How to Prevent Floor Trusses from Squealing

Do you hear squealing noises coming from the floor trusses as you walk on the floor of your multi-level home? Read on and discover some of the remedies you can use to prevent those noises from being emitted again.

Add Bracing

Floor trusses, just like roof trusses, support one another. Any squealing sound that you hear therefore means that the truss system may not be as capable of distributing the loads to all the trusses as required. You can fix this situation by installing additional bracing to ease this distribution of the loads throughout the trusses. Bracing refers to the lumber which is placed in the gaps between the different trusses so that those trusses are interlinked. That extra bracing will make it easier for loads to be distributed to the entire network of floor trusses. Consequently, the squealing will stop since the load will no longer be localised to a single section of the trusses.

Use Plywood Gussets

Another option that you can consider if you want to stop the floor trusses from squealing involves using plywood gussets. These are plywood pieces which are of the same length as the floor trusses. The plywood is screwed or nailed onto the trusses in order to make those trusses stiffer. This added stiffness prevents the trusses from flexing as someone is walking on the floor. The reduced flexing gets rid of the noise which you previously heard as you walked on the floor. However, this method is tedious because one has to work slowly in the areas where HVAC ducts and other penetrations exist.

Pad the Trusses

It may sometimes be hard to prevent the floor trusses from squealing in case HVAC pipes run very close to the trusses. Any flexing in the trusses causes the metal of the HVAC ducts to rub against the timber used to make the floor trusses. The resultant noise can be prevented by identifying the areas where the ducts rub against the floor trusses. Place some padding materials, such as carpet padding or duct tape, in those areas so that direct contact between the two materials is avoided. The trusses will continue to flex as usual without causing any noise.

Some of the interventions above require a high level of skill. For example, installing extra bracing in the floor truss system isn't a job for any layperson. Talk to a truss professional, like one from Simon Home Timber & Hardware, and ask that individual to visit your home. He or she will assess the situation before recommending the best approach to get rid of the noise.