In the winter floor squeak are more prevalent because the drier conditions inside a house cause materials like wood to contract which may result in movement between floor components.

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What causes floors to squeak more in the winter?

The warmth of summer tends to dry out the oils in the wood, which causes it to contract.

When the weather turns cold again during winter, these materials want to warm up and expand back into place. This normal contraction, however, can make floor joints move against each other making a squeaking sound. It is similar to what happens when hardwood floors are installed…in the summer, there is more movement between the boards as compared to colder months because they can shrink or expand more.

How can you prevent floors from squeaking in the winter?

One of the best ways to avoid this issue is to stagger your floor joists so they don’t line up with adjacent joists. This creates a gap between them and prevents materials from rubbing against each other easily. It may seem like an unnecessary step, but it can save you lots of headaches later on when trying to find out why your floors are making noise in the first place. The next solution that we would like to suggest is adjusting the way that your subfloor was installed. Make sure nails aren’t puncturing through where wood components meet, this can cause much more damage than good in the long run because moisture will get trapped underneath and lead to all sorts of problems such as rot and mold. Finally, we recommend checking your flooring system to make sure that there aren’t any loose boards or components.

People usually fix the squeaking by replacing floorboards or by gluing them down instead of nailing them down which can cause damage to the subfloor. However, fixing the squeak is often just a temporary solution because after some time it can occur again. The best way to fix floor squeaks is not only to replace the component but also carefully inspect whatever part of the mechanism made contact with another board and adjust its position so they no longer touch.