Room remodel.120year old house.painted yellow pine t&g flooring with substantial gaps(this room will become my 4yr old son’s room).Before I repaint the floor I was wanting to caulk the gaps.I am afraid latex might eventually crack-out.Any tips?polyeurathane caulk maybe?
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mandi- don't caulk the cracks. For cryin out loud, it's a 12o year old pine floor. If you don't like cracks, lay down some crappy carpet. Sheesh.
Even easier/cheaper (sometimes)...go to your big-box discount retailer and pick up those 2'x2' colored foam pads. Makes for a very child-friendly floor that's easy to take out when the kids are older.
Trust me I like character.For crying out loud thats why I bought the house.These are huge gaps 1/2" or better.Do I need to mention the 4 year old again and the size of his toes.
Well, caulk ain't going to fix 1/2" gaps. Anyway, I've had four 4-yr olds (and one in the pipeline) and I can tell you they'll find a way of ripping out the caulk. I guarantee your painted/caulked floor will look like crap when your little darling is done w/ it. Lay down some lower-cost laminate flooring, and after he's grown, take it up and bring it to the dump. Then finish the floors as you wish.
floor looks like crap as-is.No great loos.
Thought you said it had "character"..
It does have character.Did I accidentally crap in your lunchbox?You have been on me from go.Besides you were upset about me caulking, then you told me to cover it up with laminate.Sheesh
mandy.. are you sure it was an accident ?
anyways.. 1/2" is too big to caulk... and , it being the heating season ( assuming you don't run a humidifier ).. i bet your gaps are at max right noe.. but will close up some in the summer
so....
so.....Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I was just trying to point out that caulking a gapped pine floor was not an option here at Fine Home Building. If you hate the gaps, cover them w/ a different flooring.. Something relatively inexpensive and easy to remove later, but looks decent and will hold up to a 4-yr old. Like laminate. I was helping you out, grasshopper. If you didn't want help, don't ask.Sheesh.
I love you.
I love you too. You're not gay are you?
Hey Pinko- this sounds like fun. If caulking a pine floor is "not an option" here at Fine Homebuilding, You might want to read a few copies of "Wooden Boat". Tell the poor bastage on an 1840"s lumber schooner he can"t caulk the decks. Jim
If he wants to caulk the cracks I happen to have a almost new set of tools just for that work, a friend gave them to me , found em at a garage sale. It took me almost a year to figure out what I had. I thought they were a set of stone chisels at first.
Hey notas, her house is not a schooner, and when boats were "caulked" it didn't come out of a tube. (Is this the Fine Boatbuilding forum?)
They put in oakem to tighten the boards up, then cotton over that to prevent 3-sided adhesion, their seam compound did come in a bucket. I,ve used polysulfide seam compound fixing a poorly laid pine floor. Dries just hard enough to sand and can handle the shrink-swell routine. jim
An episode of This Old House tucked rope in the cracks.
That is right.I remember that episode.
Tom Silva did it and stained the rope to match floor.
Are any of these gaps big enough to fill with real wood? It may take some finagling, but could you at least get some pieces of wood into the biggest gaps?
“The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds..” – Hume
Somebody makes a "grout" for wood floors. It fills the gaps, then you finish over it. I considered using it at my house which had the same problems. I just installed new flooring and never tried it out, but it does exist.
I'm guessing this is in a previously un finished 2nd floor area!!?? the original was probably laid "loose" and randomly nailed as mine was. I would take it up and re lay or put new wood over it after you tighten it down. I put the new over the old. If I had the time, I would have taken the old up and put new on the old joist. Good Luck. Yellow Pine flooring is still available. My lumber yard keeps about 16k on the ground at all times.