Gaps between floorboards

[AnonymousImport]

We have lovely Victorian floorboards in our living room but unfortunately they have big gaps between them (3-4mm) and we get terrible draughts.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to fill the gaps, short of taking up all the boards and relaying them?

 

[AnonymousImport]

Obtain long thin wedge shaped pieces of wood called firring (pronounced furring) and drive between boards then plane flat and san off. These can then be statined to match the floor colour and then varnished.

 

[AnonymousImport]

Thanks for that. Are there any filler/sealant products on the market that would be suitable?

 

[AnonymousImport]

I know of some one that used silicone sealant

you could try screwfix.com

here

 

[AnonymousImport]

When you finish sanding the floor you should take the sawdust and mix it with wood glue and then use that to fill the gaps. Sand off once dry.

 

[gwen]

i used standard transparent silicon , permanent flexible as you 'd use for bathrooms, for my floor. great , no dust, no trouble. and lasting.

 

[king.module]

so anyone any recommendations/experience/opinions on which would be best???

we're just about to start on our kitchen (we sanded the floor in our living room and liked it so much we thought we'd do it the same - except this time we've going to fill in the floorboard gaps)

if we go down the glue/saw dust route wouldn't that cause problems when sanding it (wouldn't the glue would melt?)

 

[masona]

if we go down the glue/saw dust route wouldn't that cause problems when sanding it (wouldn't the glue would melt?)

Not sure about this one as timber need to expand.The glue won't melt if you decided to do it this way.

Also see this for more info.

A friend of mine has the flooring company in which use a difference thickness string or rope in the gap and sealed it.Not sure how they did it though.

 

[king.module]

cheers masona

yeah i saw that post when i initially searched the forums - i expectit's one of the more time consuming options(?).

this biggest problem i can foresee is the gap sizes e.g. one side of the room it's about 5mm, it narrows down to the middle where there is no gap, and towards the other end it is say 2mm - could be a pain trying to fill these gaps with something as unworkable as string.....

reckon i'll have to ponder over it a while longer....

 

[masona]

I suppose the other option would be to carefully removed the floorboards (will be a awkward in the kitchen) and put down hardboards or sheeting then replace the floorboards,then again you might as well renew with T & G flooring which will stop the draught.
If I remember rightly, the flooring company quoted £600 to sealed the gaps plus floor sealer and 3 top coats of finish.

 

[king.module]

hmmm lifting the floorboards and re-laying is NOT going to be an option - the misses would go loopy with all the disruption - lol

draughts aren't a problem as the kitchen is on the first floor (well it's on ground level but like i say in other posts we're on a steep hill - it drops 1 storey from the front to the back)

i've done a little extra research and it seems that no matter what you put in to fill the gaps won't work 100% due to the board expanding and contracting (like you stated).

the options i i came across was a jelly type filler (gap master from Bonakemi(?)), a joint filler from the same manufacturer (prob. the same as the jelly filler), but the most common solution/recommendation is the twine/string/rope method - reckon i'll give that a go - i'll let you know how it goes - got quite a bit of work to do before i get to that stage but i do like to understand what's required before i jump in (already learnt that lesson!!)

funny how a little extra research makes bringing this post back to the top seem like obsolete - power of research i suppose

 

[andy9000]

could you use papier mache. Old newspapers soaked in water and wallpaper adhesive, mix to stiff consistency and sand when dry. I believe it will also compress if expansion is a problem.