This is a quick tip to fix gaps in your floating laminate floors.
Fix the gaps in wood floor.
This fix should only be used if the room is humid otherwise you could run into issues if the floorboards swell.
Water logged wood will first swell then shrink as it dries out.
If the gaps in your wood floor are smaller and more cosmetic a prefabricated wood filler or a wood dust and wood flour cement mix would be good options.
If the notion of replacing the entire floor is out of the question there are a few ways to repair wide gaps.
The shrinkage causes gaps in the flooring especially in older homes.
Why you should avoid putty fillers.
Ordinarily you can fill the gaps with wood filler putty or with pieces of rope and then finish with stain to match the floor.
If you have wide gaps in a wide plank wood floor using natural rope as a filler is a relatively easy and inexpensive option.
Wood fillers are also not meant for use with large gaps.
There are many different ways to go about correcting this type of issue but we will dive into the most common.
How floorboard gaps develop.
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.
Here is the link to the suction cup used in the video.
This type of cracking is considered normal for hardwood and no filler method will hold up unless the proper humidity is maintained.
To insert the wood pieces.
Cut the strip to fit the gap.
Filling large gaps in old wood floors.
Apply wood glue to both sides.
Larger gaps require a different approach using strips of wood that match your floors.
Using narrow strips of wood wood shims or pieces of rope is more time consuming but more attractive and more permanent than using wood filler or paste in large voids.
Different gap repair methods.
The most extensive is to have to completely replace a floor that has too many gaps to repair without losing its beauty.
With older tongue and groove hardwood or even wide plank floors gaps inevitably develop between the boards mostly because the wood shrinks over time as it dries out and loses moisture content.
Slight gaps are normal but if the gap is wide enough to fit the end of a nickel into repairs are necessary.
Here s our guide on how to fix gaps in hardwood flooring.
Putty fillers were once a mainstay of hardwood floor repair.
You can fix floor gaps in a number of different ways.
Another exacerbating condition is water damage.
It also won t work for tongue and groove floors.