Floor creaking

a flooring company will nail the floorboards down for you. it's not expensive. problem solved.

That creaking is either the joists which are holding the floors up or the flooring boards rubbing against each other; avery is right, call a flooring company for a consutl.

a) How old is the building and what type of flooring are you talking about? Polyurethane DOES NOT CREAK.
b) If it's an older building with wood subflooring below the flooring, avery is 100% correct.

putting down rugs/carpet will eliminate some of the creaking.

putting down new floors can be a solution if the joists are not part of the problem.

Thanks for the comments. Not sure what you guys mean by floorboards or how they can be nailed down. The floors look like the 4th picture here, and were redone before we moved in last december.

http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&listingid=1549593

I am completely clueless on this topic, so appreciate all the help/advice.

"putting down rugs/carpet will eliminate some of the creaking."

not really: it will help MASK the sound of the creaking.

newbuyer99: what's more important is what is UNDER the flooring. Do you live in 275 West 96th? Or some other building built in the 70's, 80's, or later?

Also, are you sure "creaking" is the best description and not crackling or popping?

Talk to the super, talk to the oldtimers at the hardware store, talk to people at the flooring companies; it's possible that there is a fix for this dilemma. Good luck.

No, I don't live at 275 West 96th. Was just using that as an example of the kinds of floors we have.

30yrs, very good points. It feels like whatever is under the flooring is very uneven, and whoever put the flooring in did a poor job of evening it out.

As for the sound, crackling is definitely a better description than creaking. My mistake.

Sounds like an adhesive issue then, which is a HUGE difference, because if you have wood "tiles" glue down to a concrete floor, to can't simply nail the loose ones down like you would with joists supporting a sub-floor and then finished flooring on top. The biggest problem you'll have fixing your issue is that basically you have to pull up the loose tiles and re-glue them down. The reason this is a problem is that most of the time, it breaks and you have to put a new tile down (and I'm using the term "tile" even though the finish is wood). Firstly, they may not have a supply of spare tiles and/or they may no longer be being made (or easily found. Secondly, wood flooring "ages" about the most of any item you can think of, so when you pull up old tiles and put down new one's it's almost always SO obvious it's an eye sore.

notice you really don't see much of this type of flooring being installed even in the new buildings which also have concrete subflooring: there are many superior methods in existence now.

PS PART of the crackling can actually be the polyurethane (if the tile is loose, stepping on it will break the poly between the individual strips in each tile as well as the gaps between tiles). but that's why I asked creaking or crackling.

Reviving this thread, since we are still having this problem and I haven't found a solution. Can anyone recommend a flooring company I can call for a consultation? Thanks again.

Reviving yet again, having talked to several flooring companies (thanks for suggestion). I got our management company to agree to redo the tiles in the sections of the apartment that were the loudest and most bothersome to us.

Here's my concern: There is concrete under the floor, and it's uneven in places, so I am wondering if that might be contributing to the noise. They refuse to even out the concrete, because they indicate that job is much bigger/longer/more expensive. The last thing I want is for them to do all the work, feel like they did me a huge favor, but not solve the problem. 30yrs and others - any thoughts? Thanks yet again.

It's a HUGE job and I don't know anyone who has done it. It's much more common to even out wood flooring with "shims" than re-pour a concrete subfloor. Repouring is something usually resreved for kitchens and bathrooms.

Ok, that's what I am hearing elsewhere too, thanks. I guess I'll talk to them about using more/better padding instead. Thanks, 30yrs.