Creaky floorboards

[Pye_End]

Floor boards screwed into stringers, perhaps 7ft or so long, meet amidships. Taken home for varnishing over the winter. Traditional construction.

The boards creaked a bit before varnishing, but even more so now. A couple of the screws have no bite, so will probably fill and re-fix at some point, but suspect there is still enough flexibility for them to move. Securing a batten on the underside is not an option as the board flexes a little to fit the slight curve of the floor.

Have tried a smear of lubricant (silicone grease was all that was to hand at the time) – this made it worse to cleaned it off and tried talc – bit better for a while.

Not sure if I should be encouraging them to move with say Vaseline, or trying to stop them moving against each other. Don’t really want to get them to grip together as it then makes them difficult to remove.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Suspect you need to sand the edges, they are creaking where they rub together. I had some creaky sole boards when i bough my current boat and sanding the edges stopped the creaking. Just had to lift a couple and clean the edges, where dirt has gotten between the boards over the past year and they started creaking again. They are now creak free again.

 

[skip50]

A previous thread on this topic (a long time ago) someone recommended rubbing a candle along the edges, it worked for me. But from the sound of it you may have to do some sanding etc first.

Good luck