How to close gaps?


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Old 10-29-12, 07:01 PM
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How to close gaps?

How can I close gaps on a unfinished oak hardwood floor?

Thank you

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Old 10-30-12, 12:47 AM
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Sad to say, you can't close those gaps. About all you can do is fill them with a good color matching filler, such as minwax or others. Do you plan on refinishing the floors, or are they prefinished? It appears the flooring was ill-trimmed from the mill. We catch and cull these boogers as we go. Nice firestarter, but no good to install.
 
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Old 10-30-12, 04:57 AM
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If the floor still needs to be sanded and finished, they have a paste that you can smear over the cracks. Sanding removes all of the dried paste except what is in the crack. I don't remember the name of the paste. but most any store that specializes in wood floors would have it. On a finished floor you would use colored wood putty. If you can't find a jar of putty the right color, you might need to buy 2 jars and mix the 2 different colors together.
 
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Old 10-30-12, 06:32 AM
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Thank you.

chandler, it is unfinished oak hardwood and I still have to sand it. I do not plan to stain it, just putting polyurethane coats on it.
I read that if I would fill those gaps with just a filler it will work its way out by contracting and expanding of the wood.
 
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Old 10-30-12, 06:41 AM
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Is this freshly installed? If so, did you DIY or pay someone to do it?
 
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Old 10-30-12, 06:49 AM
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Did it myself last weekend. Why?
 
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Old 10-30-12, 07:05 AM
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Eh, if you'd paid someone to do this, I would make them come out and fix this.
 
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Old 10-30-12, 12:12 PM
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If a constant temperature and humidity is kept in the home there shouldn't be any issues with the filler coming out. As far as I know the only time there is any danger if the filler popping out is when there are huge temperature or humidity swings - like an unlived in house.
 
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Old 10-30-12, 02:54 PM
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Others may disagree, but I think that these gaps will be less visible once the floor has a couple of coats of finish on it. If you use a multi part epoxy finish (one that hardens by reaction, not evaporation) you should be able to float the gap. In turn you create a mirror finish that will tend to fool the eye into thinking it is part of the character of the wood. I don't think you could do this using plain floor poly. The pros mix there own.

Or maybe a combo of filler to match and epoxy to finish.
 
 

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