Q: I have 7 inch hardwood floors with very large gaps and uneven edges. The floor is also very wavy and has staples popping up all over. The home is 8 months old and the builder is telling me (although his team looked at it and said “Oh wow, that’s not good”) that according to the manufacture the gaps can be 7 times wider then “normal”. I don’t believe him at all and I don’t know what to do from here.
Gaps, Splitting & Cracks
Q&A On another fairly common issue: gaps, splits and cracks in wood flooring.
Filling up a warped spot in subfloor
Q: I have older 2″ wide flooring on 1 x 6 sub flooring running diagonally on joists on a 2nd story. In one area, where a HVAC duct runs between joists, the sub floor has warped and dried out leaving a void in between the two. You can feel a soft spot when walking over it.
Gap of a few inches along wall
Q: We purchased a house that had small areas of incomplete wood flooring in three rooms. There are 3 or 4 rows in each room where the flooring is 2-4 inches short of the wall. Can this be repaired or do new boards need to be put in? And if so, would the color be …
The National Wood Flooring Association considers gaps as wide as a dime to be normal
Q: We’re buying a gut-reno’d home in Boston. We did a walkthrough to talk about some changes yesterday and found that the heater is malfunctioning. In the finished attic, the temp was 100+ degrees, and on the second floor, it was 90 degrees. It has been at this level for ~3 days. There are a few spots where shrinkage has happened (along with some separation of the moulding in some spots).
Packing significant gaps between pine planks with rope
Q: I have 36 year old wide pine planks in my log home, 3 bedrooms worth. Many of the gaps have widened significantly (up to 3/8″). I picked out 35 years of gunk, grime, even money, and now have significant gaps that collect everything including making a highway system for the bugs.
Should gaps between floor boards be topped with poly?
Q: I had my oak floors refinished and requested Glitza, which was used. But between some floor boards where there are gaps the poly didn’t cover fully, so gaps are visible. Should I ask my flooring guy to come back?
Repairing an 8ft long gap 1/8th in wide
Q imported from our old site, Face Lift Floors: I have a red oak HW floor that was installed in a new house the late summer of 2002. No gaps have developed anywhere in the entire house, save an 8ft run between two planks in the kitchen. The gap is 1/8th of an inch.
Is 1/16″ a large gap?
Q imported from our old site, Face Lift Floors: My only question for you now, is do you think that 1/16″ is a large gap?
A: I wouldn’t consider 1/16″ gap to be large, especially when viewed from the moon. But I don’t think I would want to have one any larger than that between any given boards in my floor.
Cracks in floorboards and between the bevel
Q imported from our old site, Face Lift Floors: I recently installed maple strip flooring (2 1/4 inch wide) and I am noticing that many of the boards seem to be developing cracks through the boards which are rough to the touch. The boards were placed in the room two weeks prior to installation. Any …
Reducing snagging, splinter hazard from cracked planks
Q: I have 2 1/4″ white oak and 3 1/4″ wide clear maple planks that have a handful of splits along the long edges, that form spike-like splinters. These cracks are somewhat clean, but because they form a spike-like point, they are snagging and splinter hazards. Is there some way to ‘micro-glue’ them or at least reduce the snagging/splintering potential?