We just installed hard wood floors in our home. My husband did every little bit of the installation himself without any help. He has never done anything like this before. Overall, the floor looks very good with a few, uh, exceptions.

Here are my concerns, and my questions. Anyone with experience installing wood floors please respond! thanks!

- The floor creeks like CRAZY. with every single step I take (or anyone takes) on the floor, there are creaking sounds coming from every direction. Will this stop once the floor "settles in"? How else can the creaking be fixed?

- In some areas the floor boards just could not, and would not fit together as they should have, resulting in giant, very noticeable gaps in between floor boards. What is the best way to mask these cracks? Any suggestions?

Creeks like crazy?

Sounds like irregular subfloor and no floor preparation...or it could be fasteners that aren't holding in the subfloor. The type of installation would be helpful to attempt any further guesses. Nailed, floated, or glued? Looks like DH should be sleeping on the couch?

They only ask questions, after the fact! The DIY crowd strikes again!!!

And they wonder why we make the big bucks!

I guess you could say, you got what you paid for.


At this point, you either live with it, or tear it up and have some firewood.
How much do you have involved in this investment?

Its not nailed in, or held in by anything, its just floating I guess is what you call it. As far as the sub floor, neither or us know anything about the sub floor other than that it's wooden. There doesn't seem to anything wrong with it. Do you think that once the gaps are filled in with wood puddy or something like that the creaking would stop?

Is there anything at all we can do? should we have a professional come out and look at it? IS there anything a professional can do at this point, aside from tearing out everything and starting over?

I really do wish I had found this site before we started putting in our floor. Neither my husband or myself ever thought it would be such a difficult task to undertake. Clearly, we're not very handy people! lol

Floating floor that creaks.
Noise means excessive movement, as a rule. What did you float the floor over? Cushion?
Ray
Oh, You may have no expansion gapping at the walls. If the wood edges are tight to any fixed object; creaking occurs.

what do u mean what did we float the floor over? just the wood that was underneath...

Masha, Did he roll out the required foam padding (underlayment) before installing the floating floor?

There is usually a foam layer that goes under a floating floor..sort oflikethe rosin paper that can go under a Hw floor this prevents woodrubbing against wood which causes the cricket creak!
Also..these gaps..what type of connection between floor boards/sections?
this isan engineered floor, correct?
If so and you didnt staple/nail down, or glue the edges together,you may be able to pick up and start again.
(Im thinking you have one of those engineered floors with the very slight tongue and groove and failed to adhesive them together,or to thesubfloor for large gaps to appear..
this will make 'Floorguy' unhappy that you are not ruined and not need a "Professional" like him to rescue you.
Relax Masha..after all this isnt brain surgery....increase your knowledge base just a little more..you willbe surprised at how EASY a lot of this is..once you make a few mistakes, get a few tools to make it easy. Dont get frustrated. The SECOND floor goes down a lot easier!
You may not be good enough to get it perfect,but its not too hard to get it pretty damn good.
Ciao
Salieri

Marsha,
Sounds like you have a problem on your hands. NO cushion under the new wood floor means Noise, Hollow sounds, Creaking and No reasonable way to repair it.
Enjoy and consider the noises "security features" of your home.
Ray