Sanding floorboards - filling gaps & kit

VanMan2007

I'm going to sand the floorboards on the first floor of my house. Most are in good condition, but some have larger than usual gaps between them 5-7mm, or so. What is the best thing to use to fill the gaps?

Also, can anyone recommend any good/cheap suppliers of sanding kit in the Beeston/Nottingham area please?

Thanks guys.

kb36

If there's an HSS near you the sander pack is currently half price at £35.00 !!

VanMan2007

kb36 wrote: »

If there's an HSS near you the sander pack is currently half price at £35.00 !!

Sweet! There is and I'm going to check them out. Thanks.

DirectDebacle

VanMan2007 wrote: »

I'm going to sand the floorboards on the first floor of my house. Most are in good condition, but some have larger than usual gaps between them 5-7mm, or so. What is the best thing to use to fill the gaps?
.

The best, but not easiest way to fill gaps of this size is to fill the gaps with timber fillets (ideally the same wood as your existing floorboards) long enough to span two joists. Cut them on a taper, apply wood glue and tap into the gap with a hammer and block of wood. Leave level or slightly proud of the floorboards then sand. Time consuming, as is punching nails below the surface. Do this and any other prep prior to hiring the sander.

fras23

It depends on the look you are going for and how awkward the gaps are, but a traditional method is to patch by removing a large section and fill it with new wood. You quite often see it in old Victorian houses.

The patch can quite easily be achieved now with a plunge router, a template and a little bit of chisel work to square the corners. It doesn't have to run with the current boards, you can cut to half a board width for example. It's a nice opportunity to give it a hand crafted cared for look, and introducing a different grain can look nice, but it's horses for courses.

mymedi

DirectDebacle wrote: »

The best, but not easiest way to fill gaps of this size is to fill the gaps with timber fillets

These WILL come out a few years down the road...

DirectDebacle

mymedi wrote: »

These WILL come out a few years down the road...

Of course they won't. They'll be there for the life of the floor.

mymedi

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Of course they won't. They'll be there for the life of the floor.

You're kidding right?
Glued in thin strips of wood will almost certainly become loose after a while due to floor boards expanding and contracting with seasons as well as the floor moving along with the house... Why do you think those gaps are there in the first place?

DirectDebacle

Well 'after a few years down the road', 15 to be precise, no sign yet of the ones I did moving.

So what method would you use?

mymedi

I'm not saying the method is bad as such. I'm just suggesting to manage expectations.
Of course, a better way would be to either patch replace (depending on how much need replacing) or replace whole/part boards width-matched. But both are more costly. Whether or not the gaps reappear and the strips get loose depends on many factors, including humidity in the house, the age of the old boards, the level of the floor, etc. But more often than not, the boards will move. Yours could be a counter example, but it doesn't happen to everyone.
In my opinion there just isn't a good way of dealing with gaps unfortunately, other than learning to live with them or laying new floor...

olias

Of course the other, but much more labour intensive method, is to lift the whole floor, then shuffle all the boards accross to fill the gaps, then put one or two new (reclaimed) boards in the larger gap you are now left with at the wall edge.

Olias