Save money and satisfy the customer. Give your homebuilding business a Quality Focus!
What if you could eliminate construction errors and work more efficiently, saving your company time and money?
Squeaky Floors
Applying adhesive to the joists before you install sub-floor sheathing is an excellent way to prevent squeaky floors. Why then do some floors squeak, even when joist adhesive has been used?
The squeaky floor problem shows up when proper steps are not followed to ensure a firm bond between the wood decking and the floor joists. After a bead of adhesive is applied to the joists, the floor decking must be placed into the wet adhesive and completely fastened down before the adhesive sets. The window of time you have for fastening down the sheathing varies by type of adhesive used.
If adhesive is exposed to the air too long, a skin forms on the surface. A proper bond between the two materials is then impossible. If enough time goes by, the adhesive in effect becomes a flexible gasket between the two materials. Foot traffic across the floor will compress and decompress the stiffened adhesive, and squeaks may develop even though the fasteners were installed properly. The movement of the sub-floor sheathing up and down causes the fastener to rub against the wood.
The same thing happens when the wood decking is set into the adhesive but is only tacked down. The carpenter may wait to finish nailing until all or a large portion of the decking is in place, thinking that it is more labor-efficient to do all the final fastening at once. However, wherever the decking is not tightly in contact with the joists, the adhesive may skin over or solidify. This causes the “flexible gasket” situation or generally poor bonding.
Follow the best recommendations of the product manufacturer to avoid those expensive warranty complaints.
Bottom line: Always follow the adhesive manufacturer and floor decking product manufacturer instructions. The following are guidelines:
- Use an adhesive that is formulated for the purpose, materials and conditions.
- Apply a continuous bead of adhesive with the diameter specified by the adhesive manufacturer.
- Only apply adhesive to joists over an area to which decking can immediately be installed and fastened down using the specified field/edge fastener spacing.
- If you are using a flush nailer (mechanical overdrive control) on your pneumatic nail gun, which may be necessary to avoid overdriven nails, weight must be applied to the decking to assure a tight connection.
- Choose the fastener with the greatest holding power that you can afford.