There’s nothing quite like slipping into fresh, clean sheets after a long day, only to have a noisy, squeaky bed spoil the moment.
Fortunately, you might not need to rush out and buy a new bed or grab the drill just yet. According to experts, a simple bar of soap, which can be bought for as little as 35p, could be the inexpensive solution you need to stop that irritating creak.
Retailers specialising in beds and mattresses, including Sonno and Time4Sleep, agree that lubricating the joints of your bed frame is the key to resolving squeaks.
Sonno advises: “For metal joints, we recommend lubricating with WD-40. For wooden frames, using wax you might have around the house, such as beeswax or candle wax, is ideal. If you’re feeling inventive, a bar of soap can work wonders too, but only on wooden frames.”
Time4Sleep also suggests wax as an effective lubricant: “If tightening any loose bolts hasn’t solved your creaking, applying wax to the joints could be just the solution. Using WD-40 or similar products often does the trick. Simply apply the wax to the affected areas and see if the noise issues disappear.”
In fact, a bar of soap costing just 35p at shops like ASDA might be all you need.
Bensons for Beds points out that a squeaky bed usually stems from one of four causes: loosened joints and bolts, parts of the frame rubbing against each other (whether wood-on-wood or metal-on-metal), an ageing mattress with worn springs, or creaky or uneven floorboards beneath the bed. To determine if the floorboards are responsible, try moving the bed to see if the noise travels.
If the soap treatment doesn’t do the trick, Bensons for Beds recommends trying other troubleshooting steps to identify and fix the source of the noise.