Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Creaky Floorboards and other problems!! help PLEASE

We just installed hard wood floors in our home. My husband did every little bit of the installation himself without any help. He has never done anything like this before. Overall, the floor looks very good with a few, uh, exceptions.

Here are my concerns, and my questions. Anyone with experience installing wood floors please respond! thanks!

- The floor creeks like CRAZY. with every single step I take (or anyone takes) on the floor, there are creaking sounds coming from every direction. Will this stop once the floor "settles in"? How else can the creaking be fixed?

- In some areas the floor boards just could not, and would not fit together as they should have, resulting in giant cracks in between floor boards. What is the best way to mask these cracks? Any suggestions?

Thanks again.

You can either live with it, or tear it out and have some firewood, for next winter. :wall:


Why are questions asked after the damage is done?
This all could have been avoided, had you asked a lot of questions before the installation.

hm ok. Any other more reasonable suggestions?

Well, lets start with a few questions...


What is the substrate? Concrete or Wood?

What type of wood? Solid, crossply- engineered, or MDF core?

What method of installation? Nail, Staple, Glued, or floating?

What was the temperature and humidity of the interior of the home at the time of installation?
What is it now?

What was the moisture content of the wood, the day it was installed?
What is it now?


All I can do now, is tell you where you went wrong. Other then pulling it up, your going to have to live with what you have now. I can't be more direct then that. :(

-The sub floor is wood

- the wood is engineered and its floating

- As far as moisture and humidity go.. we never tested that. but other areas of the house (that are carpeted or have linoleum on them) creek as well