest and sadly think that we'll just have to get used to the creaking xx
 
Hi all,

Sorry I haven't come back to this thread more quickly.

What's been happening then? Well - following on from when I said I'd put powder down between the boards it basically didn't make any discernable difference. So, I put aside a couple of hours one morning to take up the carpet again and lift the board in the offending area - I was determined to resovle the problem.

Anyway, this I did and started walkin around on the exposed joists. Interestingly the creak was still apparent despite the board being removed. So I started experimenting by shoving a screwdriver into various gaps, etc. After a few attempts I shoved my flat head (screwdriver) between the metal joist hanger and the joist board itself. Walked around again - absolute silence. Needless to say I felt pretty smart, so put a thin wedge of plastic in here and in two similar locations which were also exposed with the board up before screwing down and - for good measure - sprinkly more talcum power (our 2 month old was given several bottles of this but we were advised not to use it, so good to see it finding a use!). Rolled back and refitted carpet, etc. Lovely ....

A couple of weeks later and - much to my delight - the noise has NOT returned. Sufficiently buoyed by this yesterday afternoon I spent another hour lifting the landing carpet and doing a similar job. On this occassion it wasn't the same problem, but a nail rubbing against the metal joist hanger (banged in, packed with foam, talcum powdered up ...). Again carpet refitted and absolute silence.

You don't win them all though, as I noticed this evening that one creak has come back to a different location in the bedroom. This was, like the others, "fixed" by Crest's people some weeks back but has returned - maybe as a result of my work on the otehr bits. No problem - I'll just take that bit of carpet up tomorrow morning and hopefully resolve ...

In essence, these problems are fixable. I'm not an expert and - initially - I was worried about getting the carpet up and refitted. However, this has been absolutely fine and is quite a useful skill to have picked up (B&Q sell a carpet stretcher for £23 which I bought - needed in some places but well worth having). I must say that Crest's people's bit of cutting up the boards and putting the braces in so that they can go back down has made it possible for me to do my work.

I'm sure some people would say that we should have got Crest round again and again to resolve, but the problem was that they spent several days here getting the floor up and down again and not resolving it. Very awkward at the best of times, not least with a small baby - whereas I was able to do it discretly.
 
Hello, all,
I have just joined and read your exchange with interest, as I am also in a newbuild (3 years) with creaking floors and I thought I was alone! The two things seem as though they ought not to be mentioned in the same sentence, don't they? One of the many things about my new flat that is disappointing. Anyway, I too know from unhappy experience that neither the builder nor the housing association (through whom I would have to go for NHBC cover) will deal with it. So, I have to deal with it and am indebted to dunder for the tip about the brackets. My question is: how do you get the floorboards up? I am assuming that your floorboards are similar to mine? Not planks, but greenish particle board in sheets that are about 2' x 8'? I presume they are tongue in groove? I haven't been able to lift a floorboard yet. I don't know how to get at an edge. Do I need to take skirting board off?

Very grateful to have found my problem is not unique, though I wish none of us had to deal with it! My builder's John Laing Partnership, by the way. Also grateful for any flooboard lifting tips.

Very best,
elemoine
 
elemoine

You may well indeed find they are tongue and groove boards, and that the skirting was put on afterwards. The only way to get a board up is to use a circular saw, with the blade depth set to the board thickness (probably 18mm) and to cut along a board joint to remove the tongue (and the groove!). If the boards have been nailed down (highly likely) and that the nails are ribbed (a series of circles around the nail to hold it in better), which is just as likely, then you will have difficulty getting them out without damaging the board unless you drill the head of the nail off using a high speed steel drill bit. You can then use a pry bar to lift the board, or you may have to punch the nails (or at least some of them) through the board into the joist to get enough leverage on an edge to lift the board. If you start with a board that does not have any edge under the skirting board this will make it easier to get those boards out last without removing the skirting.

I have found that the best screws to use to secure the boards are Spax screws. Well worth the extra cost of a box of these to really secure the boards.

But before you do that ensure that the problem is not the joist itself, as described previously. Personally, as I do each creaky room in my (1990) house I am changing the boards for ply, which is much better than chipboard.

As for the stairs, if you can get in underneath them then you can use similar screws to secure each tread and riser. If you cannot get in beneath, then you can drive screws in at an angle at the back of each tread if you drill a pilot hole and countersink, but only if you are going to carpet which will hide your handy work. I also plan to gripfill each joint, which will really make it solid.

I did post on another thread about another squeaking problem which I had, which turned out to be the sole plate at the base of the partition wall, which was held rigid by the other studding within the wall, but the floor beneath it was flexing up and down as people walked by....the sole plate only had 2 x 6" nails over a 9 foot length of wall attaching it to the joists through the floor. Where I removed the internal wall on one side I found this problem and placed long spax screws through the sole plate into every joist. This tightened everything up before replacing the plasterboard. If you are not removing the plasterboard then you can get away with either removing the skirting and driving long screws in at an angle through the sole plate, or you can remove carpet and if the gap is big enough you can slide a hacksaw blade in and 'count' the nails and if you find only one or two like me, cut through them to prevent the squeaking and then force something like Gripfill in between sole plate and floor to secure everything. This I found tricky to do using a sealant gun applicator, Gripfill and a McDonalds straw to reach right under the sole plate! Did the trick though, even though the pressure required on the gun left my hands aching for days!!!

I can't personally believe that building regs allow them to produce floors in this manner, as it so obviously suffers from squeaking from a very early stage.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top