Q: I am buying a house that has old hardwood floors that look great. There is an addition that is newer and the hardwood is installed on a concrete slab. There are some gaps between the boards (the short sides), some as big as about 1/2 inch. The boards are not nailed down due to the concrete. The seller had a guy come out and look at it and he wouldn’t put putty in because he said it would look awful.
Any suggestions? We thought of taking off the shoe molding and trying to slide the boards in the right direction. Would that work? We’re deep in the south with major humidity all the time.
A: Installed on a concrete slab, it has to be glue down. Trying to move the floor out of the position it is in could break the glue bond, and where will that leave you?
I think you need to try to control the environment in the home as best you can. Keep the RH 45-55%.
Related Questions
Removing floor glued to OSBI have a very cheap engineered hardwood floor that was destroyed by high heel shoes. It needs to be replaced. It is glued down to Advantech OSB. I have been told this will be a nightmare to remove. I was then told just to nail down 3/4' oak over the…
Bamboo gaps?About 3 months ago I had bamboo installed in my second story bedroom over a plywood subfloor. Unfortunately, after a month of being installed 6 gaps opened ranging in size.
Cupping from humidityWe put in a hard wood floor this February, 2008. Our room is 24 x 27. It has been real humid this past week and we have two places that are cupping. How can we fix this without tearing out the floor and starting over? We do not have air…
Filling large gaps in wood floorQ: I live in a 200 year old house that was nicely restored about 40 years ago. Our living room has a pine plank floor, which was finished in shellac (I think). The boards have separated over the years and there are large gaps ranging from 1/16" to 3/4" of…
Gaps in parquet tilesI have parquet floors that I installed 4 years ago. The floor is scratched in some places, so I am going to sand the floor. My question is: is there anything that I can use to fill the spaces / gaps in the tiles?