Six year old house. I've noticed an awful lot of creaking as I walk around the house. I'll be fixing this by screwing in the OSB subfloor to joists when I rip out the carpets, but the issue I am not sure about is how to better bridge between joists (16" OC).

I'll be finishing the basement and drywalling the ceiling, so i want to get this dealt with first. All of the bridging put in when it was built was the stick type put in with a nailer (did not use ring shank). Most of these haven't moved but a few have simply fallen out and are sitting on top of duct work or whatever.

I need an approach that will be very strong and never come out like the stuff in there now.

I'm not thrilled with the idea of cutting blocking for each joist. Is there some kind of metal strapping made just for this? I saw on this old house some wiring that works as bridging but not if the subfloor is already in place!

Thanks!

 

You might not be thrilled about cutting blocks for each joist but if you hire a day worker to do the cuts & you do the nailing, it will go really fast. I've done it both ways. I've been the cutter & I've been the nailer.

 

Bridging is there to stop the joist from twisting, it will do little to stop a floor from moving, flexing downwards or stop squecks. It will however help to stop nail or screw pops when you install the sheetrock on the ceiling.
Did they cheap out and use non T&G OSB ? If so make sure to add blocking any place there's a seam. How thick is it?
How wide are these floor joist and how long is the span?