The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

First Aid For The Ailing Houses

The subfloor should be covered with a layer of building paper to prevent dust and dirt from sifting through.

The finish floor is nailed or glued to the subfloor. Finishfloor boards in strips are usually tongued and grooved. The nails are finishing nails which have small heads; they are driven at an angle through the edges of the boards so that the heads are concealed by the board that follows. Parquet flooring made in blocks at the factory is either nailed or cemented to the subfloor. Resilient tile and sheet covering are cemented to the subfloor.

WEAK FLOORS

A well-made floor is stiff and without vibration or creaks. Vibration and lack of stiffness in a floor may be caused by:
Undersize beams.

No bridging, or bridging that is poorly fitted or loose. Lack of support under beams that are too long to be sufficiently stiff in themselves.

When the under side of a floor is exposed, as may be the case in a cellar, loose bridging can be nailed tight and more bridging added. For general stiffening and added strength this can be given by a four-by-four or larger timber sup? ported on columns or posts. Each such column should rest on a concrete base separate from the floor, for a cellar floor has not the strength to carry the weight.

When a supporting timber, called a "girder," is provided but does not prevent vibration, looseness, and sagging in the floors above, this will usually be because of settlement in the foundations of the columns. Wedges of metal or hardwood should then be driven in between the top surface of the girder and the beams. Should the looseness reappear, it will be evidence that the foundations of the columns are sinking or that the columns rest only on the floor. In either case proper foundations should be built.

When the under side of the floor beams is ceiled, the ceiling should be broken into, or the flooring above taken up, to learn the. condition of the bridging or other reason for lack of stiffness.

CREAKING FLOORS

Creaking in a floor is almost invariably due to the loosening of the nails holding the subfloor to the beams. When the under side of the floor is exposed, an examination under the creaking places will show that the boards of the subfloor do not rest solidly on the beams; this will be clear if at the time someone upstairs walks across the creaking place.