Gaps in floorboards a big problem and cost to fix?

Anon_

Anon_

I've just come back from an inspection of a investment property which I am very keen on. The only negative I can see is there are large gaps in between the floor boards (throughout the entire house - 6 rooms). I would say the worst are at around 1cm. The property is in a poor suburb and residents don't expect much, but are these gaps anything to worry about it? Is there anything that could be done cheaply to make them more visually pleasant?

I've taken 3 pictures of the worst areas so you can see what I mean:

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg685/scaled.php?server=685&filename=img1787dv.jpg&res=medium
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg713/scaled.php?server=713&filename=img1785a.jpg&res=medium
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3199/img1786j.jpg

Any advice or feedback would be most appreciated!
 
We once fixed this issue by having our builder route a 1cm strip between each board and also a border around the room (but could have done it wall to wall without the border).

Our kitchen maker made strips of the same timber our kitchen benches were made of (rosewood) 1cm side and the builder glued the strips in place. Then we had the whole floor sanded. It looked fantastic, and turned a real problem into a real show-stopper.

We could have done all this ourselves, but with three littlies (one only six months old), and living in the place whilst a bedroom and deck and new kitchen were done, we needed it done quickly, so we paid the builder.

With a lower end house, perhaps you could do this yourself to save some dollars, but you would need to sand the floor after doing so to get a good level finish.

You could put some filler between the boards, but it would pop out with temperature changes and with movement.
 
Probably can't tell by the pictures but the floorboards have actually just been recently polished. A better indiciation of what they are like are in this picture http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg685/scaled.php?server=685&filename=img1787dv.jpg&res=medium.

The house is only $140k and rent going to be 200-220, so it's not something I'm going to want to spend much money fixing. But then depending on how much work is involved, I'm not sure I would have time to do it myself because I work 6-7 days a week anyway. I would probably only want to budget about $3k for the entire house, would this come even close to the actual costs?
 
I cannot remember what we paid. The kitchen chap had done several kitchens for us, and did it just for the cost of the timber, no machining costs. The carpenter probably glued it all down in a few hours.

I saw that photo and couldn't work out why the polished bits seem to sit higher than the base bits. It almost looks like the polished bit has been glued to a base, but I know that isn't so. Perhaps it is just being such a close up that it is hard to work out.

If you've just had them polished, I'd be inclined to buy a couple of area rugs and leave them.
 
scaled.php

this is two tongue and groove boards turned tongue to tongue, instead of locking the tongue of one into the groove of the other, the other pics are, two groove ends, with small gaps
Often it was a way of extending the reach of subfloor, cheap old hard lino, cheap carpet, was put down,
the builder was also cheap,
didnt think the floor covering would ever be taken up
floating floor/laminates/vynil, would cover it, and keep the spiders out.
 
AlmostBob said:
scaled.php

this is two tongue and groove boards turned tongue to tongue, instead of locking the tongue of one into the groove of the other, the other pics are, two groove ends, with small gaps
Click to expand...

Ah!!! I see it now. I wonder if this is all over the floor. It would look pretty "gappy" if that is the case.

Big area rug would cover a lot of this and stop the eye from going straight to the larger gaps. Unless the house is in a really cold climate, it would probably not be too big an issue?

P.S. Just read that you are considering this as a purchase. You could offer lower and give yourself some room to fix and repolish, but I'd just try to get it for less and keep the money in your pocket.
 
That picture was definitely the worst of them, but it's similar throughout the house, even kitchen. It is an old SA Housing Trust home so would have been done as cheaply as possible. The actual floorboards look really nice, but the gaps do make them fugly if you pay attention. Most of the other floors in these Housing Trust Homes use floating floorboards but have terrible squeeking which I believe is ground related?

The house will be sold by the end of the week and ill probably put in an offer of $136k tomorrow. Another downer is there is no AC so I wanted to probably at least get something installed in the lounge area for approx $1k, leaving $3k for hoping doing something with the floors which is about 80sqm.

This isn't the actual property but this is a good indication of how they actually look from a far, notice larger gaps in places.

image3.jpg
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't do anything (except maybe try to get the price down). That sort of pine (looks like Cypress) is busy enough that your eye will be distracted by the actual boards anyway. If would be worse with a less "busy" floor and the gaps would be more noticeable.

You say this is not the actual house, but this room looks to nicely painted and clean that the floor isn't an issue for me (even with those patches).
 
Last edited:
If the builder did this and you can see it ..... what are you not seeing?

The last photo looks like some boards have been replaced, if this is the case investigate the property in more depth.

When you walk on the floor do the boards move? Lets also consider a great entry point for pests, this maybe an issue with tenants down the track.

It can be fixed, routing out just enough to get a even depth then glue in an infill, sand and polish. That is one option and while I don't think its the best option, its a cheapest if keeping the floor boards.

Thanks
Brian
 
Have you considered simply filling the gaps with something like a clear fibre glass or clear epoxy resin? You can get resins etc that are self levelling, and they are glossy when set so should look like more polished floor.

Easiest thing to do is go and purchase a small amount of resin and try it out in a corner of the room or someplace not quite visible.

looks like a nice place though :)
 
Anon_ said:
This isn't the actual property but this is a good indication of how they actually look from a far, notice larger gaps in places.
Click to expand...

I think you guys missed this bit... you were reading "like a man" :D.

I like OA's idea of filling it but we have a similar issue with hardwood floors in our PPOR living area. This flooring was never meant to be polished. It is beautiful timber but some gaps are larger than they should be. Our sander told us that he could fill it with stained putty (or whatever was the product they use to fill nail holes) but floorboards "do" move and he said within six months much of the fill would pop out and it would look worse.

Whether there is any other product that will not pop out with the movement that happens between the boards when walked on I don't know...
 
Putty is generally soft, flexible, and prone to cracking if applied in large amounts. Epoxy resin when used in the same way with a decent amount of surface area to bond to is a lot tougher. The wood will rip off where it's stuck before the epoxy cracks.
 
That's baltic pine. Common as muck in SA in older houses.

We frequent a cafe with the same problem in the boards, but it is due to excessive polishing, the boards have been polished right down into the grooves of the tongue and groove, not put together tongue-to-tongue like yours.

The place looked terrible before someone bought it and did it up, they polished the floors and filled all the gaps and it looks lovely but within a year quite a lot of the fill had come out.

House is cheap, its not like the fill all comes out at once, nothing stopping you just madly filling with the most appropriate stuff you can find and topping it up between tenants. Or just doing laminate timber over the top.
 
Thanks everyone. As another option, would there be any problems in just putting carpet over the top? Starting to prefer the idea of doing carpeting instead and would be much cheaper. Perhaps carpet in bedrooms, and leaving the floorboards for hallway & living area.
 
Anon_ said:
Thanks everyone. As another option, would there be any problems in just putting carpet over the top? Starting to prefer the idea of doing carpeting instead and would be much cheaper. Perhaps carpet in bedrooms, and leaving the floorboards for hallway & living area.
Click to expand...

Depending on the geographic region - and hence the requirements - carpet in bedrooms is typically warmer - this sounds like a good plan.
 
Hey Anon_, It was not many years ago when having polished floorboards would have people thinking you were quite poor. Housewives would scrimp and save in order to upgrade to carpet for bedrooms and living rooms, and use either kitchen carpet or vinyl in kitchens/ dining rooms.

We have the same situation as you in our house at the Vale. Currently thinking carpet in the lounge and vinyl in the kitchen dining. This house already has carpet in the bedrooms -

36BurcombestE.jpg


Stangman.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
My First Reno! Photos, Feedback Please!
2 3
Replies
45
Views
7K
DaveM
DaveM
Ruby
The keithj Interview
Replies
0
Views
13K
Ruby
Ruby
Back
Top