How to fix separating hardwood floors.
Hard wood floor gaps at seams.
Almost every wood floor will show some separation between boards particularly in the winter months when homes are heated and the air is dry.
This jan we started noticing gaps between the boards.
3 steps to fix hardwood floor gaps.
For larger gaps that don t close up call in a professional contractor who can repair floors properly.
For normal gaps no repairs are needed.
With older tongue and groove hardwood or even wide plank floors gaps inevitably develop between the boards mostly because the wood shrinks over time as it dries out and loses moisture content.
Another exacerbating condition is water damage.
Without proper humidification wood flooring can become over dry and shrink not only causing gaps but also promoting loose fitting locking joints in floating floors often resulting in seam separation.
I had many real major long cracks seams in a floor some over 3 8 inch wide that i repaired many years ago in a 70 plus year old home.
The gaps are able to fit a dime in some areas and some are less gaps than that.
Why do we have gaps.
Your best bet for removing this debris is by using a powerful vacuum.
We recently installed hard wood floors throughout our house.
Water logged wood will first swell then shrink as it dries out.
It will get pushed out as the wood expands with moisture.
They weren t there in the summer solid 3 4 hardwoods will expand and contract with seasonal changes in moisture.
During winter months complaints usually start trickling in.
We live in chicago and had water damage in the house due to pipe burst and then we had the hard wood floors installed last oct.
Hardwood floor gaps cracks.
The best times to repair hardwood floors are april and october.
Often it s a floor owner concerned with new hardwood floors separating or gapping.
The first step is to clean out any debris that may in between the gaps.
The flooring can literally coming apart at the seams.
Adding filler is not a good idea.
Gaps along seams are a common issue with prefinished and unfinished hardwood floors.
You can fill the gaps in an unfinished floor with a mixture of polyurethane and sanding dust before the floor.
The flooring experts at floor coverings international are here to share some tips on how to clean the gaps in your hardwood flooring.