MortarThePoint Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 I am boarding out our loft space which is to be one large room. There is one annoying joist pair (actually bottom chord or RIR truss). If I move my weight from one to the other there is a squeak sound. If I move my weight from a neighbouring joists on the other side onto each there isn't a squeak. There is a wall (C-studs, one side with just plasterboard and one side with OSB and plasterboard) under this area. I think it is under the 2-ply joist that forms half of the squeaking pair. The wall has a 10mm deflection head. Below is a diagram with the joists in blue (one is a 2-ply), noggins in pink, perpendicular joist in yellow attached with a hanger (grey) and wall in orange. I am struggling to work out where the squeak is coming from and would like to address it before boarding over. Once the boards are down in this area I figure there'll be nothing I can do to stop the squeak. I wondered if it was the deflection head, but if it is that then I would expect there to be a squeak rocking my weight between 'joists' 3 and 4 as well. Actually, thinking about it again, 'joist' 4 is actually noggins off the yellow joists which run off joist 3 so maintain a load on 3. The noggins between joists 2 and 3 look sturdy. The hangers are extensively nailed (yellow joists pre nailed to 2-ply joist before hangers fitted). Any suggestions as to how I should hunt down the source of the squeak. I have had someone listen quite closely whilst I rock back and forwards but we haven't worked out where it's coming from. Section view: Here's a plan view: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 Is it the joists or the boarding? joists? screw the central pair together. boards? more fixings. try screws with coarse threads to pull the board down hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MortarThePoint Posted June 11 Author Share Posted June 11 5 hours ago, saveasteading said: Is it the joists or the boarding? joists? screw the central pair together. boards? more fixings. try screws with coarse threads to pull the board down hard. It's prior to boarding that area so definitely something to do with joists, noggins or wall. The two plies of the 2-ply joist are nailed together. Can't feel any relative movement between the plies. I guess it's easy to add some screws as well so I'll try that, but I'd be surprised if it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy_wafer Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 Can only speak for my own experience, but Joist hangers were a source of squeak on my project. I discarded the twist nails and used the appropriate simpson screws to resolve. Found the squeak by stepping on and off, but could reproduce by applying force in different directions from below onto the joists, which showed the smallest amount of movement in the hanger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MortarThePoint Posted June 11 Author Share Posted June 11 25 minutes ago, crispy_wafer said: Can only speak for my own experience, but Joist hangers were a source of squeak on my project. I discarded the twist nails and used the appropriate simpson screws to resolve. Found the squeak by stepping on and off, but could reproduce by applying force in different directions from below onto the joists, which showed the smallest amount of movement in the hanger. Do you think yours was the joists rubbing together or the joist rubbing on the hanger/nail? I'm not sure I could do that as I think the nails will have opened up holes in the timber too large for the screws to grip properly I wondered about dribbling PVA glue into the area a few times and see if that binds everything up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy_wafer Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 3 minutes ago, MortarThePoint said: Do you think yours was the joists rubbing together or the joist rubbing on the hanger/nail? Joist movement pulling against the nail, the hanger wasn't tight on the joist maybe a mm or 2 on either side at the bottom, so any really slight movement would be against the nail, I went with foaming wood glue and the screws, although most of the glue ended up on me and the floor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MortarThePoint Posted June 11 Author Share Posted June 11 Following further investigation, I am pretty sure it is the deflection head. The metal deep track rubbing on the OSB I think. Below is a video. You can hear the squeak as I pull and push on the screw through the deep track. For extra detail, the screw is from attaching a piece of batten that clamps the acoustic partition roll so no way that itself is the source of the noise. I can also push directly on the track having pulled it up using the screw and get the squeak. The amount of movement is tiny as I can't see it by eye. As viewed, the wall has a single skin of 15mm plasterboard at the top of screen and 11mm SterlingOSB + 15mm plasterboard on the other side (bottom of screen). The room on the bottom of screen is a bathroom, hence the OSB as well as the green VCL. I don't think I can do anything about this unfortunately. The wall downstairs is now plastered. I don't have access from above all the way along the deflection head and it's not like I could glue that anyway as it would stop it from doing its job. Rats! I guess I'm stuck with it. I'll get the wife to wobble around on top of it and listen in the rooms below to see if I can hear it. At least the OSB is on the bathroom side and so that's less annoying than the bedroom side. but that's on the hope that the APR and plasterboard deadens the sound. VID-20240611-WA0000.mp4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 2 hours ago, MortarThePoint said: I'll get the wife to wobble around on top of it If offense is taken, it isn't intended. I bet she's glad it's not intended 😁 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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