Hello folks - I am a new comer.

My house is about four years old. I live in Eastern Canada. The subfloor is 3/4" OSB (it was glued and screwed to open web floor joists). The hardwood is oak (I believe). I helped my father in-law install it (he has been a contractor for about 40 years). We used a smooth paper covering under the hardwood. We also used staples and I don't believe they were resin coated.

Anyhow; year one was good, and then the creaking got progressively worse every year after. You pretty much can not take a step without creaking in the floor.

I suspect the OSB. I really wish we used plywood, but the father in-law was all about saving money. I thought about drilling pilot holes and screwing from underneath, but it seems like I would have to use MANY screws.

Could I pull up the hardwood, screw and glue new 3/4" plywood, then install hardwood again? I would have to use transition reducer mouldings where it meets the tile.

Any thoughts? It's been driving me crazy. Thanks all,

Do you know where the squeaking is coming from?
It can be from either the OSB not fastened securely or the wood flooring not fastened well.
The PSB should be glued to the support framing.
The staples almost all have the "glue" because this keeps them together in clips.
Loose OSB can be re-fastened with strips that could be glued to the framing with sub-floor adhesive and held in place while the glue dries with small staples, which would be much faster than screws.
Screwing through the sub-floor to hold the flooring securely would be a better solution than taking the flooring up, installing new plywood then trying to use the flooring over after removing the fasteners. Sheet rock type of screw guns could be used to screw from underneath if it is accessible.

Hi there,

I really believe that the staples have lost their "bite" in the OSB (possibly from humidity changes - not sure).

I know that the OSB is screwed and glued to the floor joists (open web joists) and that the HW flooring runs perpendicular to the joists.

If I removed the HW, I was not intending to reuse it.

I'll likely try the screwing from below method.

Thanks for the input/thoughts,

You may want to pre-drill through the OSB so the screws pull the flooring down better. If there are threads all the way along the screws, you may not have the screw pull the flooring tight unless you pre-drill through the OSB with a larger diameter drill than the threads so you don't get screw jacking.

Hi there,

Thanks for the info. I tried a section in my hallway (drilled pilot holes). It helped a bit but I would have to put over a hundred screws to fix the problem. I think I am left with no other option other than removing all of the OSB subfloor and installing T&G plywood. This would be a big job.

Pretty disappointing to have to do this on a house that is only 5 years old, but there appears to be no other option.

Thanks for the input.

We see these complaints often. Mostly because when the OSB gets wet it during the coinstruction phase it swells and then does not shrink back to its original density, thus fasteners loosen.
But alas the NWFA has adopted it as fit for underlayment under a nail down floor.