How to Make Floors Less Creaky

Walk over the laminate or hardwood floor slowly, listening for creaking sounds the boards make. Mark each noisy spot on the floor with chalk, or cut lengths of tape and stick them to the sections that creak.

Bore a 3/32-inch pilot hole over each marked spot in the floor board. Remove the tape from each marked board after drilling a hole through it. For marks above the seams between two adjacent boards, don’t drill into the seam, but drill a hole on each side of the mark. Position each hole three-fourths to 1 inch inward from the board’s edge. Continue drilling holes into the marked spots along the floor.

Insert a screwdriver bit into the drilling machine. Insert 1-1/4-inch wood screws into the pilot holes, all the way into the subfloor, until the heads rest one-eighth-inch below the surrounding surface. The screws anchor the loose boards to the subfloor and keep them from rubbing against adjacent boards.

Scoop out a small amount of tinted wax putty using a putty knife or a gloved finger. Ensure that the putty matches the shade of the wood floor. Apply the putty over and into a screw hole until a tiny mound on top is formed.

Scrape the edge of a putty knife over the mound of putty to flatten it, so it falls flush with the surrounding wood surface.

Move to the next screw holes, in turn, and repeat the process of inserting wax putty into each. Let the putty dry overnight before walking over the floor.

Lightly sand the exposed putty with fine-grit sandpaper to blend it with the surrounding wood surface.