Draughty Floorboards

aderbyshirelad · 3 November 2006 at 1:33PM

Bit of advice / insight required please.

We have just taken up all the carpets in our Victorian terrace, sanded and varnished the original floorboards. This looks great and was the plan from the day we saw the place. However, and I know this is going to be obvious to a lot of you, now the weather has turned and the heating has been brought into use, there are quite a few droughts coming through the gaps in the boards. Not very comfortable and not very efficient for the heating.

Any ideas on how to best "seal" the gaps (different widths all over). I have read in a magazine about someone who had a man in and he made individual "slivers" of wood and tapped them in along the gaps to fill them, but this sounds like a very long process and I'm not convinced it would look all that great when finished? Can't see how I'd fill them with silicone etc as this would drop through the gap to the earth floor below...

Any thoughts...?

cook466 · 3 November 2006 at 1:39PM

We had the same problem and after looking around at lots of solutions I found a company called stop gap I think. They have a roll of thick plastic that you just bend and slip into the gap. Its not that expensive and very very easy and quick to put in. They will send you a sample to test but it does not work for really big gaps. Does the job though and cuts those bills !
Just found the website https://www.stopg-p.com

aderbyshirelad · 3 November 2006 at 2:01PM

Great, cheers for that cook, I'll look them up now. How does it look when finished?

cook466 · 3 November 2006 at 2:26PM

You can't really see it at it is clear - the wider the gap the more you can see but its inoffensive ! Good luck..

aderbyshirelad · 3 November 2006 at 2:32PM

Sounds too good to be true!!!

Just ordered a roll to try it out. Can't wait to see if it works. If it does, I certainly owe you a drink!

dooj · 3 November 2006 at 3:12PM

i used polystyrene to squash in the gaps, it then extends and fills the gap, then just put wood filler over the top and piant/varnish to match ya floor.

aderbyshirelad · 3 November 2006 at 3:20PM

Thanks dooj,

Would never have thought of that. Will certainly give it a try if the stuff I just ordered doesn't crack it.

never_enough · 5 November 2006 at 12:56AM

I'm sure I remember someone telling me (or did I hear it on the radio

) that the oldstyle way of dealing with this was to use thick string to fill the gaps. I just can't remember anymore than that. I obviously wouldn't work on big gaps anyway. I'll have to ask my grandad.

Ken68 · 5 November 2006 at 12:34PM

I'm in the process, Ad., of insulating under the floorboards.Am using Celotex floor insulation £20 a sheet, on top of battens.
This is the long term solution, tho the suggestion of infilling with wood slivers or something else, plus a sealant should work.Sealant should be run over with a wet finger to smooth, use tap water.

geekgirl · 6 November 2006 at 2:39PM

We used clear mastic in a mastic gun. One line for thin gaps, two lines for thick gaps. And it has a bit of give. We did it so that it was at the bottom of the gap rather than at the top so it still looks like seperate boards.

Draughty Floorboards

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