Squeaky wood floors are a contractor's worst nightmare, but in feudal Japan, wood flooring in palaces and temples were installed to squeak.
Called Nightingale ("uguisubari") floors, the flooring system was created to chirp like songbirds whenever someone walked upon them, with the purpose of alerting guards to an intruder. The floors were installed with specially designed fasteners across a joist system; they would scrape against the joists when the flooring was walked upon, resulting in chirping noises.
The Nightingale floors are still in use today, but instead of providing a warning, they entertain tourists, many of whom have uploaded videos online of themselves walking across the chirping floors. Perhaps the floors sounded like chirping songbirds centuries ago, but today they sound more like screeching banshees.
See for yourself.
