Squeaky floating floor

[SB200782]

Hi all,
I'm replacing skirting boards after fitting an engineered oak floor in my hall. The new floor sat well for weeks before I installed the skirting. However, after fixing new skirting boards there's a noticeable clicking/ creaking sound when I step on parts of it near the edges.

There's very, very slight (2mm) play in the boards when I step on them (no doubt due to a slightly uneven floor or a bit of give in the fibreboard underlay). But as it wasn't creaking before I put the skirting down, I can only assume the skirting is either restricting the boards (ie there's not enough play causing the T&G joints to creek), or they are rubbing on the underneath of the skirting (ie too much play). The noise appears to be minimised if I wedge folded paper between the skirting and floor.

My question is: How hard should I push the skirting down when fixing it? Should there be a very slight gap between floor and skirting to allow slight movement? Or should I put weight on the floor and fix the skirting very tightly against the top of the floor to eliminate any vertical play?

I putting skirting boards over the expansion gap to hide it, not the other approach of laying flooring up to existing skirting and using moulding. All the expansion gaps, door frame cutouts etc, etc are correct.

Any help/ advice would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[pinenot]

Skirting boards should always fixed hard down to the floor, that's why most skirting has a bevel on the bottom edge away from the face, to allow a sharp contact. How most joiners achieved this was to use a 3 - 4 foot length of T&G (or similar) flooring and placing this on top of the skirting at right angle, kneel on this whilst nailing it. Of course modern tools like nail guns came along, joiners adapted their ways the result being skirting not fixed downwards, leaving a gap after shrinkage, result drafts or squeak-squeak.
You could fix it by removing the skirting and fixing a self adhesive strip gasket to the bottom edge, it will compress as you push the skirting down and take up minor shrinkage...pinenot