Hello. I’m hoping that somebody can give me some advice regarding a ‘squeaky’ floor that I am installing. I bought 12 boxes of engineered oak from JFJ Woodflooring about five years ago but the project was shelved until now. The packs have been stored flat and unopened indoors and have now been acclimatising ready to be installed. I am installing over 50x25 mm battens at 350 mm centres and secret screwing using Tonguetite screws. The planks are 220 x 21 mm, each plank 2200 mm long. Some of the T&G is not as tightly fitting compared to those I have used in the past and this is resulting in some movement and squeaking in a few of the end joints where the join is between the battens. It’s only happening on a few joints so half the floor was down before I realised. I have two questions. 1. For the remainder of the floor should I glue the end joints and if so with what glue? Or, can I make a tighter fit of the T&G in some way? 2. For the couple of squeaky joints already in place what is the best way to eliminate the squeak? I would appreciate your views.
You could try putting pva in the Headers or supporting them with addition battens/noggins Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks for your reply but why do you say that? It’s engineered not solid. Battens are screwed to concrete sub floor at 200 mm centres so I would be interested in your reasoning.
Thanks for replying. I didn’t want to use pva as I didn’t think it had any gap filling properties. I thought that some sort of slightly expanding glue might be better although I may be wrong about that. Noggins would involve too much work to be honest.
I don’t like the method of fixing wood floors to battens. The floor squeaks because there is too much movement. Could be all sorts of reasons. With a board that wide you’re only fixing the front edge, there will be movement. It’s not solid so you don’t have to face fix it but I would of run a bead of flexi fix along the battens. Could be the battens have movement? The concrete needs to be dry and very flat for the battens to sit flat or you could glue and screw them. You could use expanding glue in the headers but it’s impossible to clean off the floor so I’m not a fan of that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The battens are rock solid. They are glued and screwed. They are cut strips of 25mm exterior ply. There is no issue with moisture from the sub floor, I checked this out before I started. If I get any movement of the boards on the battens I will face fix where necessary to eliminate the problem. The only problem is the loose fitting T&G on the headers where two planks meet nearer to one batten than the other. This might mean that one board overlaps the batten by say 250 mm and because it isn't a tight fitting joint with the next board in the same row it squeaks if downward pressure is applied. I take your point regarding glue marks on the finished floor but the boards are unfinished so can be sanded before the finish is applied. I would have glued to the battens but I have 25mm insulation between them which is sealed with aluminium foil covering the batten. I am thinking that gluing the rest of the headers is the only option.
Well you’ve answered your own question. I think your going to have to glue the headers or pack underneath them or a squeaking floor will be very annoying Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Gluing it is then. I appreciate your interest, hopefully I'll end up with a squeak free floor. Thanks again.
Also I’ve found running a Stanley blade down the headers will stop the squeak on the ones already fitted. It’s normally the veneer rubbing that causes it and not the t and g. You can always re fill before you sand and finish Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
