New build creaking upstairs plywood subfloor

newbie_diy

Getting laminate installed in the upstairs rooms this week.. The plywood is a bit springy/squeaky in a few spots spot. The floor fitter will not screw it down in case he hits a pipe. Any recommendations for what we can do to fix ourselves?

romperstomper

newbie_diy wrote: »

Getting laminate installed in the upstairs rooms this week.. The plywood is a bit springy/squeaky in a few spots spot. The floor fitter will not screw it down in case he hits a pipe. Any recommendations for what we can do to fix ourselves?

Map the pipes using a sonic scanner and then screw away

RandRuns

In a new build, the pipes will be halfway down the joists. Use screws half an inch longer than the thickness of the plywood and you won't hit pipes.
Whatever you do, ensure all squeaks are gone before fitting the laminate or you'll be plagued with squeaking floors for ever more.

tabby aspreme

Drill holes in the plywood, 1mm bigger than the screws you are using, to allow the screws to pull the ply tight to the joists

Lumen

Or use double-threaded flooring screws and don't bother drilling.

SC024

forget about double threaded screws or drilling holes 1mm bigger nonsense.

ideally in new build pipes should be in centre of joists but in an ideal world we wouldn't be dealing with covid either.

check 1st.

get a box of half threaded 5 x 50 or 60mm screws screw them in until screws just below the surface of plywood. every 9 inchs approx 6 screws across the short direction of the sheets. sorted

TheBoyConor

RandRuns wrote: »

In a new build, the pipes will be halfway down the joists. Use screws half an inch longer than the thickness of the plywood and you won't hit pipes.
Whatever you do, ensure all squeaks are gone before fitting the laminate or you'll be plagued with squeaking floors for ever more.

Exactly. Op, i suggest that the fitter is just trying to fob you off with excuses because he can't be bothered his lazy arse doing the extra work of screwing them down properly.

RandRuns

I have been in hundreds upon hundreds of new build houses over the past 25 years (maybe even thousands, I didn't keep a count), at first and second fix stage. I have never, in all that time, seen a plumber in a new build run pipes so close to the top of the joist that you could hit them with anything under than an unfeasibly long screw. It simply never happens. Now I suppose it is possible that the OP's house was plumbed by some free-spirited rebel that notched the joists, 1960's style, and ran the pipes on top of them, but I think it is so improbable that I would think the OP is more likely to be hit twice by lightening on his way to the hardware store for the screws, than he is to hit a pipe.

spaceHopper

RandRuns wrote: »

Now I suppose it is possible that the OP's house was plumbed by some free-spirited rebel that notched the joists, 1960's style, and ran the pipes on top of them

You must have been in my house! Retro fitted heating

RandRuns

spaceHopper wrote: »

You must have been in my house! Retro fitted heating

Yep, the only place I've seen the joists notched are;

Pre-late 70's houses
Houses that had heating retrofitted
Commercial and medical buildings, pre-mid 80's, where iron pipes were used.

awec

I had to cut a hole in my ceiling recently to fix something and was surprised to find that the pipework appeared to be this flexi plastic pipe stuff.

Is this normal now? House built in the last 5 years.

It looked like the yellow pipe in this pic:

e.r

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Exactly. Op, i suggest that the fitter is just trying to fob you off with excuses because he can't be bothered his lazy arse doing the extra work of screwing them down properly.

He’s there to install the flooring not to fix the floorboards, will he fix the leaking roof too while he’s there!!!

TheBoyConor

awec wrote: »

I had to cut a hole in my ceiling recently to fix something and was surprised to find that the pipework appeared to be this flexi plastic pipe stuff.

Is this normal now? House built in the last 5 years.

It looked like the yellow pipe in this pic:

Sure what would you expect? You hardly expect Irish builders to use something that isn't the cheapest thing available and lash it in and cover it up as quickly as possible.

Yellow_Fern

There is a type of short piece of tiber fitted between joists to stiffen floors. Can they be used in modern settings where you have web joists or related types of joist?

Calahonda52

SC024 wrote: »

forget about double threaded screws or drilling holes 1mm bigger nonsense.

ideally in new build pipes should be in centre of joists but in an ideal world we wouldn't be dealing with covid either.

check 1st.

get a box of half threaded 5 x 50 or 60mm screws screw them in until screws just below the surface of plywood. every 9 inchs approx 6 screws across the short direction of the sheets. sorted

Forget about that, follow this.

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Drill holes in the plywood, 1mm bigger than the screws you are using, to allow the screws to pull the ply tight to the joists

This is not the fitters job

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Exactly. Op, i suggest that the fitter is just trying to fob you off with excuses because he can't be bothered his lazy arse doing the extra work of screwing them down properly.

Nothing wrong with qualplex

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Sure what would you expect? You hardly expect Irish builders to use something that isn't the cheapest thing available and lash it in and cover it up as quickly as possible.

looksee

I had people working in my 'being refurbished' house and owing to an odd combination of circumstances that was not the fault of any of them, a guy fixing flooring before fitting laminate ran a screw into a pipe. It wasn't noticed till I saw water running down a wall downstairs. Fortunately the plumber was just down the road and the whole thing was fixed with no permanent damage. That's why the floor fitter doesn't want to get involved though.