I had a solid oak wood floor laid in October however over the last few weeks I have noticed that gaps have appeared in some places. The gaps are typically about 1mm wide but in a few spots are almost 2mm (a 10p coin won’t quite drop in) and there are one or two v big gaps of 4mm. The gaps are just as prevalent in ‘high’ traffic areas of my floor as they are in ‘low’ traffic areas. Given that wood shrinks in dryer conditions I am guessing that these gaps could well be related to having the heating turned on a lot more than normal over the last few weeks given the v cold weather as I didn’t notice any gapping before this cold spell started.
The wood floor is a walnut/coffee colour (lacquered finish) with bevelled edges and is approx 14-15mm wide tongue & groove boards installed floating by glueing (PVAC) along the whole groove length as was in accordance with the manufacturers’ instructions (this was one of 3 options they gave to install, the other 2 being secret nail and glue to subfloor). The boards were also acclimatised pre installation in accordance with manufacturers’ instructions.
Would be grateful if anyone who knows more about this than me (not difficult!) could answer the following:
1) Are gaps of this size likely to be due to the heating and hence dryer air or indicative of a bigger problem? Should they disappear in spring/summer?
2) Would you normally get gapping if the tongue and grooves are glued as was done in my installation?
3) Because the tongue & groove is a light wood colour and you can see this in the bigger gaps then this makes the gaps more noticeable. For those gaps that are not covered by rugs/furniture I would appreciate any suggestions of how to best hide.....some thoughts I had myself were: (a) get v thin paintbrush and try and paint onto the light wood tongue and groove in the exposed gaps a walnut/coffee colour wood stain such that the gaps wouldn’t be as noticeable; (b) fill the gaps with wood filler, wood putty etc and stain with walnut/coffee colour (if so then what is best thing to use to fill them?). One concern I have with (b) is that when boards expand in summer then wood filler/putty/etc that has filled the gap might be squeezed out or cause boards to warp? So perhaps I should just fill the few v big gaps?
Many thanks in advance for any responses.
The wood floor is a walnut/coffee colour (lacquered finish) with bevelled edges and is approx 14-15mm wide tongue & groove boards installed floating by glueing (PVAC) along the whole groove length as was in accordance with the manufacturers’ instructions (this was one of 3 options they gave to install, the other 2 being secret nail and glue to subfloor). The boards were also acclimatised pre installation in accordance with manufacturers’ instructions.
Would be grateful if anyone who knows more about this than me (not difficult!) could answer the following:
1) Are gaps of this size likely to be due to the heating and hence dryer air or indicative of a bigger problem? Should they disappear in spring/summer?
2) Would you normally get gapping if the tongue and grooves are glued as was done in my installation?
3) Because the tongue & groove is a light wood colour and you can see this in the bigger gaps then this makes the gaps more noticeable. For those gaps that are not covered by rugs/furniture I would appreciate any suggestions of how to best hide.....some thoughts I had myself were: (a) get v thin paintbrush and try and paint onto the light wood tongue and groove in the exposed gaps a walnut/coffee colour wood stain such that the gaps wouldn’t be as noticeable; (b) fill the gaps with wood filler, wood putty etc and stain with walnut/coffee colour (if so then what is best thing to use to fill them?). One concern I have with (b) is that when boards expand in summer then wood filler/putty/etc that has filled the gap might be squeezed out or cause boards to warp? So perhaps I should just fill the few v big gaps?
Many thanks in advance for any responses.
