Hi everybody I am installing a brazilian teak hardwood floor 5″ wide pre-finished that I bought in lumber liquidator and I am having some troubles, some planks are coming in 4 7/8″ , 4 15/16″ and other in 5″ wide, I’ve been very carefully when I am installing this floor but I can see some gaps ( 1/32″) aprox. in some areas, I know is not bad but I’m perfectionist so I need some advices guys, are there any good wood filler, any good brand ? ….. thanks
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Replies
NO!
wood filler should not be used in such a manner!
your only choice is to either live with it or pull it up and carefully resize the boards (which you should have done prior to installing it)
That does not entail a remilling process. What you do is match wider boards in a run together and then but the narrower ones in the next run.. etc. your eye is incapable of detecting those slight differances when there won't be a gap you give you a visual clue..
The name lumber liquidators should have given you a clue this additional step would be required..
Now as to why wood filler won't correct your problem..
Wood is hydrogyscopic. That is it aborbs water (moisture in the air contains water so on high humid days the moisture in that air is absorbed by the fibers in the wood)
That means wood will swell on high humidity days and shrink during the winter heating season..
wood moves back and forth and will quickly cause a mess wherever filler was used.. (because filler won't shrink and swell accordingly) sometime the swelling will cause the filler to either pop out of the seam or mash the fibers in the boards..
either will be far more unsightly than leaving it alone..
One final note wood shrinks and swells width wise not lengthwise
Thanks frenchy for your advice and yeah I re sized the boards...
You have a clue now why a lot pf pros refuse to work with LL flooring.
They have been known to store bunks of flooring outside in teh weather, so my first Q is whether and how you acclimated this wood, did you test a lot of it for moisture content..
This might be in the milling but it could be that given time to acclimate, this would all be the same size.
When it is the milling, I have to work with a plane to fit pieces. That is no fun - very time consuming.
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