How to Fix Laminate Floors

nuancier peinture

There is nothing more irritating than squeaky laminate floors, even if they may be useful to hear if your kids are sneaking in the house way past their curfew. Some houses have beautiful laminate floors that have shrunk slightly with age and for this reason they tend to creak and squeak, to the point that you are not sure whether to put a hammer through them or rip out the floor completely.

However, you don't need to take such drastic measures because there are solutions, and they won't cost you an arm and a leg either. There are a few methods depending on what access you have to your laminate floor, in other words if you have a basement and can get to it from below then you can try and add extra support to the floor so it has no more give, which will stop the dreaded squeaking.


One option is to use a wood shim that has been coated in carpenter's glue, which needs to be tapped into the area between the joist and the sub floor, approximately where you think the squeak is coming from. To do this, you can have someone walk on it while you are in the basement so you can get a rough idea of where the floor needs additional support. When tapping in the shim, make sure you don't push it in too far because you can end up raising the laminate floor and then you will have another set of problems. For added support you can put a screw through the joist and the shim, into the sub floor.


There is another solution that is more effective for the long term which consists of a threaded rod, with a mounting plate on one end and a hook on the other which is attached to the sub floor and the hook is fitted under the joist. A nut is then tightened onto the rod until the floor is pulled down tight against the joist. The reason this is a better solution is because after a while your laminate floors may start to give again and all you will need to do is tighten the nut further with a wrench.


If you have to go from above then the process is slightly more complicated as you still have to get to the joists but you have to do it in such a way that you don't damage your laminate floors. There are a variety of repair kits available that contain all the tools you will need as well as special concealable screws so that you don't damage the appearance of the floor.


When you are working from above locating the joists can be a bit of a hassle. By tapping the floor you should be able to locate them quicker as the area where the joist is will produce more of a dull sound versus the hollow sound that comes from the rest of the floor. You can use a Counter Snap fastening system to secure the floor to the joist, which is basically a screw that snaps off just below the surface so that the repairs are not visible. You can then fill the hole with putty that is a similar color to your laminate floors and then sand the area for a perfect finish.

Read more: http://www.infobarrel.com/How_to_Fix_Squeaky_Laminate_Floors#ixzz1oVOpT4uN