Squeaky floor (tongue and groove wood floor)

[DIYTrier]

Hello all- hope you can help.
The place I have moved into has real wood flooring, tongue and groove (so its 'like' laminate in terms of fitting it together but it's not). The brand of the wood is Augusta- apparently it is US imported

So the flooring was put down 3 years ago and looks great, but it squeaks like mad when you walk on it- not the end of the world but it would be good to do something about it

What I know about how it was done (that may or may not be the cause of the problem) is:
* The tongue and groove pieces are not glued together
*It rests on the type of foam underlay that is standard for laminate flooring
* the actual 'floor' beneath is cement.


It has been suggested (each piece advice from another expert/sometime contradictory) to me that the flooring squeaks because:

*The underlay is too spongy and it is letting the joints flex. need harder underlay
*The cement floor is uneven and needs levelling
*The tongue and grrove needs to be glued
*The floor needs to be glued direct to cement floor (i.e no underlay)

If anyone can give an enthusiastic amateur a suggested plan of action, it would be much appreciated!

 

[WoodYouLike]

It sound as if you have indeed movement in your floor. That the T&G are not glued is not the cause of it (and btw solid floorboards had T&G long before Melamine Laminated floors saw the daylight

Glueing the floor directly to the 'uneven' underfloor is not the solution, where it's uneven the boards wouldn't stick = movement.

Did you check if there are cork-strips in the expansion gaps? If the floor has expanded they might cause the noise.

Since the T&G are not glued, you could try to lift the floor (but be aware that you still can damage some of the T&G) to check the underlayment and/or underfloor.

Hope this helps.

 

[DIYTrier]

Thanks very much WoodYouLike.

Since I last posted: I have established the following:

This type of solid wood flooring definitely doesn't get glued together.

Apparently the manufacturer stated ( In know this threw the hearsay of my wife's friend who has this in a small room in his place, and who obtained the product) that the flooring out to be nailed to the subfloor (is it subfloor). It was innapropriate on cement floor full stop. However my wifes friend took the chance of making it a floating floor and got away with it (i.e has no problems).

Since then, he has heard that a product: Sika 2 liquid batten system. Instructions (http://www.chauncey.co.uk/floors/fitting/sikat2fit.htm). This is reccomended for my type of floor. It seems easy (famous last words) and is very expensive.

So to answer your question, yes, I did find that their is cork all around the wall. I was toying with the idea of taking this out as a first measure, but have been advised that it needs to be there to stop the floor moving apart (??)

Thanks for your helpful reply and any advice you can give in relation to this post would be appreciated

 

[WoodYouLike]

Sika is a well known (and expansive) brand in our trade. Instead of the system (including mat) you could use (if needed) the normal Sika T54.

Try to remove the cork strips, it is preventing the floor to move properly during the natural seasons and might be the main cause of the noise. If installed correctly an expansion gap of 10 - 15mm should have been there in the beginning and that sjhould be enough to handle most expansion without the floorboards coming out of the T&G.

 

[DIYTrier]

Thanks again WYL.

First things first i will take out the cork- it is jammed tight into the expansion gap but is easy levered out in one piece I think

So the sika t54 works by squeeezing out liquid beads abd laying that on the floor too? I will come back to the expensive SIKA option if this fails!

Will let you know progress. Thanks a lot