How to fix a squeaky wooden bed frame?
Sources
Answer
To fix a squeaky wooden bed frame, try the following steps:
- Tighten any loose screws or bolts on the headboard, side rails, and joints of the bed frame. Use a screwdriver or Allen wrench to ensure all connections are secure14.
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Apply a lubricant like beeswax, paraffin wax, or a wood-friendly paste wax to the joints and grooves where the wood rubs together. This helps reduce friction and squeaking13.2
- If the squeaking is coming from the bed slats, you can try cushioning them with strips of cork, socks, old shirts, sponges, or towels to muffle the noise3. As a more permanent solution, replace the slats with new ones that fit the frame properly4.
- Add padding between the bed frame and the floor to reduce friction and squeaking noises3.
- As a last resort, replace the entire bed frame if it has fallen into disrepair or the squeaking persists despite other fixes34.
References
1. How do I stop a bed frame from squeaking?2. Wood Bed Frames: EASIEST Way to FIX SQUEAKING so ... - YouTube3. How to Fix a Squeaky Bed: 10 Tips - Purple Mattress4. How to Stop a Wooden Bed from Squeaking | Happy Beds5. How to Fix a Squeaky Bed - YouTube
Author: Fix It With Zim
Key insights
- The squeaky bed may be caused by two pieces of wood rubbing together, not just the box springs.
- ️ The squeaky bed problem may be caused by a gap between the stretcher and the post, leading to a loose joint and shaking.
- Silicone lubricant is preferred for indoor use as it doesn't make a mess like WD-40.
- Putting the headboard and footboard back together can help reduce shaking and noise.
- Adding felt to contact points can help prevent wood-to-wood contact and reduce squeaks in the bed.
- Adding felt on the slats can help reduce squeaking in the bed without causing any issues with reinstallation.
- ️ Properly installing felt pads and lubricating brackets can help reduce noise and make the bed more stable.
- The repair was a lot easier than expected, no more noises or squeaks, and maybe I can get a good night's sleep.
Video Full Text
- Yep that's a squeaky bed. It's annoying. It keeps you up at night and in today's video I'm going to show you how to fix it. What is up guys Zim's jeeps oh yeah. This is the bed in our master bedroom as you can tell make it all sorts of noise. It's keeping us up at night a couple weeks ago I moved the bed to clean and vacuumed underneath it and ever since I put it back. These noises have started. I pinpointed a couple areas where it's happening. My guess is that when I moved it I might have loosened up to the joint here where these stretcher rails meet the footboard and also back there at the headboard. So I'm going to take the mattresses off. We're going to take the frame apart. I'm going to take a look. I've got a couple things here that I think will fix the problem. We'll see if we're successful or not alright guys. So I went ahead and got the mattress and the box springs taken off. Now. That's probably the first thing you want to check make sure your box springs are at the cause of the noise and the squeaking alright I checked mine out. It doesn't look like those are making any noise so I think we're good in that department like I said I think I pretty much narrowed down the noise to the joint from the stretcher to the posts on all four corners so up here at the headboard. Those two corners and then again down here at the footboard now in general when you get squeaking especially on wood. Usually the cause of two pieces of wood rubbing together so in our case here again the stretcher and the posts on all four corners but your noise can also be coming from some other areas. You want to check these slats that run between the stretchers. On both sides. You can get a noise down in these areas here we're going to address those as well while I have the mattresses off. This is a king sized bed and I'm sure as you know moving the mattress around isn't any fun. I only want to do this job once so I'm going to do now is I'm going to break apart the frame. Here these are just brackets that fit into I guess a mortise on here and some other type of bracket inside the post. They just pop right out if you have a different type of bed frame state of nuts and bolts.Read More
- More than likely all you have to do is just tighten the nuts up or the bolts and that should solve your problem and you can even lubricate them with wd-40 and see if that helps before I go ahead and take this apart. I think I found what the problem is. Here. It's by rakh. We post here forward. A little bit you could see this gap that it started to get here between the stretcher and the post. I think that when I went ahead and moved his bed it probably had too much weight with the mattresses on it. And I think I probably invented the wood on the post here and I no longer have a tight joint between these two pieces of woods. When that happens the bed can start the rack as you see here and shake and that's when you start. So we have to address that issue first all right guys. I went ahead and broke the bed apart and I think my suspicion is true. You can see here you know that angle you can kind of see how the wood on the post here is indented. And I think that's causing some slop with the stretcher rails on these posts. So I'm going to find something that I could take the gap up between that rail and the post now so I'm looking around Home Depot and this is what I came up with. This is down the hardware aisle near the felt pads that they set up on the bottom of furniture so you don't scratch your wood floors. This is a roll of that stuff and what I'm going to do is. I'm going to cut a few strips of this and I'm going to attach it to the edge of the stretcher rail here and that will take that gap up and another function of this. It'll stop the wood on wood contact which I think is where the noise is coming from the noise might also be coming from the bracket here with a bracket hooks into the bracket here on the post.Read More
- So I'm going to go ahead and do is lubricate. These as well. I got some spray lubricant. You can use something like a wd-40 a something a little bit different that I'll show you and we'll see if that helps alright guys so just to show you what I'm doing here. I'm just cutting strips that felt off this roll here and just pean the tape off the back of it and just adhering it to the stretcher rail here. Now in most cases you probably don't have to be too pretty with this because all this is hidden underneath the bed alright. So in my case. I'm also cutting a few little strips to put on the top and the bottom of the bracket here as well alright. So there you go guys again doesn't need to look pretty. It's going to be hidden. So I'm going to go ahead and do now is lubricate. The brackets now on the rail and also those more practice there on the post and what I'm going to use for that is this product. Here this is cool dry lube. It's made by PB Blaster. You might heard of them for their other product to loosen up stubborn nuts and bolts reason. I like using this is opposed to wd-40 when you spray it on. I'm going to show you here you can see that within a couple seconds that completely evaporates and what it leaves behind is a lubricated film. So if I have to go ahead and spray this with wd-40. You'd have all that rolling down now get down on your carpet. So I like using this indoors in my house like when I'm moving up hinges and basically anything else that might make a mess. I find this to be superior to wd-40.Read More
- For that reason you could find this down the hardware aisle at Home Depot if you're interested ok so see if I can get a shot for you here how these things map at the plate if you're not familiar with how better to style those together. Basically all you got to do is just get. Let's get the head of the foot board into place. No no no make sure you know to view here but basically it just slips in there and then you just give it some force to press it down and step on it or basically any way you have to get it in. There just do it and that's fit into place nice. So you can see you know we're doing this thing pretty good now. It's not shaking as much as it used to that felt fits in there really. Nice I went ahead and I got the head board attached also in the same way and yeah. I think that was uh was pretty good so let me get the other side hook not alright so the bed frame is all put back together now and all four corners.Read More
- I'm going to turn my attention out to these slats and wherever one of these meet just stretch your rail. I'm going to go ahead and put a piece of that felt underneath and I'm also going to put a piece of felt on the edge of the slide as well so that both contact points which will be the bottom and the side or protected and we don't have any wood to wood contact. Our squeaks might be coming from this as well. So another thing I wanted to show you guys. This Center posts here that basically sits in the middle of the flats that run in between both the stretcher rails. I noticed that this I guess. It's like a leg bolt on the bottom and it's got a threaded connection on the top and I forget the name. What these things are cool but basically the leg bolts section fits down to the top of the post here and you can see how this hole I guess got stripped out. This is a real easy fix. All you want to do is just get it in there as best you can and then just take a mallet and this hammer into place. A little bit go ahead and grab a pair of channellocks and then just twist the the post and you can usually get a couple of those threads feed it into the piece of wood all right. This then fits into a slot here on the flat and if I can find it right in this prom nuts here fits into this kind of sunk hole and these all popped out as well.Read More
- This bed is just a piece of crap. I think we bought this in Raymour and Flanigan about four or five years ago and it's just falling apart at the seams. But I'm going to make it last for the time being so just hammer that prong nut back into place and then this just threads in from underneath. Hopefully. You have enough thread to get started on that I don't so I'm going to have to pound that in a little more I don't have a punch up here. So it's easy wires. Let's see. If we have enough viennetta before started yep. We do just don't crank down a muscle down too much because you'll strip it right out again. So those part the weight of the bed keeps this in place but you still want a nice secure connection here again. Any spot that's loose we have wood on wood contact will cause your squeak. So here's a look at the slat now with the piece of felt on the bottom and on the sides again. We did that on both ends and we're going to go ahead and flip this into place now and if you see those felt things here they don't cause any problems that's getting this back into place. It really doesn't add that much space in between the bottom or the side so you won't have any issues getting everything reinstalled and just make sure you go ahead and stock these screws down real well. Phil all right guys one other thing I went ahead and purchased was these L brackets at Home Depot. You can find them down the building supply aisle with the joist hangers and my intent was to install them over here in the corner is just stiffen up. This joint a little bit what I'm going to go ahead and do is just install the box spring and the mattress and rock the bed around a little bit. See we have hopefully the noise is gone if it's not. I'll take the mattress and the boxspring back off and we'll go ahead and put these in if I don't need them. This is just another option for you if you still have noise.Read More
- You just have to get some wood screws probably number 8 3/4 long and just drill them into the post and on the structure here. In my case that I also have to drill through this metal bracket here which is in a big deal so just another option for you. If you happen to need it. Alright guys get everything back together here. Let's go over the repairs we made so far on all four corners where the side rails meet the posts we went ahead and install these felt pads we also lubricated up the bracket on the end of the side rail and also the bracket in the post. On these Center slats we went ahead and installed felt pads on the bottom and on the sides of all the locations where it meets the side rails and we also made some repairs on the center posts where it meets the slats as well and tightened all those up real long. So I'm going to go ahead and install the boxspring in the mattress now and we'll give it a test and see what we got. So I went ahead and got the mattress and the boxspring put back on here. One other thing that I want to show you guys when you go ahead and put the boxspring back on. You want to make sure you have some separation between it and both the footboard and the headboard on both ends so you want to Center on the frame. He is the moment of truth.Read More
- Let's see if it's making any noise and like to say I think we're pretty good shaking this before like this from side to side which definitely be making all sorts of noise. So. I'm happy to say. I think we fixed it all right so I got my two little monsters here testing the durability of the repairs and has to say this was a lot easier than I thought it would be no more noises no more squeaks and maybe I can get a good night's sleep. Finally anyway guys I'm Jimmy sheep you found the video helpful I appreciate. If you hit that like button maybe you want to subscribe to my channel. Got a bunch of the maintenance or repair type. Videos save you some money on things around you have and as always thanks for watching.Read More