The secret to a non-squeaky floor is not a secret at all. Make it strong!Some of the elements to making a floor strong include:
- Use engineered joists, they tend not to twist as they pretty much arrive dry and not prone to movement
- Use bracing between the joints - here we used 1" x 4" bracing across the bottoms of the joists at 4 foot centers
- Use screws to secure the floor decking material, and us lots of them - definitely do not skimp here - we put them every 6 inches
- Use additional bracing between the joists at key places where the structure may suffer more weight or have cutouts in the floor structure such around stairwell openings.