Whats best to fill gaps in floorboards?

[Lucypop]

Hi

Question is in the title! I need the easiest quickest way to do it if poss, as long as it doesnt look awful! The draft coming up through is terrible. I guess the max gap is approx 5-7mm

Sorry if this has been asked millions of times.
Lux

 

[WoodYouLike]

wood moves during the seasons. It's the dry season now (air humidity as low as 35% in our house). Wood shrinks, filling old-fashioned floorboards will only help for a very short time (movement of the boards will 'drop' any filling in the area beneath it). wood expands again in the wetter season (spring, early summer) and filled gaps might start your floorboards cupping/buckling.

Only solution to stop draft (not only in winter) is to either insulate better underneath the floorboards (pine boards?) or to install a 'new' wooden floor ontop of the floorboards.

 

[Bazdaa]

How about clear silicon down the gaps. A friend of mine done it, and it seems to holding.

Bazdaa

 

[Bylough]

Worth a try if it's flexible- and stays that way!

 

[skybluescooby]

install a 'new' wooden floor ontop of the floorboards.

Diverting a little, Woodyoulike, i have a question based on your reply, i have the wood/mdf type floor boards down in my 9yr old house and the creaking squeaking is really bad, no amount of talc, expanding foam, screws , nails etc etc has managed to rid all of the annoying squeaks.

My question is, i recently removed laminate flooring from a neighbours bathroom and replaced with a carpet. Now since this they tell me that the boards are squeaking really bad and this got me thinking, did the "new" floor prevent the boards underneath from moving as the floor was double skinned so to speak.
With this in mind could i reverse the situation and place , say, 6mm plywood over all the boards upstairs and so forth eliminating the squeaks, seems logical based on what i have discovered,
Your thoughts on this would be greatly received.
Regards

 

[WoodYouLike]

My question is, i recently removed laminate flooring from a neighbours bathroom and replaced with a carpet. Now since this they tell me that the boards are squeaking really bad and this got me thinking, did the "new" floor prevent the boards underneath from moving as the floor was double skinned so to speak.

I would think it's more a case of 'spreading' the load i.e. pressure of footfall.
And if I understand correctly your existing wood/mdf floor is installed on 'original' floorboards. You want to remove this 'top'floor, lay plywood to 'spread' the load and re-install your top floor again. Might be worth a try, but have you checked if your expansion gaps are still 'open'? Wood-engineered is recommended in bathrooms, but moist could have expanded your 'top'floor beyond the gaps.
But then, based on your neighbours experiences I would say it's indeed a combination of factors.
Hope this helps (and hope you are a bit patient with my 'English', some terms are hard to translate, but I try )

 

[Jerome]

Just to carry on with the same subject,

would filling the gap between floor board with wood strip, (as shown on this link: http://www.sandingwoodenfloors.co.uk/gap filling.htm
be OK?

regards

 

[WoodYouLike]

It would be a (labour intensive) option, but it still all depends on why and when the floorboards are shrinking?
Is it an old floor with the same widths in gaps all year round or do gaps only appear (or become larger) during winter (when you have central heating on)? If the latter, the wood strips could prevent the normal expansion in Spring and Summer and cause more problems then. A better option then would be to try to increase the in-house humidity with for example ceramic water containers on radiators.

Hope this helps.

 

[skybluescooby]

Just to clarify the problem i have is with the chipboard as per new house build and not the wooden floorboards.
The creaking is really annoying and i thought by screwing 6x4 6mm plywood sheets to create a "new floor" would help spread the load and dissolve any creaking ??
This was discovered in a reverse type of way when i removed laminate flooring from a chipboard floor.
Laminate down, no creaking, laminate out, loadsa creaking ?

 

[calvin.bailey]

Just to carry on with the same subject,

would filling the gap between floor board with wood strip, (as shown on this link: http://www.sandingwoodenfloors.co.uk/gap filling.htm
be OK?

regards

I find that if you use strips of wood to fill the larger gaps then wood glue along the edges of the boards before sanding to fill the smaller gaps. Flexi filler will not dye the same colout as the boards but the saw dust from the boards will match in colour. TAKES AGES and the boards have to be fairly tight which is why I knock them together and fill with wood if poss.

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

If you have a 5 to 7 mm gap between boards that are quite probably shrinking and swelling as the relative humidity changes from season to season, I'd go out and buy something called "foam backer rod" from any wholesaler in your area that sells caulking.

Basically, foam backer rod is a foam "rope" that comes in sizes from 1/4 inch to over 1 inch in diameter and easily compresses down to half that thickness. It's intended purpose is for inserting in joints before caulking so that:

a) you use less caulk (which is expensive compared to foam backer rod)

b) you can easily remove the old caulking in future by simply cutting through a thin layer of caulk over the foam backer rod rather than digging all the caulk out of a deep crevice that has been filled with it.

Typically, foam backer rod costs half of nothing if you can buy it at any building materials wholesaler. If you buy it at a home center or hardware store, you buy a small package of it, and what you're mostly paying for is the cost of packaging and the store's profit. If you go to any wholesaler, just offer to put a little money into the company's coffee fund, and they'll give you as much as you want.

Foam backer rod typically will squeeze down to half it's thickness, but my understanding is that you buy the rod that's 50% larger in diameter than the gap you want to fill. For example, if your crack is 1/4 inch wide, you'd push 3/8 inch diameter foam backer rod into it. If it was 1/2 inch wide, you'd use 3/4 inch diameter foam backer rod.

And, the foam backer rod will expand as the gap widens and compress as the gap gets narrower to stop the draft as well.

And, if you want to remove it, it's simply a matter of pulling it out.

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

If you have a 5 to 7 mm gap between boards that are quite probably shrinking and swelling as the relative humidity changes from season to season, I'd go out and buy something called "foam backer rod" from any wholesaler in your area that sells caulking.

Basically, foam backer rod is a foam "rope" that comes in sizes from 1/4 inch to over 1 inch in diameter and easily compresses down to half that thickness. It's intended purpose is for inserting in joints before caulking so that:

a) you use less caulk (which is expensive compared to foam backer rod)

b) you can easily remove the old caulking in future by simply cutting through a thin layer of caulk over the foam backer rod rather than digging all the caulk out of a deep crevice that has been filled with it.

Typically, foam backer rod costs half of nothing if you can buy it at any building materials wholesaler. If you buy it at a home center or hardware store, you buy a small package of it, and what you're mostly paying for is the cost of packaging and the store's profit. If you go to any wholesaler, just offer to put a little money into the company's coffee fund, and they'll give you as much as you want.

Foam backer rod typically will squeeze down to half it's thickness, but my understanding is that you buy the rod that's 50% larger in diameter than the gap you want to fill. For example, if your crack is 1/4 inch wide, you'd push 3/8 inch diameter foam backer rod into it. If it was 1/2 inch wide, you'd use 3/4 inch diameter foam backer rod.

And, the foam backer rod will expand as the gap widens and compress as the gap gets narrower to stop the draft as well.

And, if you want to remove it, it's simply a matter of pulling it out.

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

If you have a 5 to 7 mm gap between boards that are quite probably shrinking and swelling as the relative humidity changes from season to season, I'd go out and buy something called "foam backer rod" from any wholesaler in your area that sells caulking.

Basically, foam backer rod is a foam "rope" that comes in sizes from 1/4 inch to over 1 inch in diameter and easily compresses down to half that thickness. It's intended purpose is for inserting in joints before caulking so that:

a) you use less caulk (which is expensive compared to foam backer rod)

b) you can easily remove the old caulking in future by simply cutting through a thin layer of caulk over the foam backer rod rather than digging all the caulk out of a deep crevice that has been filled with it.

Typically, foam backer rod costs half of nothing if you can buy it at any building materials wholesaler. If you buy it at a home center or hardware store, you buy a small package of it, and what you're mostly paying for is the cost of packaging and the store's profit. If you go to any wholesaler, just offer to put a little money into the company's coffee fund, and they'll give you as much as you want.

Foam backer rod typically will squeeze down to half it's thickness, but my understanding is that you buy the rod that's 50% larger in diameter than the gap you want to fill. For example, if your crack is 1/4 inch wide, you'd push 3/8 inch diameter foam backer rod into it. If it was 1/2 inch wide, you'd use 3/4 inch diameter foam backer rod.

And, the foam backer rod will expand as the gap widens and compress as the gap gets narrower to stop the draft as well.

And, if you want to remove it, it's simply a matter of pulling it out.

 

[WoodYouLike]

We heard you the first time
But you have to remember this is an UK site, the product you mention might not be known here (well, I haven't heard of it)

 

[thatcousinsboy]

For deep gaps between boards, I found the following works well. It's quick and it's cheap (free).

Go to your local bike shop, ask them for a load of old bike inner tubes. They're normally happy to give them away for free.

Cut part with valve off. Slice tube in half or thinner depending on depth. Insert between boards, so inner tube is squished level with the boards.

Job done

Cheers

J