How to Take Bounce Out of Floors

When you walk across the floor of an older home, you often hear creaking, or you can feel the floorboards flexing under your feet. This is called floor bounce, or floor deflection, and it is basically caused by weakening boards and loosening nails. Fortunately, as long as you have access to the underside of the floor via a basement or crawlspace, you can stop floor bounce.

Assistant
Tape measure
2-inch-thick lumber
Table saw
Rubber mallet
Wood screws
Screwdriver
Eye protection

Instructions

- 1
  Walk the length of your floor while you have an assistant in the basement. Have your assistant mark each location where you feel or hear floor bounce. Mark the location by placing an "X" on the underside of the floorboards. This will show you every place you need to repair to stop floor bounce.
- 2
  Measure the distance between the floor joists, using a tape measure. Measure the height of the floor joist with the tape measure.
- 3
  Cut a spacer out of 2-inch lumber that also measures the same thickness as the height of your joists. For example, if your joists are 8 inches tall, cut a piece of 2-inch by 8-inch lumber to the same width as the spacing between your joists. Cut one for each area that you marked for repair. Use a table saw to cut the boards.
- 4
  Tap the spacers between the joists so the edge of the board butts up tightly against the floorboards directly under the area of deflection. Use a rubber mallet to tap the spacers in place.
- 5
  Drive wood screws through the side of each joist and into the ends of the spacer approximately every 2 inches down the length of the spacer. Repeat this step with each area you marked for repair.

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