Our home was built in 2005 & we've had an ongoing issue since it was new.

I have a problem with the plywood sub floor & an unsure what the cause is. It is in the carpeted rooms on the second floor. Creaking, popping & snapping sounds occur when walking around the room. The sounds do not come from the floor however, they emanate from the base of the wall around the baseboard & door frame separating the bedrooms from the hallway.

The builder & Tarion were completely useless to us in fixing the problem so we've just put up with it until now.

I want to have wood flooring installed, but want to ensure this issue is alleviated at the same time.

From internet searches I've done I think the problem might be that the bottom plate of interior walls in many areas are not screwed into joists.

If this turns out to be the problem, is the solution to replace the subfloor up the the walls when we get the hardwood flooring installed. I imagine that would be a major job & a major expense.

 

As long as you're going to be replacing the flooring, I'd rip the carpet up before doing much more work on this. Often times, a bunch of screws into the joists through the plywood solves the problem but, if not, it should be easier to find the problem without the carpet in place.

 

I doubt you need to replace the subfloor but it does sound like it needs to be better secured to the floor joists. What's with the bow in the diagram?

 

I just pulled that pic off the internet.

I don't think that I have any bowing.

 

Remove the baseboard molding and drive some wedges or shims up under the walls base plate. It is the nails of the wall base plate moving in the subfloor. Driving wedges will eliminate the movement that is caused by your walking around. I have seen this once before and previous people tried sending a thousand screws into the floor with no success. My wedges quieted the wall down.

 

Great thanks czizzi.

Hopefully that will resolve the issue.