Hi all we had Amtico fitted throughout the downstairs of our 1970s home just over a week ago by a well respected local flooring company. The floorboards in our house underneath were creaky everywhere although we had a lot of them repaired. The company fitted ply and then screed and we returned from a few days away to beautiful new flooring. A week on we have noticed a few areas where there is a squeak/creak similar to a floorboard noise when we walk over. I maybe naively thought with the prep work there would be no creaking as the floor would be completely level. Is it normal to have this noise? I paid over 5k for it so wouldn’t want to just leave it if its not normal and want to be prepared in order to approach the company and not be fobbed off. Thanks for reading.
We always point out creaky floorboards to customers but never get involved in rectifying them. Can’t really blame a floor fitter for the structure of your building. You were obviously aware of the creaking but didn’t rectify the issue sufficiently. The prep work is to smooth the floor not level it.
Thank you. That’s exactly what I was checking. I didn’t want to contact the company without an understanding of whether the prep work would hide any creaking of floorboards. I don’t remember the floorboards creaking in the areas I’ve noticed the new flooring creaking so I wondered if it’s the LVT creaking or more likely it’s the floorboards underneath and I just don’t remember that they were noisy. Thanks for replying. We are complete novices at home improvements!
If the boards creaked then the ply wouldn't stop as already mentioned but if it's in new areas and sound similar then it could be that they didn't nail/screw the ply enough, it can happen if standard staples were used. The screed won't stop it completely either. If the ply was fitted too tight then that could be another cause.
Ply and screed usually stops the floor making a noise. Unless it’s been stapled down instead of using coil nails or screws. As others have pointed out we wouldn’t guaranteed a timber subfloor will stop creaking. There’s too much movement in a timber subfloor. It is possible but needs a lot of fixings and adhesive
Usally structural problem I always point out to customer I also always use coil nails or screws depending on floor type
