Silence those squeaky floorboards

Instead of walking around those squeaky floorboards, learn toquiet them. The solution can be as simple as driving a nail into theright spot.

Squeaks can be caused by loose boards rubbing against otherboards or against a nail, sagging or warped joists under the floor orwarped floorboards. These, in turn, may be caused by faulty originalconstruction, use of improperly seasoned lumber or just plain oldage.

Here's how to find the cause of the noise and then correct theproblem.

Wood floors are built of three layers: the floorboards, whichyou can see, the subflooring and the supports below, including thejoists and diagonal bridging between the joists. Since …