I am renovating an old barn to become a studio. It has old oak plank floors that we are hoping to refinish. The gaps between the boards vary from between an 8th and a half inch. Does anyone have any idea what would be a good material to fill in these cracks with that would work with the expansion and contraction of the wood? The cracks are sealed from below with plywood but we were hoping to fill the cracks flush for ease of cleaning the floor.
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Replies
For the large cracks I'd see if there was any of the original planks around I could use. Then I'd rip them to fit the spaces. It'd almost be worth pulling one in an inconspicuous spot and replacing it with whatever and using the original to rip fillers.
I've had very good luck using Bondo for homes (vs for cars) on all my cracks....cracks in the floor wide guy <G>.
I've added color to the bondo so it blended w/the color of my floors.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
mhunt,
Please don't do it! You see wide planks shrink and swell depending on the type of wood, and how much humididty there is. A half inch isn't excessive!
The company that specializes in wide plank floors Carlise leave a significant gap in all it's wide plank floors.
If you fill in the gaps what will happen is the wood will swell and and since there is no place to go cause the floor to buckle..
At bare minimum wait untill the wood swells to it's absolute maximum say after a couple of weeks of rain this summer when the humidity has been near 100% for a couple of weeks or more..
I used to have the exact amount various planks will swell based on type of wood and other factors (I still do except it's packed away in the attic and would require far more effort than I'm willing to devote)..
The traditional fix is to caulk the seams with oakum, which you can get at a plumbing supply house.
Oakum is unravelled rope soaked (originally) in linseed oil, used to caulk sailing ships & poured lead plumbing joints. It is flexible enough to ride with the weather, & is tannish-brown to blend with the wood.
I 've used this method on pine flooring.Try this link to a This Old House how to video.http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/stairsfloors/article/0,26206,1185167,00.html