Most floating interlocking engineered wood floors often squeak due to movement between floor boards (in some cases T&G floating floors will also create crackling noises when insufficient amounts of glue are used and or uneven subfloors) . Uneven subfloors can cause flooring planks to dip and move when stepped on.
If your glued-edge floating floor is making noise, one potential cause is that, due to moisture, the floor has expanded the maximum it can based on the expansion gap left during installation. At this point, the floor is locked in, hitting the walls or door jambs around the perimeter.
It is not unusual for a timber floor, particularly a 'floated' one, to crackle and creak a little when walked on, and some floors will do this more than others. The sound comes from the flooring rubbing where it is jointed.
If a floor has too many humps or depressions, a filling compound needs to be used to get the floor flat. Laminate flooring will snap and pop as you walk on it if it's bridging across hollow spots under the flooring. Your weight stresses the interlocking tongues and grooves in the flooring, causing the noise.
If you have a squeaky wood floor that lasts beyond seasonal changes, it may be time to look into what other issues might be happening by calling a flooring professional.
And fixing creaky floors is fairly simple. Although any floor can squeak, hardwood floors and staircases are the common culprits. Squeaks happen when a house settles and wood flooring dries and then expands. This causes the floorboards to rub against each other, or against the subfloor, or against the nail casings.
Why Your Laminate Floor is Creaking. Floorboards creak and squeak for a number of reasons, depending on the type of flooring you have. Generally, changes in humidity, season, or age can cause a squeaky floorboard, while poor installation may also be a culprit.
The noise that you hear when you step on a floorboard (or floorboards) is usually a result of loose boards. The bounciness and movement in these loose boards causes them to rub together or onto a fixing nail or floor joist which, in turn, creates an unpleasant and annoying noise referred to as creaking or squeaking.
You cannot walk on laminate flooring immediately after it's installed. The planks need time to settle and adhere to the subfloor before any weight is put on them. This takes about 24 hours. Once the flooring is dry and set, you can enjoy your new beautiful laminate floor.
What are the problems with floating floors? Floating floors can be susceptible to moisture and humidity, which can cause warping or buckling. They also tend to be more prone to gaps between planks due to their lack of attachment.
Because the flooring isn't attached to the sub-floor, it can move slightly when walking over it. However this is often tiny movements, caused by the underlay compressing underfoot. A hollow or echoed sound can sometimes occur when walking over a floating floor.
With a floating flooring installation, the product is not actually attached to the subfloor, meaning it may give off a hollower sound compared to that of the glue down method—though the thicker a product, the quieter it tends to be.
The most common reason there is movement in the boards is that the flooring underneath is not smooth enough. That unevenness in the subfloor results in the flexing of the laminate boards and a rubbing together which causes the noises.
Because the materials simply lay on the subfloor and are rather thin, floating floors typically feel somewhat hollow and are sometimes loud underfoot—especially laminates. This problem can be minimized by installation of a good-quality foam underlayment.
However, that's not the only thing that contributes to the noise floor. Air handlers, air conditioning units, computer fans, even nearby train tracks and more can all impart undesirable noise that ends up in your recordings.
Your floors might creak because you have a certain type of foundation in your home. This does not always mean that there's structural damage or any specific foundation problem. However, a pier and beam foundation does make it more likely that your floors will creak.
Creaking sounds may come from the subfloor, from the wood flooring itself, improper or poor workmanship, temperature or humidity as well as from settling or foundation movement. Floors can also seem to amplify creaking sounds and make them sound much worse than they really are.
Another downside to luxury vinyl plank flooring is that it can be noisy. The planks can create a hollow sound when they are walked on, which can be unsettling for some people. In addition, LVP Flooring can be slippery when wet.
Noise and hard floor surfaces
Research has shown that when a carpet is removed and replaced with wood or laminate flooring, the noise your neighbour in the property below experiences, will increase significantly and could change the noise environment in their home from relatively quiet to unbearable.
If the squeaks are occurring when you step on the floor right near a wall, they are probably due to lumber shrinkage around the nails that hold the wall to the floor. This causes the joint between the wall and the floor to flex somewhat, and the squeak occurs from the wood rubbing on the nails.
Though they are a nuisance, squeaky floors and stairs can be fixed quickly and affordably. Floors and stairs squeak when wooden floorboards or structural elements rub against each other, when the bridging between joists flexes under traffic or when floorboards have not been properly nailed to the subfloor.
If you're tired of hearing that annoying squeak every time you walk across the floor, the cost of repairing it can vary widely, from a mere $10 to more than a whopping $1,000.