creaky bedroom floors,killing my love life!!

[garygttdi]

Hi All,

Just moved to a house from a bungalow and you guessed it he bedroom floors creak like mad. It appears that floors are covered with pretty ropy chipboard.

Plan is to screw it back down with as many 60mm as I can and then cover with 6mm MDF. Will this work?
How can I check for pipes and cables Detector?
Or would I be better of ripping the floors up and laying new, feels like a hell of a big job though.

 

[mattysupra]

You dont want to be putting down mdf. You want plywood. Also you can use a detector to check for pipes etc, but i dought it will sense 60mm or even 40mm deep through timber. These are more designed to look for wires/pipes 20mm deep in walls where they are much closer to the surface. I would consider taken all the chipboard up and replace with plywood 18-25mm thick depending on joist spacing. The thicker the better.

 

[garygttdi]

Thanks mattysupra,
Do you really mean I have to take up all the floors and re-lay with 25mm ply? That feels like a hell of a job is it the only way to really cure the problem? Why not MDF and yes to plywood I thought the MDF would be stronger. If I have to take the floors up can I put anything in the ceiling void to cut down noise transmission.
Thanks for taking the time to reply regards garygttdi

 

[mattysupra]

mdf does not like moister. You would only have to spill a drink or have cow boy carpet cleaner come along and the mdf could change its shape very quickly. I would say that if you do have chipboard already installed then the only way to fix all the squeaks is to take it all up. If chipboard is installed correct then it can be squeak free but i have not seen one fitted correct yet. And yes if you taken it all up you could put installation between the joists. End of the day you could try sticking loads of screws into the floor but you cant see where your pipes are.