large holes appearing, how to fix?

[fortunefaded]

Howdy

We live in an old farm cottage and in the upstairs room have wooden plank flooring which was carpeted. We removed the carpets but there are alot of holes in between the planks and this results in cold air comming through andthe snagging of socks and feet on the holes.

How do we fill in the holes without destroying the look of the wood or are we required to put in brand new flooring?


Thank you!

 

[Reynardine]

You might try identifying the worst of your floorboards and taking these up ( crowbar/jigsaw/make all cuts over a joist centre) and throwing them away completely. Then source your replacement floorboards from an olde worlde timber merchant - there must be one somewhere that sells reconditioned floorboards with the cottage look you like. Buy these and selectively replace. This will fix your big gaps.

To fill in small gaps between boards try silicone sealant. This sealant comes in colours such as white, light brown, dark brown or transparent. Some people mix sawdust with the sealant first to make it blend in and appear better.

 

[Symptoms]

faded - do you mean gaps or holes?

Gaps = cut long strips of similar timber, glue one edge, press into gap (if you've got a lot to do buy a cheapo table saw - £100, otherwise a cheapo hand-held circular saw). Both dangerous to use by the inexperienced, so take care. Tip, cut the lenghts at a very slight angle (like a long wedge) so that when you press them home they'll tighten in the gaps. Try to get a matching board from a reclamation yard or stain new stuff to match before fitting into floor.

Holes = make tapered plugs of similar timber, glue, drive into hole, trim off the bit sticking-up level to the floor once the glue dries. Tip - try to regularize the shape of the hole to make fashioning the plug easier.

The whole point about old floors is that they SHOULD look well-used, marked and with flaws. The above treatment will refurbish your floor to good effect and save the excessive use of the darning needle.

 

[woodfinishes1877]

It's always going to be difficult to fill the gaps without it being noticed. Symptoms suggestion of cutting and gluing is by far the best way bit also most time consuming.

I'd try a silicon filler such as Gapmaster first...you may be lucky and find a shade in the range that comes close.

There's a company in Glasgow called Smith & Rodger that supply it. They will also do a matching if you can post them a bit of the actual wood.

Hope this helps

WM

 

[big-all]

if you have a room you are leaving a carpet on you could replace all or some off the boards and use these to replace any damaged boards in other rooms

also a dammaged board providing it has one good edge can be ripped down to make Symptoms fillet peices