Gaps in wooden floor

[Red30]

We are about to start sanding and varnishing our wooden floorboards downstairs. Due to the age of the floor boards and the fact that they've contracted over the years there are a number of gaps which no doubt will let a lot of the heat out. Somebody suggested filling these gaps with slips of wood before sanding. Any idea who would do this kind of job?

 

[DamoH]

Depends how big they are... if small, you can you a filler (coloured if you are not staining)

 

[Stevo2006]

I'm very interested in this.

We have the same problem upstair and some of the gaps might be 3/4 of an inch wide.

 

[Red30]

The gaps range from being quite narrow to about 1/2 inch wide. I've heard about filler but I've never seen it done. We'll be varnishing the floors too.

 

[Towger]

The gaps range from being quite narrow to about 1/2 inch wide. I've heard about filler but I've never seen it done. We'll be varnishing the floors too.

1/2 inch gaps can't be filled by filler. There is nothing to support it, so it will just fall through. You could try filling with wooden (tapered) strips, but the proper way to do this is lift the boards and relay them with an extra board at the edge to take up the space. Use counter sunk screws when relaying them and cover the screw heads with wooden plugs made from (a scrap) of the same wood. Sand the whole lot and then varnish it

Towger.