# Noisy creaky laminate floors/radiant heat



## dodgegirl48 (Feb 21, 2012)

We have laminate flooring in our home, both upstairs and downstairs with hotwater radiant heat.The downstairs floors make alot of noise when walked on like creaking and squeaking.The upstairs does not do it.My husband blames it on when we were building our home approx. 6 years ago we had so much rain and our first floor had got wet.He also say's the radiant heat causes it but i don't believe it cause the upstairs floors are quiet.He tried putting in some shims under the floorboards in the basement cause he said there was some small spaces, but now it is worse.Is there anyway to remove the shims? Also does anyone know how to fix this? Thanks!


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## oldognewtrick (Feb 21, 2012)

There are 2 possible areas where the squeaking could originate from. It's either the sub-flooring itself or the laminate. If it goes away when the heat is not used, my guess is it's the sub-flooring. I have this problem in our hallway during the winter months when the furnace is on, humidity levels are lower and I've not been motivated to pulling back the carpet and screwing the sub-floor to the floor joists. You can also check and see if they allowed enough space between the flooring and the walls to allow for expansion and contraction of the laminate and the wall base board. Just my :2cents: and worth every penny.


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## dodgegirl48 (Feb 21, 2012)

No, it does not seem to do it in the summer but i don't understand why it isnt noisy upstairs.Maybe because it didnt get wet when building idk.We did leave enough space for expansion when putting the floor down.Thanks!


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## nealtw (Feb 21, 2012)

The worsed thing you can do is shim the spaces between the joists and sub floor. If the sub floor gets really wet during construction it can swell up and slightly pull the nails and when it drys out you have squeaks. We will be doing the same fix in a house this week, I'll let you know if we have a method that works.


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## 1jackguy (Feb 21, 2012)

give the lam floor a drink liquid gold product.


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## dodgegirl48 (Feb 22, 2012)

Thanks for the info.Do you know of any tool to use to get the shims out?


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## north49 (Feb 22, 2012)

My hardwood floors were noisy like that (when building our floor was soaked before the roof went on too) but I got 2 free standing humidifiers and within a week the noise stopped !  We have infloor heating as well.  Problem solved.


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## nealtw (Feb 22, 2012)

So we went and worked on one squeaky floor today. We found a few issues and the big oops was nails that missed the floor joist.
The ones actually touching the side of the floor joists can make alot of noise, we were able to pull them thru the floor with end nipper pliers. When you install the sub floor with glue, you never put glue where it will get into the tongue and groove but I think this guy went for coffee and left glue on one joist. So when he nailed the floor down on dry glue, the glue didn,t squish flat and it held it up 1/8" except for the area near the tongue and grove which would move when walked on.
The fix; We took 12 inch peices of 2x6 and went a little crazy with floor glue on one side and one edge and pushed it up tight to floor and nailed it to the joist. It seemed to work.
The other problem we had was the span of the floor, it had 16 ft 2x10s 12" on center. Engineers tell me that it works but each floor joist deflecks 1" when someone walks accross the floor.


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## dodgegirl48 (Feb 23, 2012)

Do you have radiant floor heat in your basement?Is that where you put the humidifiers? We have like a heat exchanger blower in our basement for heat and that really dries things out so maybe that would help our problem. Thanks!


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## isola96 (Mar 1, 2012)

dodgegirl48 said:
			
		

> Do you have radiant floor heat in your basement?Is that where you put the humidifiers? We have like a heat exchanger blower in our basement for heat and that really dries things out so maybe that would help our problem. Thanks!



As long as you have a 1/4" space between your walls and or pipes you won't hear squeaks. check your gaps everywhere.
You can dry and moist the stuffing out of laminante as long as you have your 1/4" it will be fine.


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## north49 (Mar 2, 2012)

Get this....in the middle of the night usually about 3 a.m. I am awakened by a loud crack coming from somewhere between our bedroom and the ensuite.  I think it happens mainly in winter and hardly misses a night.  It cracks loudly and sometimes sounds like there could be someone taking a few steps on the hardwood.  It is really kind of freaky especially when I am alone.  I have ruled out ghosts so it has occurred to me that maybe some of the hardwood is too close to the wall  (hot water heating under floor, pex tubing is up against the underside of floor as it is supposed to be).  Geez, every night !!  The floor squeaks were taken care of by the humifiers.  Am I right?


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## north49 (Mar 2, 2012)

isola96 said:


> As long as you have a 1/4" space between your walls and or pipes you won't hear squeaks. check your gaps everywhere.
> You can dry and moist the stuffing out of laminante as long as you have your 1/4" it will be fine.



Actually our infloor heating is on the main floor and is hardwood not in the basement so I doubt that humidifiers would help with laminate.


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## isola96 (Mar 2, 2012)

Dollars to donuts it's to close to the wall.
Don't run humidifier it the heat is on you will be fighting a never ending battle it's either one or the other. 
I'm surprised your seams aren't raising on you the way you described that.


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## north49 (Mar 3, 2012)

isola96 said:


> Dollars to donuts it's to close to the wall.
> Don't run humidifier it the heat is on you will be fighting a never ending battle it's either one or the other.
> I'm surprised your seams aren't raising on you the way you described that.



You may be right, but it is so dry with the infloor heating that your nose will bleed if we don't run humidifiers (this is not a small house).  There is no condensation on the windows so I doubt that we have too much moisture besides without the humidifiers the wood floors shrink and start leaving spaces.  I guess it's the joys of living in an extreme climate.


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