Mark the changed patch
If a floor starts squeaking after heating work, mark the exact board or edge while the sound is easy to reproduce. Write down whether it changes as the heating warms and cools. Start with the area that was disturbed, without deciding the cause from the timing alone.
An older Edinburgh floor may have boards lifted several times for pipes and cables. One edge can rub against the next board; a pipe can touch timber as it moves. The same room may contain an earlier alteration unrelated to the latest work.
Do not put a screw through the noisy patch to see what happens. Water, gas or electrical services may be below it, and their position needs to be established first.
Open only what needs checking
A limited lift may show a loose fixing or a board that no longer bears as it did. Agree who identifies the service route, protects the surrounding finish and makes good before any board comes up.
Loudness does not give a repair specification. If the floor also feels softer, increasingly out of level or visibly damaged, the homeowner appoints a building surveyor or structural engineer. That professional decides the investigation and any structural design. Sweet Homes can price the defined construction work within a wider renovation; we do not provide structural assurance from photographs.
Where the heating work formed part of a Sweet Homes contract, the contract and the evidence establish how the concern is handled. A later squeak is not automatically a no-cost defect repair, and it is not automatically dismissed as an old-floor problem. The relevant trade certifies only the work within that trade’s remit.
Before a new floor finish conceals the boards, walk the disturbed route with the relevant trade and record any patch that still moves or sounds different. Old timber floors may retain some noise.
Email Request a call to request a call about floor opening and making good within a wider renovation. Include any redacted report already prepared by the homeowner’s surveyor or engineer.