I recently bought a 5-level back split and the hardwood floor at the top level of the house keep making noise. The creaky sounds I recognize but there is another sound: when you step at one side of the room you hear the sound at the other end of the room as if the other end is lifting. Does it just need nailing down? Can it be repaired?
Answer:
The creaking you recognize in the hardwood flooring can be caused by a number of things but normally it has to do with a nail or two holding the sub-flooring; not having been driven all the way in. This causes the sub-flooring to slide on the shaft of the nail and there isn't a whole lot to be done about it. If, on the other hand, it is just hardwood that is rubbing on hardwood, you can normally get rid of it by sprinkling a bit of talcum powder on the whole floor and then sweeping it across the grooves prior to vacuuming the residue. The one you don't recognize though is more interesting. The path you take to walk from one side of the room to the other probably is parallel to the floor joists. That means that either plumbing pipes or heating ducts are travelling the same way. If any of these are touching the sub-flooring in a couple of places you'll end up hearing a bit of a thud (more than a squeak) as you walk across the room.
