Creaking upstairs flat - engineered wooden floors

[GG35]

Hi there,

I'm in a new build flat - worst decision of my life. Trying to get on with resolving issues as best as I can as the developers are sexist pigs that refuse to talk to women. I am trying to get on with things as best as I can in spite of how wrong that is as it's been over a year now.

One issue that is difficult to find a solution for is the creaking from upstairs flat.

When my upstairs neighbours walk around, it creaks quite badly at my flat. It doesn't make noise on their floor but it makes awful creaking sound. Please see sample here.

I've had a micro-cracking specialist in and they've ruled that out. I am trying to find out how we can fix this. Our floors are engineered wooden flooring like this.

I really need a solution and am willing to even look at costs to fix myself as it is severely interrupting my sleep (upstairs just had a baby so they're up 3-4 times a night... I wake up / sleep with their schedule) and I am going mad. When the baby starts to walk it'll be worse as i imagine he will be running around.

I have spoken with a structural engineer and he said it's not really their bag.

The handyman onsite says it's probably the plywood not being screwed properly, without correct adhesive around it and missing noggins. I have no idea if this is true, not sure how we even go about diagnosing the problem as the developer is just ignoring / yelling at me to not call them when I am so lucky enough to get hold of them. Yes, I am within my snagging period.

Ideally it'll be going through my ceiling so that we don't have to lift upstairs' flooring/skirting boards up.

Please does anyone have any idea on what next steps I should take ? I am based in E11 east London.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

[New Build Inspector]

9 times out of 10 , its lack of glueing and screwing of floors

but could be joist spacing , lack of nogggins , wet floors drying out , lack of expansion joints to perimeter

theres so many things it really depends what youre feeling and where

 

[GG35]

9 times out of 10 , its lack of glueing and screwing of floors

but could be joist spacing , lack of nogggins , wet floors drying out , lack of expansion joints to perimeter

theres so many things it really depends what youre feeling and where

Hello, I’ve had many people through to give a solution. They’ve given differing opinions. What is the best way to investigate - is it through ceiling (where I hear) or is it through taking out the flooring ?

We’ve had :

- one recommendation that says to go through the ceiling to put more noggins
- another to go through the floor to tighten the screws

In order to find out which solution, surely you have to do some invasive digging… my question is - from where? Ceiling or floor?

Thank you again.