Creaking floors

[Hoot]

We recently moved into a Highlands Pulte property built in 2006. We have creaking floors in the "mudroom/washer and dryer" area, as well as one of a first-floor bathroom. We have a 2-story (non-ranch) style home with a walkout basement. The top floor also has some random areas that creak in bedrooms under carpet, though unlike both rooms on the first floor the creaks are not throughout the room, they are not below tile, and they are more minor in the amount of noise they create.

A contractor friend who visited us a couple months ago said "yeah, the folks who put in the tile either didn't put in a subfloor and the tile is coming undone from the plywood below, or the subfloor material wasn't properly installed." He said "either way, the creaking is from disconnect of either the tile or subfloor not being in contact with the plywood base flooring."

Is anyone having similar issues, as well? We are second owners so I am not sure we even fall under the 10-year time period, but the term "subfloors" does fall under the list of items warrantied at the Pulte website.

Thanks for any comments.

Mike

[Rnchief]

Mike:
This is probably insufficient nailing of subfloor to the joists below. I am assuming that this is carpeted or tile. Bad news is...probably cant be fixed until carpet is replaced. Then, get drywall nails, the type that are barbed. Follow nail lines and add lots more to affix the subfloor to the joists. This will end it under the carpet. Under tile...not much you can do, until the tile is replaced. If this is on your 1st floor, you can attempt to come from underneath with screws, but be very careful of their length. You want to use some that are about 1/8 in. shorter than the thickness of the total subfloor. Too long will crack the time.
As far as any Pulte warranty on this, forget it. You subfloors are not failing, just the victim of shoddy workmanship.

[Hoot]

We'll probably go after the bad spots by replacing the tile in the future. You know... that gorgeous tan/brown tile that adorns everything from our mudroom floor, to our shower, to our sinks and bathtubs, to even our fireplace - ha, ha! .

I did call Pulte and after talking with several younger "reps" (it's as if these people answering didn't even know they were a warranty department), they referred me to someone who actually tried to speak in builders terms; however, he blamed the subfloor issue on the dry climate of Colorado... blah, blah, blah. It was clear that Pulte really doesn't have a warranty department or, more importantly, any intention of actually supporting anything behind the face of their flashy warranty web page. Honestly, this isn't me being negative - it just is the truth, at least at relates to my single experience. I'd be curious to hear if anyone has had POSITIVE builder experiences as it relates to Pulte, Toll Brothers, Ryland or any of the builders in the area. Not a big issue here in our case (creaking floors), but I feel bad if others are getting put off with issues of major consequence.

Rnchielf, thanks for the post.

[david@dhprod.com]

We moved in 2006 as well with the same conditions. We immediately tore out the carpet and put in wood floors throughout, something that Pulte would not do. We had our contractor re-nail the sub floor. We also took out the bathtub in the Master Bath as we more elderly do not have the capacity to get in and out of the tub. We then realized that there is only one 3/4" plywood of construction grade and not two as is required in other states. The squeek in the floor still persisted so I went into our crawl space (we only are one floor with a crawl space) and found that the floor joist were not even sitting on the steel beam that is supposed to support them in the middle of the house. We got Pulte to have the contractor wedge between the joists and the beam and glue the daylights out of everything. At this point I checked the distances of the joists to see if they met the requirements of the UBC "United Building Code". They did, but barely.
Sounds like an expensive job to fix your problems. If you have carpets you can nail through with rosin finish nails, but you have to hit the joints in order to do any good.
Sorry!

[Hoot]

Thanks for sharing. Why do you think an expensive job?

I guess I see the creaks as something we can live with until we replace the original carpet - going on 10 years with regard to the age of the current carpet so replacement time may best be sooner than later on that. And, then, the tile in the small rooms of the mudroom and first floor bath are small jobs.

Get under the initial layer of flooring and secure the subfloor to the joists with the nails you each describe and creaking problem should be solved - is there anything else?

[Rnchief]

When your tiles start cracking, due to nail pops below, heres the fix....hopefully you have some spare tiles. If not, try to find some, or buy something real close. The nails in the subfloor will eventually pop up and this cracks the tiles. If you have spares, get some mastic and grout which is very close to existing color. All of this is found at Home Depot. Take a hammer and smack the tile right in the middle, 1 or 2X. This will break up the bad tile, pick up the pisces, and vacuum up the dust.Pound the bad nails back down. Glue down the new tile, let it dry, and apply grout. Easy fix and you'll never know it.