Hi everyone,

My home is 5 Yr old (purchased home when it was 2 Yr old) and the hardwood floors
now crackle and occasionally crack loudly when I walk on the floor. Noisy spots do
move during the week and appear to be related to the weather and time of year.

The floor is T&G boards ( ~ 5" x 12" w/ beveled edges ) on top of 3/4" OSB on top
of engineered joists.

I've quieted the problem to a degree by running beads of construction adhesive along
the joists since they appear to of been conservative with the adhesive when the house
was built.

Some boards still move and do not appear to be related to the subfloor flexing.
As a last resort -- I am considering screwing up into the boards through the subfloor
from the crawl space.

I do not was to screw through the T&G joints. Other than very careful measurements
from reference points such as ducts -- are there methods of tracking exactly where you
are when working from beneath a floor?

best,
John

you should be able to see the staples/cleats protruding thru the bottom of the plywood. the staples go thru the tongue at a 45% angle so they should be coming out of the bottom of the plywood at the center of the flooring piece above so screw right next to them if you want to hit the center of the board. osb IS acceptable but not a perfect substrate id say that isnt helping the situation at all.

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the reply.
Actually -- I see very little coming through the sub-floor. The joist are pretty close to
one another. The engineered joists look like I-beams with OSB used for the vertical sections.

I do however do occasionally see ring shanked nails coming through that missed a joist.
These come straight down and I would guess that these were used to attach the sub-floor to the joists.

Either they used short staples/nails or they floated the floor?

John

probably why it squeaks. try a rare earth magnet that will find them.

Everett, you should probally check to see if this is in fact a floating installation before attempting to fasten anything down first. You can do this with the aid of a suction cup, attach to floor and pull up. Or pull a vent if you can and pry at it a little, see if it lifts.

Let us know.