I've just started to lay a pine floor and I have squeaks that's going to drive my wife crazy. I need help big time. Here's what's happened. I removed all the particle board that was under our carpet, and replaced it with 5/8 CDX plywood. There were no squeaks any place on the plywood. The floor I'm installing is 6" yellow pine that I acclimated in the house for a week. This is in East Texas which has been quite humid the past week. I'm leaving a putty knife space between boards including the ends. I've face nailed the first couple of rows with 8p finishing nails though I also face nailed some with a floor nailer (which I rented, today). The squeaks are definitely coming from the pine boards, apparently rubbing together or moving against the nails. I put roofing felt on the plywood and there is roofing felt on the sub floor. Does anybody have suggestions for solving the squeaks at this stage. I still have 80% of the floor to do. Would more face nailing help? I'll try any suggestions you have.

Jerry

Jerry,

Is this pine flooring tongue and grooved? If so, you are supposed to blind nail through the tongue at approx. a 45 degree angle. You MAY need to remove the felt paper and glue the flooring as well as blind nailing. Use PL400 SOLVENT based adhesive (not water based ) every 8" on the backside.

The pine planks are T&G, and I'm blind nailing at whatever angle the floor nailer set them (I imagine 45 or 50 degrees). One reference I read says planks should be face nailed in addition to the blind nailing but I haven't done that, so far. I may be exaggerating the amount of squeaking but it's prominent in a few spots for sure.

The noise may be coming from the tongues and grooves rubbing together. Sometimes, they are not a snug fit and will have too much "play", which will allow for movement. And when there's wood rubbing against wood, you get squeeks. The fix is to glue on the bottom along the groove side. Simply remove the felt paper and before you lay up the next row of flooring, apply a 1/4" bead of PL 400 adhesive on the subfloor 1" in front of the tongue of the previous installed row of flooring. Then install the next row and nail down with the flooring nailer. You are using 2" long fasteners correct?

I think I've curred most of the squeaks by face nailing every 8 inches along the T&G side where its squeaking. I'm using 2" porta-nails made for their brand driver. It's a manual nailer which is the only rental ($24/day) I can get out here in the boonies. It seems to work okay but it took me a good number of whacks to get the hang of it and I'm still getting an occasional unset nail depending on how tired my arm is.

Why are we doing that if its humid?

Whats going to happen when it gets dry?

I'm following the how-to's on the internet. For yellow pine floors, the space between planks is recommended to be a putty knife width. I guess that's for the look of early pine floors. Anyway, I'm just a first time DIY'erk, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants, and I suppose my floor will look it.

Jerry

This article may help you:
editted by admin

Anybody look at those articles? It had my curiosity. Hey I don't mind someone linking to a site that is useful, but this one is there for people to click on google ads only in my opinion.

"Your beautiful hardwood floors require a lot of maintenance which translates to a lot of cleaning and waxing."

Hmmmn...

"There are also special cleaning products that are made for wood floors, most of which are designed to minimize moisture to protect your floors from water damage."

Hmmmm...

"İn order to determine the wood grade, you look at the growth rings. İf you can see more than six, then that is a higth grade wood. "

I'm done.