# Hardwood floors



## Tammy1 (Aug 31, 2011)

I'm looking for any opinions on cleaning my hardwood floors. I just removed the carpet, tack strips and hundreds of staples from my hardwood floor. The floors are about 45 years old and it appears the carpet was installed about 12 years ago. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to preserve the floor and hopefull reduce the sweeking? Thanks.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Sounds like you have a bad subfloor... making the floor squeak. Rip it up, put in a good subfloor, reinstall (of course you pull the hardwood flooring up, your gonna lose most of it) and your good to go. Or, live with the squeaks!


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

I would recommend a floor sander... strip all the old finish off and start over with the stain of choice (which should help with the squeaks by getting some oil back into the wood) and then a coat of poly. Those older floors are gorgeous when brought back to life.


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## davel745 (Feb 2, 2009)

There are systems available were you can screw a gadget to the bottom of the floor and tighten the bond to the floor joists. I can&#8217;t remember what it is called. CRS. I saw it used on Ask This Old House a few years ago. Maybe someone can help with a web page were you can get some of these.
I agree the old floors are beautiful.


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## Tammy1 (Aug 31, 2011)

Thanks for the recommendations! But does anyone have a female fix:grin: Removing the floor is beyond my strength and abilities. I do know that I have some subfloor that is sweaking and I'll need to live with it because the ceiling in the basement is finished, but some of the sweaking is caused because the floor was covered for 12 years. I have tried baby powder and it helped a little. It's amazing how many cracks show up when you start throwing white stuff on your floor. I watched youtube and there seems to be so many different things that you can and can not do to wood floors. One recommendation was to use vinegar and water and then olive oil. I use vinegar and water to remove hard water stains from around my faucet, so I'm not sure how it is gentle on floors. How do you clean and oil your wood floors? Thanks for the help.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

As others have said sand and apply a finish to the floor. I did a search on *fixing squeeking floors*. Here are a few links from the more than 20 pages that appeared in the search. You should get plenty of Ideas 

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/inffloor/infsqe.html

http://homerepairgeek.com/home-flooring/floor-squeak/floor-squeak.html

http://www.squeakender.com/

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/asktoh/question/0,,20334552,00.html

 Al


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## Tammy1 (Aug 31, 2011)

Thanks Alleyyooper! This gives me a number of options. I've never heard of some of these fixes and I thought I did a good search!


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## machinistmike (Oct 16, 2011)

get yourself some finish nails around 2" long. The smaller the diameter the better. Just make sure they don't have a normal "head' on them. You want to drive the nails into the floor joist nearest the sqeek if possible. You might even be better off driving the nails through the flooring joints too. Once the nail is close to the surface, use a nailset to drive the nail just below the surface. Use some woodputty to cover the hole. Hone your skills in a closet first, that way the only ones that see your mistakes are your skeletons.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I really really hate a squeaky floor. I'm a light sleeper so I am awake most days by 3:00AM . Kare is always complaing I squeak the floor and wake her. I tell her to just ignor them and she says it is a mother thing. I tell her she hasn't had to be a mother to any thing other than a little kitty since 1995 so get over it.
Nearly every fight we have is over a damed floor squeak. I have even told her to move her bed up stairs so I could be on the floor in the basement, concrete.
Kind of hard to sleep 8 to 10 hours a night after fifty years of working nights and getting by with 4 hours sleep a day.

 Al


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I would predrill the holes for the finishing nails. They make ringshank nails but they have a large head. There might be some kind of nail with the rings and with a finish type head but I haven't seen it.

Do you have any idea what's under the hardwood flooring?


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## Tammy1 (Aug 31, 2011)

I don't know what's under the floor yet but I will within a few weeks. This all got started because I'm closing in an entry way to my kitchen to make it bigger. Current kitchen is the size of a closet and by moving the fridge to the entry way it adds a lot of room. While I was pulling up the door trim I had to remove some of the carpet. I always suspected there was hardwood under the carpet but didn't have the courage to rip up a corner. Well one night of my son going to his bedroom 5 times was enough. I started ripping up the carpet the next night. I didn't see how it could get worst!

Here's what I have found so far. Don't use baby powder! What a mess it's in every nail hole and every crack. In some places I've had to use a toothpick to dig it out. It did remove some of the sweaking but only a little. I did clean it with a spray bottle containing vinegar and water. Dont' know what that did but it didn't seem to hurt. Curently I have wiped about a two foot section with olive oil. I learnt my lesson on the baby powder. I did right in front of my sons door. The sweaking is gone and that was only one coat. 

I can see where previous owners have tried to fix the sweaking, there are about three screws in the floor and a number of finishing nails along the base boards. ( Not sure if this was bad tack strips, but they are flush with the floor and I can't seem to remove them). I also know the carpet was down for 12 years and a lot changes in that amount of time so I'll keep plugging away at it using the least invasive methods first. 

Thanks for all your help.


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

trim screws, can be used, the head is small, and easly filled, if one can find the joists, you may be able to tighten it up that way,


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## funstuff (Sep 16, 2008)

peanut oil. not olive oil! peanut oil will completely absorb and leave no residue. you should also use on cutting boards imo. if the squek is in a large area you should be able to reduce it some with wood floor finish nails. make sure you buy them long enough to go through your subfloor. at this stage in the subfloors life you are not going to be able to get rid of the noises, without pulling up the old and redoing it. this option will not allow you to keep this nice old flooring in one piece. did floors for a number of years and picked up a thing or two. 
good luck


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Get a good brad nailer and the longest brads you can drive or find. This will give you an idea....James

http://hardwoodfloorsmag.com/articles/article.aspx?articleid=1503&zoneid=2


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

You could also get someone really heavy to stand on the squeaks and then drive your finish nails at different angles.

I've also read about drilling holes down to but not through the subfloor. Wood glues is squeezed into the hole and weights are put on the spot until the glue sets.


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