Creaking floating floor

[_chip]

I have a floating subfloor. So chipboard ontop of extratherm insulation board ontop of concrete. The chipboard is creaking at the joints and I'm trying to figure out how to stop it. I've tried coating the floor with watered down pva but that didn't help. If I could screw into the extratherm without the screws working loose I think that would solve it, but I can't find a screw which would do the job.

Does anyone have any other solutions? Would screwing down some ply ontop of the chipboard help?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Firstly, was this floor assembled above an existing planked floor, and if so were steps taken to repair all damage in the planking, and to fix down all loose boards? That is a potential source of problems further along the line

Secondly, before laying the insulation was the floor checked for straightness (i.e. were there any major dips or crowns) and were any corrective actions taken to deal with defects? PIR insulation can bridge minor gaps or hollows, but it won't provide adequate support for a deeply dished floor and that can make a floating floor above flex and creak as well

Anyhow, getting to the chipboard - how was it assembled? Ideally it should gave been installed using PU (polyurethane) glue on all the joints, or at least a good quality D4 white glue (i.e. NOT PVA), pulled up with flooring straps to get good tight joints. If you don't use the correct glue, or worse the joints aren't glued at all, your floor will most likely flex and creak

If it hasn't been done that way you'll struggle to cure all its' ills and screws aren't guaranteed to work. The solution I'd take is to strap the floor together (to prevent any joints opening up and pull the existing joints as tight as possible - alternatively if the joints are already tight you could just screw temporary 2 x 1in softwood slate laths to the top of the sub-floor at 300 to 400mm apart), drill into the joints at an angle, every 150mm or so (8 or 10mm drill bit) to the half thickness point where the tongue is, making sure you clean out each hole thoroughly, then inject PU glue into all the holes and leave to set. Forget PVA because it won't do anything at this stage of the game. Once the (PU) glue has cured trim the foam back, fill any holes with a 2-pack (car body) filler, (machine) sand off and you are good to go

Good sub floor prep isn't difficult, but you need to be a bit picky (OCD?) with it and not cut corners. Done right it helps deliver a trouble free floor and the issues above are all things I've come across in the past where corners have been cut

 

[_chip]

Firstly, was this floor assembled above an existing planked floor, and if so were steps taken to repair all damage in the planking, and to fix down all loose boards? That is a potentisl sourcevof problems further along the line

Secondly, before laying the insulation was the floor checked for straightness (i.e. were there anuy najor dips or crowns) and were any corrective actions taken to deal with defects. PIR insulation can bridge minor gaps or hollows, but it won't provide adequate support for a deeply dished floor and that can make a floating floor above flex and creak as well

Anyhow, gettingbto thhe chipboard - how was it assembled? Ideally it should gave been installed using PU (polyurethane) glue on all the joints, or at least a good quality D4 white glue (i.e. NOT PVA), pulled up with flooring straps to get good tight joints. If you don't use the correct glue, or worse the joints aren't glued at all, your floor will most likely flex and creak

If it hasn't been done that way you'll struggle to cure its' ills and screws aren't guaranteed to work. The solution I'd take is to strap the floor together (to prevent any joints opening up and pull the existing joints as tight as possible - alternatively if the joints arre alreasy tight you could just screw temporary 2 x 1in softwood slate laths to the top of the sub-floor at 300 to 400mm apart), drill into the joints at an angle, every 150mm or so (8 or 10mm drill bit) to the half thickness point where the tongue is, making sure you clean out each hole thoroughly, then inject PU glue into all the holes and leave to set. Forget PVA because it won't do anything at this stage of the game. Once the (PU) glue has cured trim the foam back, fill any holes with a 2-pack (car body) filler, sand off and you are good to go

Good sub floor prep isn't difficult, but it does help deliver a trouble free floor and the issues above are all things I've come across in the past

Most of this stuff is unknown unfortunately. I'll give the PU method a try, thanks