More Floor Repairs

Ever since the opening was created from the old lounge into the new one, the floor has creaked when walking through this gap. It finally got the better of me today. I lifted some floorboards (actually, I wrecked some floorboards, as T & G boards that have been nailed down are really difficult to get up without doing some damage) and the root cause (RC as my day-job customer describes it) was immediately obvious.

As my long term readers will know (though they may have forgotten by now), this room used to have a fireplace. In fact some of the first entries (opens in new window) in this blog (JulY 2005) describe the associated chimney's demolition. Of course, the fireplace had a hearth, and this is still evident in the construction of the floor of this room. Most of it is suspended timber, but there is a section of cast concrete that used to support this hearth. Where the two meet is the source of this problem.

The original wooden floor was obviously cut away when the hearth was laid and a section of joist added at the edge to support the remaining floorboards. Unfortunately this joist was not attached to anything, or supported from below. Consequently it is free to move when you stand on it.

I had some wall anchor bolts left over from when I attached the upstairs floor joist to the wall a few months ago, so I drilled 12mm holes through the joist and into the concrete hearth. Spacers were inserted to bridge the gap between the two, and then the bolts (3 of them) were done up tightly to tie everything together :


Some replacement floorboards completed the job, and now there is no creaking.

The 12mm drill I used is multi-purpose. The same bit can be used to cut through the timber, then continue straight into the concrete. Bosch I think.