How to Fix Squeaky Floorboards: A Step-by-step Guide 

3:46 I love how Stuart puts all his efforts in making these mock ups for the sole reason as to educate us. Awesome!

That delivery of "And before long, they get right on your-... nerves" was just impeccable. 💋👌

There's an alternate reality where Stuart didn't start a DIY channel, and isn't absolutely elated at his house needing random jobs doing in it

“ T-Nerves “ 🤣😂 I love the extra effort you make to construct mock ups to clearly demonstrate the job , brilliant! Excellent AS ALWAYS, thank you Stuart 😁👍

the creaky floors in our 20yo "new build" have been the bane of my life. I tried everything, even completely reboarding my sons bedroom, still didnt fix it, his room is still terrible. Then I had an idea. The top landing was the worst in the house. I removed all the boards and placed (and screwed) very tight fitting 4x2 braces between the joists where possible. It completely fixed it. So when we decorated our daughters room I did the same and it fixed that too, but I only cut strips out of the flooring to access the joists and allowed easy patching of the flooring I'd removed. Success again.

My late father (who was a joiner) always maintained that squeaks could come from any wood moving up and down on a nail. He recommended using screwnails all the time, to stop such movement (threaded all the way to the head). Separately, if you ever need use of a heavy weight, fill a basin with water. One kilogramme per 10cm cube.

Thanks for taking the time to make this video Stuart, I have a squeaky floorboard that drive us nuts. I didn't want to screw through any pipes or cables so learnt to live with it. But these tips may just be the answer. Thank you.

such an informative video and actually you've tackled something people may not even realise, genuinely thank you

Stuart - you have me staying awake now keeping my ears open listening out for squeaking floorboards, even though I live alone, in a bungalow with concrete floors!

Great video Stuart! You can get PU adhesive in cartridges that will fit a sealant gun, with the smaller nozzle than the gorilla glue bottle it’s probably possible to force the adhesive under the 4x2 without drilling it. For those asking the knife / scraper is a tough built which you can get from Toolstation here in the UK.

Excellent video Stuart. All your videos are very helpful.

That's another great video Stuart. You've taken a lot of time to explain this. Thank you

A lot of great tips for this problem thanks for posting this one it’s been helpful

Very helpful video. Can you do a follow up video on creaking stairs? I have a 1930’s house and the stairs drive me nuts.

Really like seeing things for the first time, excellent content and edit

Your timing is exemplary. We moved to a new build a couple of years ago and have had this exact issue, its starting to drive me mad. I shall be giving your PVA solution a go soon!

I’ve found my summer DIY job on my 5 year old new build!! Great video, thank you!

Great piece of investigative DIY

Very useful tips Stuart,thanks for the video.👍👍

Brilliant video, Sir. Thank you.

What an excellent piece this was. Ive been plagued with squeaky floorboards our 25 year old house, my wife says if we bought a new one it'd go away - but seems not when even newbuilds suffer. I even bought one of these "screw through the carpet" kits which seemed like a good idea at the time but Im glad I never tried it after seeing this video. Last week we had an ensuite remodelled and when the boards were up it was sobering to see where the pipe runs were - it would be very easy to go though one using that method. Really liked the watered down PVA idea and gorilla glue which I am finding more and more useful. Thanks Stuart for these videos, you have become a go to watch on RU-vid and though Id rate myself a competent DIYer theres always more to learn and I have. Cheers (Ive hit like and subscribe). Oh and get yourself a new broom!

Perfect timing, our new build (2 years old) has just started to develop a couple of creaks and I was wondering how to solve it with the latex-leveled underfloor. Will investigate these possibilities for the creaks, thanks!

Great job and clear explanation .👍

Fantastic video Stuart, thanks. My 2.5 yr old house is prone to these, at least i understand what is happening now, i will probably wait a few years till i need to redecorate before fixing it though, i cant imagine getting the skirting board out without a bit of if damage

Nice idea, Have done very similar wood V wood squeaks with homemade hardwood shims and glued in with mitre adhesive. A quick fix ✔ Seeing the skirting board screwed back, great to see ♥

Great advice as always. Cheers.

Really useful video, I've got a squeaking split stair tread I tried to fix before but seems to have come back, I ended up using pu glue and then trying pocket hole stitch it together

Excellent advice thank you

Excellent video Stuart. My daughter's bedroom has a squeaky floorboard and I waited twenty five years until she moved out before I thought about fixing it. It's now the dog's room so I might wait a bit longer yet.

Brilliant ideas Thank you for sharing, very interesting and informative as are all your videos,thanks again Stuart

Never considered these solutions before... you're an absolute star. Thank you so much for your useful, inspiring an entertaining videos. The little utility knife looks a nice piece of kit....

Thanks for this video, I had issue with wall and floor… I actually put the straw of a can of WD40 under skirting and sprayed lots under the full length as at the time I didn’t have an idea how to cure it! It worked perfectly, in 5 years since I did that, it’s not squeaked again… however, if it returns, I will be using glue idea now I have that in my knowledge. I have a similar squeak on the landing, and as I’m changing the carpet, I am going to venture to see if it’s the wall meeting, or the boards. Thanks again , love this channel.

Hi. Awsome job. Great idea. 👍 Take care.

Very much appreciate the effort you put into creating these videos Stuart, your mock-ups are a great help in explaining the issue ! If a "builder" was asked to fix it, if they bothered to carefully remove the skirting as you did, they would have probably just used expanding foam or caulk squeezed in under the wall plate, and maybe a packer or two ! Again I wasn't sure I'd find much new in this video, but it's always worth watching your content Stuart, great work, keep it up - glad it's no longer getting on your...... !

good information video. thank you

Really great video

12:34 Did anyone else find it incredibly satisfying when the hammer taps synchronised with the music?

Stuart, what about the watered in pva glue, you didn't show the result, did it work?

Great video.

I've used fix-a-floor on the loose tiles in my kitchen, brilliant product, would highly recommend

That scraper knife is really handy- not seen one of those before

Is that you John Wayne? keep it up channels like this keep my business of doing it right and doing it once going strong.

I've been using a product for years on wooden boats/boat building for fixing creaks and cracks. Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure. Same idea as watered down PVA in that it's super thin and gets sucked into joints. It has the added benefit of being waterproof. So I use it on external woodwork (windows, doors, etc. Anyway great vid.

You could knock wedges underneath the baseplate. Put the glue onto the join once it has been lifted and drive the wedge though it. You might have a gap below the skirting and not need to remove anything excep carpet guffins

that's a very handy pocket knife/scraper thingy :) Well put Stuart! We don't have squeaky floorboards in newbuilds in Belgium because our floors are all concrete, but still enjoyed watching!

This video is great value in a small package. Thank you.

Anyone who is into model railways will tell you, add a drop or two of washing up liquid to the PVA/water mix which brakes the water tension and lets it flow and penetrate better

I stayed in a holiday home where the stairs were squeak-free, that felt like the height of luxury to me and was almost my favourite part of the house! I've been in so few houses where there wasn't some kind of squeaky stair, such a common and annoying problem.

Very good video, what was that knife / scraper tool called you were using when you cleaned up the glue? It looks like a great useful tool.

You are the best 😊

Love the utility Knife Stu. Can you let us know what and where to buy please 🙏🏻

my house was built pre ww2 with traditional floorboards and i have found talcum powder in the cracks works well where i want it to - the stairs and bedroom floors i prefer to squeak.

Great video as usual Sir. Could you do one tackling squeaky floor boards but the old fashioned style? My house is from the 70’s and so has the usual plank type of boards, but where plumbers and sparkles have had boards up over the years, my entire upstairs is just ridiculously noisy. We have old carpet so I want to sort this problem before we get new carpet put down. Cheers mate

Cool !

Thank you for your hard work and advice ❤💯🇮🇪💪🙏📿🙏📿🙏📿🙏📿📿

That’s an interesting knife. Where did you get it from?

👍👍👍. Thanks

How did you drill the new holes so accurately in the skirting board to re-attach to wall?

12:18 What kind of sorcery is this knife, Stuart? It looks very useful.

Great video Stuart, as always! Your next mission should you choose to accept it is to show me how to fix 3 quite large and certainly noticeably long bubbles that have appeared in my living room carpet. The carpet was laid about 20 years ago and is in otherwise good condition but in the last, say 5 years, 3 long bubbles have developed and grown in size to the point where they must be either repaired (somehow), or the whole carpet replaced with a new one. In your vid you said a carpet that has been laid for a few years "relaxes". Meaning it is no longer held in a stretched position on the gripper strips. So is my bubble problem caused the 'relaxing' of the carpet? And can it be fixed as a DIY project or does it require a skilled carpet fitter to re-stretch it back unto the gripper strips?

Hi that was a fancy stanley knife not seen one of them before

I had a similar problem with creaking floorboards right next to internal stud partition walls and realised it was the nails "inside" the wall that had loosened and were riding up and down and causing the noises. I tried all kinds including the expanding glue trick here but nothing worked. I eventually resorted to using a hacksaw blade under the skirting boards to cut through the nails. I was worried that the walls may start to move but they are still rock solid. I ended up doing about 10 nails in various locations and all the creaking and squeaking is now fixed.

Another great video! But...please add a link to that fancy knife/scraper as I can't find it in your Amazon section. Thanks!

Hi Stuart I have used the tile fix product and it’s excellent . Interesting that the wall stud was not fixed correctly to the floor , which highlights the quality of build that is now a major problem for new home owners . In the rush to build even increasing numbers of houses , I do wonder as to the longevity of many of these developments . And have deep concerns for those who have invested their hard earned money in such poor quality products . Kind regards 👍

I dealt with squeaky floors in a number of old houses, and in every case the problem was caused by the nails in the floorboards. In these cases I removed a few planks to get an idea of what’s underneath, and drove screws through the planks into the joists at the squeaky parts. You do have to look into the void though, to avoid screwing into a conduit. In my current home, that is a job and a half…. There is a thin board covering the floorboards, nailed on with (I kid you not) a few 100 nails per m2. Going to take a day just to get that mess out.

Where did u get there stanley knife/scrapper from please brilliant video love watching them

Cork floor tiles on floorboards? Should I drill some holes through the cork tiles (seems like I'll miss the board joints) - or get underneath the house and squeeze up. Or do I just put up with the horrendous noise until I remodel the kitchen for The Beloved?

What is that swivel knife you have there please? Where can I get one?

12:05 knife flips me: pikachu face

Nice knife.

Hi I wondered where you got your Stanley knife from

I suppose spray on expanding foam would also work in this type of scenario?.

What would work best on a 60/70 year old houses stairs. Every one creaks and I can actually see the movement of the tread. Would the watery PVA work or would the expanding glue work best. I was going to add a couple of screws to the treads as well as any glue solution.

Hey what’s that magic knife?! Great tips as always Stuart.

What knife did you use to cut the foam ?

Can you please leave a link for that super scraper/knife tool?

How would you tackle a squeaky staircase?

Would the glue work on squeaky laminate?

What kind of knife was that at the end

Like that Stanley knife. What make is it?

Had to do this for all the chipboard flooring in our entire house. It had been nailed only, no glue so floors were bouncy and squeaky. Watered down PVA trick worked really well, then added proper wood flooring screws right next to the nails.

I have particle tongue-and-groove board with oak hardwood flooring glued together on top. Just outside the bedroom there is a horrible creak. Given the oak is glued together, and the particle board is inaccessible, it’s difficult to know what is causing the issue without some destructive investigation. I wonder if the syringe technique would work “blind”.

How to fix tiles onto wood (hot press) please? I'm frightened in case they jump off again. Birdy

I trust you put the last piece of underlay back at 12:42?

What glue is that??

"It's not as easy or straight forward as I thought it was going to be" - said every DIYer ever lol

Our property's 3 years old ad well. The stairs squeak badly where the house bashers used concrete gripper and blew the backs out all the stairs

We have this issue but it's the metal studs was reported from new they cut the bottom of the plaster board of but never really solved it

at 9.40 close you're eyes and listen 😂

Could you not also shim the gap instead of the foam glue?

👍👍👍

Squeaky stairs are my biggest problem - any tips?

9:01 at that point just drive some screws down through the wall base plate into the floor.

0:00 - I don't think I will. Unless parquet and / or tiles can morph into floorboards. 😉

There's a lot easier way. Lift carpet and underlay. Cut a section of the flooring out leaving about 50mm from the base of the wall. Reach under and drive a couple of 5o x 5mm screws up through the flooring into the centre of the wall. Replace flooring with some support timber screwed to the adjacent flooring. Replace carpet. Done in 20 mins.

When they built my house (1950s), they used 5 inch floorboards, but they put them in soaking wet. When the boards dried out and shrunk, the gap between the tongue & groove was so much that they aren't even connected, causing every floor in the house to squeak. As demonstrated in this video, the moral of the story is... build your own house from scratch.

Wouldn’t packers under the stud have been more effective

I live in a council house. The ground creaks. The walls creak. The roof leaks. I walk on the floor it sounds like I'm taking enemy fire.

2:50 - Should have added a Womble.

not bad for a comedy clip