installed hardwood floor and there's subfloor issue. house under 1 yr

7 years ago

I purchased a new home from a builder 9 months ago. It's still under warranty. It's a house with an unfinished basement. The main floor has builder installed engineer hardwood and upstairs has carpet.
The house has numerous issues since we moved in. The builder has already came to fix the main floor squeaky subfloor 3 times. Even today, they came and pull out of a nail under the subfloor from our basement, because it's making squeaky sound. We also had squeaky should in the stairs landing area. It was the subfloor that wasn't secured. They fixed that by pulling all the hardwood, secured the subfloor and put the new hardwood back on. All the fixes are under warranty and are relatively easy as our basement is unfinished.
We installed engineered hardwood floor 4 months ago in all the bedroom upstairs when we saw Home Depot had some floor deal. We didn't put extra screws to secure the subfloor after we pulled the carpet. After the installation, we noticed one area in our master bedroom has noticeable sound, but not too loud. Today, it's getting very bad. Just like the sound made by the nail on our main level. The difference is we've changed carpet to hardwood floor and it's upstairs, there's no access to subfloor as it is covered.
I'm pretty sure the sound is from subfloor, similar to a popping nail sound we had recently. Before I ask builder to take a look, just want to check with folks here what you think builder will do. The house is under warranty, but we've changed carpet to hardwood floor ourselves. Will builder deny the warranty because we altered the floor?
Thanks in advance for any input.

Comments (9)

nycefarm
7 years ago
He will not warranty work done by someone else...
homechef59
7 years ago
He won't warrant it because you have made a material change by installing new flooring. Your only options will be to tolerate it or remove the new flooring and screw things down then replace the new flooring. Too bad you didn't check the subfloor before you installed the new flooring. Houses shrink and settle a lot during the first year or two.

Your home is a good illustration of why you might want to wait to finish a basement or install a moveable basement ceiling. It certainly makes access easier to deal with flooring, plumbing and electrical issues.
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Osb is not usually a recommended subfloor for nailing. Why not consider a floating floor of engineered wood? As far as the environmental issues goes almost all oak or major hardwood lines reforest and use environmentally friendly harvesting. Some exotic woods may not. I wouldn't worry about that aspect as much.
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You need a FLAT substrate for any new flooring material, no matter how you intend on installing it. The shingle thing for solid hardwood works fine. I have nailed through self leveling underlayment with no problems, however I had to resort to hand nailing with hardened spiral flooring nails, as my pneumatic nailer would not do the job. Floating a wood floor is OK...but the substrate needs to be FLAT there also. I hate the concept of floating floors and find walking on them to be a little 'creepy'...just personal bias.
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You need to do a little more archeological digging still. You need to know the whole construction of the floor before you can decide how best to install something new. I'd take up that plywood piece in the kitchen and see what's under it. It's higher than the surrounding floor, so needs to go. You should also be able to see from there what subfloor is under the original kitchen hardwood. It's too bad the space under your entryway is finished, but I'd still do some exploring from below to see what's under there, and to figure out the fix to stop it from squeaking. Is it drywall below or a drop ceiling? I know it probably seems like a pain to tear out drywall, but if you cut out a clean patch, like 2' x the width of the joists, it'll be relatively simple to repair. Just make sure to cut it down the center of the joists so that there's room to screw the patch piece to it later. Cut the hole under the area that squeaks the most, if you can. Have someone walk on and watch the floor from below to see what's moving. It might be as simple as pounding in a couple shims from below, or face-nailing a loose board from above. You want to find out what's underneath the hardwood. It might be laid directly on the floor joists, or there might be 10" wide boards that the hardwood is nailed to. Another thought is to take out a board in the hallway, since that's not original and you want to replace it. See what the subfloor is there. I am a bit puzzled at why, when you've stripped the kitchen down to the original hardwood, it's still higher than the hallway floor. Is your current surface perhaps not the original kitchen hardwood? Peeling back the plywood area will help determine that. BTW, I haven't heard of that stop squeaking product you linked to, so can't offer any personal opinion. And don't pour self-leveling compound over top of hardwood. It needs to go over plywood.
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I would finish the renovation, move in most of my furnishings (at least place my area rugs and then reassess) before making any more of an issue with this. You have voiced your concern about the visual of this plank. Put it in writing in an email (that gives it a time/date stamp). In my email I would state that we have already discussed this plank (a photo in the email is excellent) and that you are willing to TRY to live with it. You would like to continue on with the renovation as planned. And you would like to see if you can "get used to it" before you ask for a plank replacement. An email in this vein does many things: time/date stamp with photo of the issue. It also smooths EVERYONE'S feathers. The GC will feel like you are trying to listen and are trying to be a "good customer" by listening to the GC. The GC will also realize that it is POSSIBLE that a plank replacement MAY be in the future....but it isn't set in stone. This type of email will be a win-win for everyone. You will document your concern and the GC will feel relaxed about moving forward with the rest of the renovation without having to worry about a single plank. As a person who loves wood variation (LOVE Hickory and Character Grade White Oak) I'm not overly excited about this plank. I would prefer to "get used to it" rather than risking a replacement.
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User
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
A proper contractor would have shored up the subfloor before laying down a new product. But you didn't hire a proper contractor. You hired a cheap box store install. And you just voided your warranty with the builder. So it's all on you to find and pay for the fix.
trickyputt
7 years ago
Sophie dear, the person built the house. Also a proper contractor cannot make magic materials. Wood has Lignin in it which will polish up and squeek, and nothing is available that will prevent the heatings and coolings that cause expansion and contraction in wooden structure homes. This movement too causes squeeks. Even glueing subfloor is not a silent promise.
User
7 years ago
WTH is that bot response???
User
7 years ago
It's nonsense.

No, the builder will not warranty Home Depot installations.
trickyputt
7 years ago
Sophie they did not glue the subfloor on the whole house. While they fixed it one time the correct answer is to run polyureathane beads of structural adhesive from underneath. This will tie the subfloor to the joist, but the ”right" way would have been during construction. And nonsense is anybody saying a flooring contractor is supposed to do that structural work for free. If you wanna get your feelings hurt, try to get a trade to do more than you are paying for, and tell them you expect it.
ncrealestateguy
7 years ago
Maybe those subs and the GC will learn a lesson and use screws instead of nails and glue instead of wishful thinking.
trickyputt
7 years ago
Agree- If I glue and screw 2 layers of 3/⁴ plywood, then I save on the cost of concrete.

installed hardwood floor and there's subfloor issue. house under 1 yr

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nycefarm

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