Filling Gaps In Unfinished Wood Floors

If you're looking for a way to fill gaps on your unfinished wood floors, it's probably the case that your flooring was subject to a expansion and contraction because it was initially laid and you've been left with gaps you'd love to fill.

There's one thing worth mentioning before you jump in and fill the gaps on your bare hardwood flooring. Since your flooring is made of a natural substance, in this case complete wood like in the case of solid wood flooring, a specific level of contraction and expansion is completely normal. Wood, such as most other natural substances responds to changes in atmospheric temperature and humidity by expanding and contracting. If there's excess moisture in the atmosphere, wood takes in some of the moisture, causing it to enlarge. When humidity levels are reduced, the wood will then allow the retained moisture go, causing it to contract. This is completely normal and might give rise to gaps that appear during certain states and disappear at other times.

If you're considering filling gaps in an unfinished wood floor which hasn't had the opportunity to repay it's environment and hasn't had the chance to expand and contract through a couple of seasons, then it may be worth stopping and thinking . Wood floors need space to expand when moisture levels are large and if you fulfill all of the expansion openings on your wood flooring, you might wind up with huge problems in the stability and appearance of your floor.

Nevertheless, if you feel that your floor has had ample chance to settle into its surroundings and the openings in the floor are causing you headaches, there is a simple and effective way you can conceal the openings, possibly on a DIY basis or by calling in the pros.

What to do is purchase a pure resin filler and mix it with some sawdust from the original floor if at all possible. If you do not have a source of sawdust in the original flooring, this should be easy enough to track down in a local sawmill or out of the hardwood flooring provider. When you've mixed the resin up and the sawdust, it is a case of carefully and methodically filling the gaps in your bare wood floor. While this is a time consuming task, it is not a job which requires any particular tools or skill, just a great deal of patience.