How To Fix Gaps In Old Wood Floors

With older tongue and groove hardwood or even wide plank floors gaps inevitably develop between the boards mostly because the wood shrinks over time as it dries out and loses moisture content.

How to fix gaps in old wood floors.

If you haven t chosen flooring yet engineered hardwood is an excellent alternative to solid. If you cannot fix the problem by installing a humidifier you may need to take more drastic action when it comes to filling wide gaps. Filling large gaps in old wood floors. Why you should avoid putty fillers.

This allows the layers to shift and move without gaps developing between boards. You can fix floor gaps in a number of different ways. Wood fillers are also not meant for use with large gaps. Another exacerbating condition is water damage.

Ordinarily you can fill the gaps with wood filler putty or with pieces of rope and then finish with stain to match the floor. This leaves your floor looking even worse and requiring you to dig out the old putty and replace it. If gaps remain or the floor is old it is possible to make the gaps less noticeable and prevent dirt and debris from building up in them by filling them with rope. Different gap repair methods.

Engineered flooring is made with layers of plywood placed in different directions. Wood expands and contracts with seasonal differences in humidity and the older a floor gets the greater the chance that these movements will. Water logged wood will first swell then shrink as it dries out. Putty fillers were once a mainstay of hardwood floor repair.

How to fix old hardwood floors with gaps and cupping. There are many different ways to go about correcting this type of issue but we will dive into the most common. The problem is magnified when the boards were not tightly laid in the first place.