How To Patch Gaps In Hardwood Floor

Even though the hardwood is no longer living and growing it contains cells that still take on and lose moisture with changes in relative humidity.

How to patch gaps in hardwood floor.

Some finishes may also help reduce the risk of your hardwood floor drying. 3 steps to fix hardwood floor gaps. Gapping in engineered hardwood can be due to many factors including but not limited to the material s manufacturing changes in humidity and the type and quality of the installation. But to answer a common question.

The example to the right shows a nickel sized gap. In this video i will show you how to patch a hardwood floor. Bear in mind though that you may need to do a. The first step is to clean out any debris that may in between the gaps.

Gapping occurs when wood floors lose their moisture content. You can fill the gaps in an unfinished floor with a mixture of polyurethane and sanding dust before the floor is finished but there is no dust available to patch a prefinished floor. Yes it can still have gaps. Have the installer perform a humidity level test because either very high or very low humidity can cause bowing splitting and warping.

Apply filler liberally with either your fingers or a putty knife allowing for some overfill. While humidity may affect your hardwood floor permanent cracking is also a possible issue. Once the filler has dried you can sand and complete the filling process by stain where needed. If you cannot fix the problem by installing a humidifier you may need to take more drastic action when it comes to filling wide gaps.

Another exacerbating condition is water damage. By examining it from a layman s view. Avoiding hardwood floor gaps. Water logged wood will first swell then shrink as it dries out.

In this case i tore out a wall and had some missing floor so i ripped out some pieces and stagge. Repairing permanent floor cracks photo credit. In cases where the gaps aren t repaired by increasing the humidity levels you will need to fill these cracks. Several factors can lead to its cause.

Engineered hardwood flooring is designed to minimize gaps due to expansion and contraction of the wood. Before installing hardwood floors it is important to acclimate the product to your home. Try to avoid gaps in the first place. There are many different ways to go about correcting this type of issue but we will dive into the most common.