Advice on buying a brand new home > House Builders

Update on floorboard creaking

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simba_ali:
Hello, I posted a topic a couple of months ago about a really creaky floor which you kindly gave me advice on. I have a quick update which hopefully you can provide some feedback.

So I recently purchased a house which has a room with a very creaky floor. No amount of screwing by the builder will fix the creak. What we have noticed is the creak position in the floor is directly above a partition wall underneath.

Im no expert in construction but could a connection between the partition wall below and the floor above be rubbing together? The noise occurs within a foot either side of where the wall is underneath.

Any information or a point in the right direction would be appreciated

 

New Home Expert:
What could be happening is if the partition is a block wall, that will not shrink unlike a timber floor and could make the floor creak at that point.

If it is a timber partition under the floor, it should be fixed to the floor joists in some way, either directly or via noggins between the joists. ("a foot either side" might indicate this) If the timbers are not tight or nails fully driven then this may cause the noise.

Another cause is the wall drylining or adhesive touching the floor joists.

simba_ali:
Thank you for your reply

All the partition walls sound hollow if that helps? It definitely sounds creaky rather than squeaky, I don't know if that points at all to the kind of rubbing. It's 100% not the floorboards as over 30 screws by the builder made no difference.

The builders have said they will take part of the floor up and investigate, hopefully this narrows it down!

Another issue I previously mentioned was I have a room about 3.8m x 2.6.
It's been bouncy ever since I moved in. Furniture shakes slightly and from the room underneath  there is a banging/ cracking sound when some walks over it. The builder said it's fine and just a long joist span? Is this correct? I've heard conflicting stories of pulling the ceiling down And reinforcing. Most say it made no difference. Obviously I'm concerned about it collapsing

Kind regards
 

New Home Expert:
The creaky floor is caused by drylining touching the joists I think.  The hollow partition is studwork metal or timber so that should be the issue.  I have now found my other post with a link to the research that has been done regarding this issue.

As for the bouncy floor, the joists are either: To far spaced apart or are not deep enough (strong enough) for the spans involved.  It is most certainly not "fine and just a long joist span"!
Long spans should be designed for and if necessary, could  incorporate a steel beam in the design to reduce spans.  Your joists are not this. Please report this to the warranty provider as you will get nowhere talking to the idiot builder - who you should name on here as a warning to others!
 

simba_ali:
Thank you for the quick response!

With regards to the bouncy floor, how can such a screw up occur?
Shouldn't joist strength be a basic skill in construction? 
It's either been done on the cheap which would indicate it's passed safety standards and is just an annoyance, or they have calculated something wrong and it's a safety hazard!
I know housebuilders can be bad but are these kind of things not checked by someone?
If I can feel a bounce after 2 months you would think a housebuilder might of mentioned it. Sorry rant over.

Thank you for the link, it was very useful.

Im Assuming this is going to be a lot of work to fix?

Kind regards

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