Home Improvement

mkopec

mkopec

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I would try shimming your sub-floor if you have access to the joists in the basement first, before you start drilling shit onto your floor. Sometimes a well placed shim can get rid of squeaks in the floor. Just start hammering in thin shims between the sub-floor and floor joists around the area of the squeak. That 1/32 or 1/16th movement is enough to tighten up the floor and stop squeaks in some situations.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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I hate the fact that the previous owners of my home completely drywalled and finished the ceiling in the basement. I wish they would have just put in a drop-ceiling with ceiling tiles so I still had access to the main level floor from underneath. Running any sort of wiring or dealing with squeaks is a total bitch with a finished basement ceiling.
 
Falstaff

Falstaff

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joeboo_sl said:
Those are what I saw Mike Holmes use on an episode of Holmes on Homes, and they seemed to work great. I've been thinking about getting some for our house, the floor outside of our babies room squeaks horribly, and I'm always afraid it's going to wake him up. The only semi-difficult part is finding the beams under the floor to screw into. Once you successfully locate one though, you should just be able to measure off the rest.
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I was using a stud finder and it's either totally unreliable, the wrong piece of equipment to be using, or their is no rhyme or reason as to where they put them into the floor.

We have no plans to replace the wood floor anytime soon, or ever, while we are living there.

We do not have access to underneath the floor. Their is no drop ceiling in our basement, it's like joeboo's.
 
BoldW

BoldW

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A traditional stud finder will have issues on a wooden floor. You can purchase a stud finder that also has a "nail finder" - basically a metal detector to help you find where the flooring was nailed/screwed in. You may have better luck determining where the floor joists are.

For the squeaks, it would depend on the flooring type, and whether it's the floorboards themselves or the subflooring/joists that are causing the squeak. Ideally, you'd want to attack the problem from the bottom using shims or, depending, screws from the bottom that won't penetrate fully through the floorboard. If access from the bottom is unavailable, your choices become much more limited. If you have a tongue-in-groove type flooring, that makes it even more difficult. If using plank flooring with the ability to remove a board or two around the squeaking area, then that's not too bad as you can nail/screw in the subfloor and then reattach the planking securely.

I've heard that you can also use baby powder (sprinkled into cracks) to keep planks from rubbing against each other if this is the cause of the noise. You'd probably need to re-apply seasonally, though.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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BoldW_sl said:
A traditional stud finder will have issues on a wooden floor. You can purchase a stud finder that also has a "nail finder" - basically a metal detector to help you find where the flooring was nailed/screwed in. You may have better luck determining where the floor joists are.

For the squeaks, it would depend on the flooring type, and whether it's the floorboards themselves or the subflooring/joists that are causing the squeak. Ideally, you'd want to attack the problem from the bottom using shims or, depending, screws from the bottom that won't penetrate fully through the floorboard. If access from the bottom is unavailable, your choices become much more limited. If you have a tongue-in-groove type flooring, that makes it even more difficult. If using plank flooring with the ability to remove a board or two around the squeaking area, then that's not too bad as you can nail/screw in the subfloor and then reattach the planking securely.

I've heard that you can also use baby powder (sprinkled into cracks) to keep planks from rubbing against each other if this is the cause of the noise. You'd probably need to re-apply seasonally, though.
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This is a great post.
With floor squeaks, you're mostly just going to have to live with them. There are things you can do to reduce them, for a while.
Sorry 'bout that.
 
Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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joeboo_sl said:
I hate the fact that the previous owners of my home completely drywalled and finished the ceiling in the basement. I wish they would have just put in a drop-ceiling with ceiling tiles so I still had access to the main level floor from underneath. Running any sort of wiring or dealing with squeaks is a total bitch with a finished basement ceiling.
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Glad you posted this, the previous owners of our house did too, the basement room is directly below our master bedroom and bathroom. Just got a quote to do some remodeling down there and was thinking about asking what it would take to replace the drywall ceiling with a drop one. Have you looked in to that?
 
Erronius

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I don't know about price since I've never paid for it myself, but a homeowner could easily rip out the ceiling drywall in a basement themselves and the biggest worries might be cleaning up the mess and disposal. I'd be less willing to install grid myself but that's completely doable as well, though someone who does that for a living can be in and out in a fraction of the time it might take a homeowner. Only thing I'd mention is (assuming that the basement walls are studded out and finished) is that when you tear out the basement ceiling to be a bit careful and not damage (destroy) the drywall on the walls themselves - if you are careful you can install the grid right over the drywall on the wall and not have to worry about refinishing it as long as the walls rise above the height of your grid.

installing_drop_ceiling_tiles_lg.jpg


I always hated having homeowners with fully finished basements and hard ceilings, with no chases or provisions for expansion, ask for crazy stuff like adding additional circuits for a hot-tub on the other side of the house from their panel. A lot of homeowners seem to think that there is a magical fairyland behind the drywall in their house where wiring can magically route itself at the wave of the hand.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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Erronius_sl said:
I always hated having homeowners with fully finished basements and hard ceilings, with no chases or provisions for expansion, ask for crazy stuff like adding additional circuits for a hot-tub on the other side of the house from their panel. A lot of homeowners seem to think that there is a magical fairyland behind the drywall in their house where wiring can magically route itself at the wave of the hand.
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This is so true. I am handy, so my friends say, "Hey, I want to add a plug here. That'd be easy, right?" It's on a cement block wall. duh.

Also, as far as suspended ceilings go, a friend of mine is about to do one in his basement. He is going with this system:
http://www.ceilinglink.com/
It looks really good for a bunch of reasons - 1. you lose less than an inch of head space. 2. It screws right to the ceiling joists, and has the ability to "forgive" up to 3/4 of an inch if your joists aren't perfect. 3. don't need a spinning level, you can do it by sight.
It isn't quite as easy to pull a tile out or put one in, but it is a lot easier than drywall to get into, and it's fairly cheap and forgiving.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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I'm noticing in some pictures that people have insulation between their basement and 1st floor. Why?
 
BoldW

BoldW

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Because some basements aren't conditioned so there needs to be insulation between it and the livable area.
 
lurkingdirk

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Meh, your time and money would be better spent insulating the exterior wall of your basement so that your home is warm from the bottom up.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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I would do this more for a sound deadener than anything. If you ever hung out in a basement with no insulation on the ceiling with little kids running around upstairs, you will see why you want to do this.
 
chaos

chaos

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How difficult is it to install new carpet yourself? In the past I have paid people to do it but the carpet in my room is going to have to be replaced due to horrible cat piss smell that will not come off ever. I don't want to pay some service to do it and do a halfass job if it is something that the average person can do pretty easily And I would have to seal the subflooring, which most of these carpet places won't do.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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I do everything myself, from plumbing to cement work to roofing to electrical.

I don't lay carpet myself.

Doesn't matter if you're gluing it or stretching it or what, I find it very difficult to lay perfectly square and avoid creases and wrinkles. Plus, if you have someone else do it, and a seam opens up, call them back to fix it. Also, if you buy the carpet at Lowes, they frequently have deals where installation of any amount is something like $50. There are tools you need to buy/rent, too.

Others may find it easy. Might just be my "thing."*shrug*
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Also, if you have Lowe's/Home Depot do your installation, you don't pay sales tax on the actual product, since you are now purchasing a service, and not just a good. Services aren't taxed(at least in my state)

Can be a pretty big savings, not paying sales tax on a ton of flooring, if you are redoing your entire house or something.
 
chaos

chaos

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I just don't want my room to smell like cat pee anymore when the fan hasn't been running. And my experience with them last time was they wouldn't do anything outside of installing the carpet. I had some loose subflooring and they wouldn't secure it, but they sat around for a while so I could do it.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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chaos_sl said:
I just don't want my room to smell like cat pee anymore when the fan hasn't been running. And my experience with them last time was they wouldn't do anything outside of installing the carpet. I had some loose subflooring and they wouldn't secure it, but they sat around for a while so I could do it.
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Rip off the old carpet yourself, paint the subfloor. The house I bought was a stinking mess. I tore out all carpeting, everything got 2 coats of primer (walls, floors, ceilings). Can't smell any cat/dog piss or cigarette smoke anymore.

After that, call the carpet guys in. Might seem silly to hire someone who doesn't take the old out, but in my opinion, it's worth doing yourself to get rid of the smell, and it's worth having them do the install because of the difficulties in getting carpet to lay correctly.
 
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