draughty floor board gaps

[owdman]

Anybody tried this:

? It struck me that there might be something similar but cheaper in a plastic or neoprene mouldings catalogue. Any alternative suggestions?

cheers Jacob

[Stuart Noble]

High time someone addressed this problem. Looks like it's black, which is probably the best colour because then you don't actually see it, and it just highlights the straight lines. I have my doubts about the bits between the joists staying put if the gap is significantly wider, or narrower than the strip. I can only see rubber or silicone being sufficiently flexible. Let us know if you end up using it.

[Steve Firth]

The boatbuilder's fix for gaps like this is to use a polyurethane sealant in a darker colour than the wood such as Sikaflex®-290 DC. There are cheaper polyurethane sealants around and they have an estimated

50-75 year life.

The good things is that they can be sanded and overpainted or varnished which you cannot do with silicone sealants.

[owdman]

How do you get it to stay in the gap if there is a void beneath?

Jacob

[Steve Firth]

In my case I just squirt it in, practice lets you gauge how much to apply and how to cut nozzles to match gap width. If you don't like that you can save sealant by caulking with string or newspaper.

[Chris Bacon]

They don't show the section anywhere. I think you might be right! Perhaps it's a re-packaged "off the wall" product.

This problem has been addressed. On their site they even say "Consultations with the sanding contractor revealed our options to be very few. We could use Papier-mâché or a mix of glue an sawdust, pushed into the gaps and re-sanded". I wouldn't recommend the glue and sawdust, not if the glue's PVA, anyway. Papier mache works quite well.

Probably a vee, as they say it should be pressed down out of sight into a 1-8mm wide groove 10mm deep minimum.

Probably a springy vee.

[Stuart Noble]

IME springy plastic vees cease being springy after a while, at which point presumably they would sag between the joists. Best stuff I've seen is a silicone tube section, which compresses down to nothing but readily springs back, even after several years of compression.

[Pete C]

Hi,

You could get some large dia black Armaflex pipe insulation, slit it then cut strips of the width you need.

Probably best to install when the boards are well dried out and use strips that are some wider than the gaps.

BES do quite a good selection of Armaflex:

Also good for protecting rafters from your head ;)

cheers, Pete.