Last time, I talked about my continued “quest” of trial and error to find the way to build the 100% no-squeak floor system.  I tried so many promising things but eventually, they all squeaked to some extent. One good squeak can dampen a lot of the enthusiasm for a new home and remember, builder’s rarely cover a squeaky floor because no one has yet to figure out the way to build one squeak-free. Even so, we do “try” to fix squeaks whenever practical. Sometimes, when the squeak is under a vinyl floor or on a second story floor(with no acess to the underbelly of the floor from below) there is no easy fix without ripping everything out.

     The problem is that wood, by it’s very nature, changes shapes as the seasons add humidity or dry out.  One company offers an engineered floor support(I-joists)board made of particle wood wafers and ply-wood  they call the “Silent Floor” system. When we used this system , first by ourselves and then under the direct supervision of the manufacturer reps, the floors squeaked. We ended up going back to our best performing system which was a better solid wood (Douglas Fir) than common Pine, Spruce, or Fir. This wood was longer grained and stiffer so the floor board joists(that was what these were used for) did not flex(deflect) very much.   Second, we made the widths of this Douglas Fir support wood thicker of 2 x 12’s instead of 2 x 10’s.   Third, we made sure that we were not over-spanning the distances these wood supports were laying on from the beams below. This also helped with not flexing the joists very much.

     Next, we used a triple fastening of the OSB (wood wafer/strand  product) to the joists using glue, nails, and lots of screws. This was a pretty reliable system but we then came across our next squeak improvement idea, thickening the plywood(OSB, but I will simply call this ply-wood because the product of wood strands is still made in plys/layers)from the traditional 3/4 inch to a 7/8th thickness. This meant the floor boards were now so solid that the flexing would be further minimized. At this point, this upgraded, upgraded, upgraded, floor system was only standard on our higher-end series of homes. In the standard series homes such as our Dream Series, and our Genesis Series, we still remained using the more conventional systems of 2 x 10’s of Pine, Spruce, or Fir, 3/4 inch floor boards, and securing this with nails and glue.

     We had, like every builder in town, pretty good success with the standard system and excellent success with our higher-end system.  Neither of the systems were however fool-proof, so I searched for a creative solution that would get me to my 100% squeak-free solution.   I thought I had surely found it a few years ago, when I came across a “miracle”  Wild Idea cure at the big International Home Builder’s Show(IHBS). The product looks like a green,thick, roll of tape. It is in fact, not tape, but rather a foam gasket which has a slippery plastic coating on one side of the foam”tape” and a sticky adhesive on the other side of the tape(I guess it wouldn’t be tape without the sticky side…right).

     This foam gasket tape was about an inch wide and the intention of the product is to put it on top of every floor joist. That means putting it between the plywood floor panels and the floor joists. This means you would not use or need the glue. This also means, you would not really need the nails either since the screws would now work just fine as there is no glue drying issues to worry about(see my previous blog entry for more on this aspect). The slippery side assists the carpenters when they are trying to slam the plywood onto the joists, then slide  them into place.   Boy, they sure slide nicely for the carpenters!  Since the carpenters don’t really need to use glue, they don’t charge me more to do this application of foam tape to every floor joist top.

     The foam works to take up any gaps which may occur as the wood products change shapes with the seasons. What a concept! The side benefit is that this product also helps create a sound deadening effect between the floors since this foam gasket deadens sound transference. 

    I now had my 100% solution , or so I thought. The real test would have to be in using this product to put into a house and see what happens over time. I started using this (again) only on my higher-end home series. The results were phenomenal!   I had no squeaks in any home either during or after construction. I used this method in my models, and even in last years Parade Of Homes model. In every case, I had no, not a single, itsey-bitsey squeak.  I had indeed found my elusive method and now I wanted to keep the secret as my Miracle Homes exclusive product/system.

     Then came the day

     One of my key staffers was having me design one of our Dream Series homes to have a unique circular floor plan with a circular open two story foyer.  As we came closer to construction commencing on his home, I talked to him about maybe considering using this product/system.   He jumped at the idea and immediately ordered it to be part of his home.  A year and a half later after he has moved-in, I still continue to have annoying squeaks reported in this one staffer’s home! My 100% solution, crashed and burned on this one home. I pondered what had happened? I called and asked other folks who I had built  this gasket foam system in their homes(they had moved into my models and had lived there for a few years time) and no one else has reported a single squeak!  I am now convinced that the one , somewhat squeaky(in only a few select areas remind you) staffer’s home is most likely due to us having to use a lot of metal joist hangers in the second floor due to the unique curved open-foyer design, and a maximized span of joists on this second floor in one room. The only way to find out for sure, would be to tear out the floor plywood and see what is really happening. In some seasons, this is not really as noticeable or as annoying(I guess) but the journey continues to the solution.

     If there is any moral or observation to take form my 100% solution “quest”, it is that perfection is hard to find.  I am still determined and I have surely learned a lot about construction techniques from this journey.  I suppose you might say, while we have not yet been able to build the sqeak-free 100% floor, we likely have one of the best systems out there probalby NOT to do with any one magic-bullet product, but more likely just because my carpentry crews know I am trying to achieve this goal and therefore they are really watching all the little details. That is what is called “putting your mind to a job”.  The quest continues!

    Hey, on the solar powered home news(look back at a comment I had on the solar subject and read my solar blog), a day or two ago, I heard something interesting which I will share breifly next time, along with a new creative idea.

     Blessings,

     Tom Higinte