Squeeking floors

gutteruu

So I have solid maple suspended timber floors in a few rooms downstairs in my house. 1 room is especially noisy and squeaky when you walk on them. They are supported by batons with polystyrene insulation between.

I was thinking there must be some expanding foam type material that I could pump under boards to fill the void and providing some support stopping the noise? Regular expanding foam wouldn't work as it would shrink, but something a bit more solid?

If you spray foam under it you are going to lift it .
You could probably pin it down it a proper nail gun and fill the nail holes.

Dog Man Star

I'm no diy man, but squeaking floor boards is almost always caused by using nails rather than screws to secure the floorboards.

gutteruu

It's tongue and groove supported about every 18 inches. I'd need to nail every board on every joint. It's flexing in the middle of supports and squeaking.

Powder works until you hoover it up. It just needs more support from below to prevent the flex leading to noise.

my3cents

So is it the flexing of the supports across the polystyrene that causing the squeak?

gutteruu

No, the boards themselves. The boards are just 3 inch wide x 2 foot long tongue and groove lengths fixed together. Underneath there is just a bunch of 4x2 joists with insulation between. The noise is from the tongue and groove moving under weight. I was hoping there is something like a liquid you could inject in, or expanding foam to solidify under it giving it a bit more support.

whizbang

Are the 4x2 batons resting on top of the polystyrene ?

4x2 wouldn't strong enough to prevent a a floor from bowing under the weight of a person. If you could add more support to the 4x2 from underneath it would definitely reduce the flexing and noise.

gutteruu

Yes. Impossible to do without lifting the floor. If I do that I will damage some boards leaving me short of floor to replace.

Dr_Colossus

How long are the floors down or have they only begun squeeking recently. Do they squeek all around the room or worse in certain areas. Wonder have they reached the maximum expansion point and pressing against the walls so no longer fully sitting on the battons thus causing movement when walked on.

antiskeptic

WD40 (or one of its less smelly equivilents, TEC7 do something similar which isn't as whiffy)? Maybe try it (as they say on all the best products) in a small area to see how it goes.

I wouldn't see it drying out and it will penetrate the tongue/groove.

Open to criticism on this.