Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the timber. These gang nails will prevent the bearers from separating, which might lead to
one of the bearers dropping off the stump.
The case of the squeaky floor in Lower Templestowe
A house in Lower Templestowe, Victoria, was suffering from the age-old problem of a
squeaking floor. The standard solution for this problem is to lift the carpet, locate the
squeaky floorboards and punch the nails to tighten the fixing to the floor joists. On many
occasions it would be necessary to re-nail the offending boards. Since the inception of
construction adhesives we would also glue nail blocks against the floor joists to the
flooring. Movement between floorboards due to a broken tongue on one or more of the
floorboards often causes the problem. We investigated under the floor to ascertain
whether there was a quantity of moving or broken floorboards, but were unable to locate
any. It was then assumed that it must be the floor joist moving off the bearer and so we
made small wedges in readiness to insert between the floor joists and bearers, which
would be glued, in place. There were a couple of floor joist to bearer junctions that
looked to be unlikely but possible offenders, so these had wedges glued into them to
remove any movement. Feeling certain that the problem was now solved all tools were
packed away with a sense of gratification at having solved the annoying squeak.
The following morning the squeak was back again. So under the floor we went, again.
One man was in the house bouncing to try to get the floor to squeak, the other under the
floor trying to hear where the noise was coming from. It was truly the illusive squeak that
would not reveal its whereabouts. Like a car that will not play up when the mechanic is
looking at it. It was pain that eventually located the source of the problem. The
unexpected pinching motion of the bearer to the stump applied to the sensitive tissue on
the end of the index finger brought revelation and alarm all in one.
The bearer, which had been installed as a green material, had shrunk thereby creating
the space for it to slide up and down along the pin protruding from the stump. This is a
problem that we do not face today with seasoned timber. What a dilemma! Without
removing the flooring it is impossible to get access to the stump pin to tighten it down
onto the bearer. To remove the flooring was a mammoth and costly job. Before removing
the flooring, the carpet, skirting and architraves would all have to be removed and
replaced. There was only a small amount of movement that was of no structural concern;
it was simply an irritating noise. We slept on the problem and in the morning came up
with the solution.
We had established that the bearer was sliding up and down the pin, so it could be
deduced that the noise was coming from the metal pin rubbing on the now very dry
timber. Dad had the simple and yet ingenious solution. If a car squeaks you lubricate it.
The timber was squeaking so how could we lubricate it? We could wet it but it would only
dry out again. We could oil it, but we felt this too would dry out or be absorbed into the
timber away from the area that needed lubricating. The solution: grease it. The grease gun
had a flexible hose attachment, so we stuffed its nozzle in the hole on the top of the
bearer, and pumped the hole full of grease until it was oozing out everywhere. As far as I
am aware, this bearer has never been regreased and the stump pin is still gliding smoothly
and quietly up and down in its slippery environment.
