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Tout est silencieux, sauf les planches qui grincent dans le vent.

Tout est silencieux, sauf les planches qui grincent dans le vent.
Everything is silent, except the boards that creak in the wind.
From Lesson 255:Exclusion prepositions (sauf, à part)·French

Questions & Answers about Tout est silencieux, sauf les planches qui grincent dans le vent.

Could I use à part instead of sauf in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely. sauf and à part are usually interchangeable when followed directly by a noun. You could say à part les planches and it would mean the exact same thing: "apart from / except the boards."
Why is silencieux masculine singular if it refers to 'Everything'?
When the word Tout stands alone as a pronoun meaning "everything", French grammar treats it as a masculine singular subject. Therefore, the verb is conjugated as est (just like "il est") and the adjective silencieux takes the default masculine singular form.
Why do we use qui for "that" here instead of que?
We use qui because it acts as the subject of the action that follows: the boards are doing the creaking (grincent). You use que when the word is the object of the action, for example: les planches que je vois (the boards that I see).
What other kinds of things can grincer?
Grincer is used for harsh, scraping noises. Besides boards or doors creaking and squeaking, a very common phrase you will hear is grincer des dents, which means "to grind one's teeth."

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