Sealing gaps between floorboards

[strangep]

Hi renovators

Just a quick question about sealing gaps between floorboards...

We're looking to polish some timber floors in our PPOR and on lifting the carpet have found that there are approx. 2mm gaps between the boards. As it gets quite drafty in London during the winter we'd like to seal the gaps but don't want to upset the floor by preventing it from contracting and expanding.

Can anyone suggest suitable methods/materials for sealing these gaps?? The floorboards appear to be cypress pine and are in the order of 100 years old.

Thanks

Paul

 

[landlubber]

Paul,
Our experience...
Gaps between floorboards in old (100 yrs) timber floors are very common. Caused by timber shrinkage as it drops in moisture content. All floorboards I've come across has been tongue and groove so there isn't any actual gap. The tongue bridges the gap. (test it with a nail file or a kinife)
Our 1920,s house has 150mm floorboards and gaps 2mm or more . We cleaned out the gaps and vacuumed really well ,hand sanded it ourselves, stained it quite dark (our preference) and painted on the clear polurethane.
The dark floors also tend to make the gaps less obvious I guess, but we like our floors and our houses really to look lived in (read beaten up) ...and not pristine.
Have seen one floor once where "somebody" had tried to fill the gaps with sealer ...it looked bad !

That's about it.
LL

 

[Brenda Irwin]

I under stand your problem completely Strangep. I too live in a 100 yr old hiset Queenslander with timber floors.

There is no tongue & groove in the floors, just flat nailed down boards. Yes, I have got gaps too. I read a reno book that said for smaller gaps to mix up paper mache & woodglue & shove it in them. For bigger gaps the book suggested getting really thin 4mm lengths of dowel & sanddown to fit cracks tightly then sand off excess still sticking up out of floor.

I haven't tried these suggestions yet, has anyone else?

Cheers Brenda

 

[peelsman]

I have a 100yr old edwardian and boy do I have gaps in the boards. In the hallway I ended up ripping the whole lot up and relaying with 70yrd old baltic that ended up being identical in colour. the only problem was the price. you can pay up to 15$ a lineal mtr for the 150mm old stuff with tounge and groove all in place. 8$ in the trading post!
for the other rooms we mixed some of that timber filler adn used bits of timber between the gaps, and as long as you get the colour right it looks really good - you have to look twice between the boards. what you can do is lift the boards (carefully) and relay them so you lose the gap. Hard to do with soft woods like baltic and as for getting nails out of 100yrd joists, forget it! its a big, painfull job but can save you a few bucks if done carefully.


HT

 

[itinerantotter]

There's a commercial product called, from memory, Pafuki fill which is flooded onto the floor and into the gaps. I seem to remember there were some hard and fast rules about the type of sealant to be used - something to do with shrinkage/swelling. Did a good job on a baltic floor though.

Cheers

 

[strangep]

Thanks for the replies everyone

Will probably try using a mixture of sawdust and PVA glue this time round. Found this idea on a floor sanding website over here. If that fails then we'll pull the floor up and re-lay it I think.

Thanks again for the suggestions but if there's anyone else out there who has another alternative, please post.

Cheers

Paul

 

[layer181]

paul
just remember that sawdust and glue will not accomodate any future movement in your floors.Unless they are really small gaps I would be using an elasticised filler that will be compatible with your finishing product e.g oil,polyurethane,wax etc.Use a colored caulking compound for gaps up to 5mm if wider insert an expanding rod then the compound wait 8 hours or so then sand your floor you will find it will give a professional finish and wll last for years to come.What I have done in the past I have actually highlighted the gap with black sikoflex to give the impression of a boats deck.Of course that would depend on the rest of your decor
goodluck layer181

 

[Queen Bee]

Filling Gaps

Hiya

We fill gaps in whole floors quite often. We use an Australian product called Timbermate. You can actually mix it up with water to the consistenacy of whipped cream and trowel it all over your floor. When it's dry, you get a squeegee mop and mop it all up. You will have a clean floor, but all your gaps will be filled.

Good luck
Queen Bee