Old wood floor; small spaces between planks

I live in a house that is 100+ years old. It has finished wood floors that I suspect may be the original subflooring. I don't know my woods really well, but I think it may be pine. In some places, there are gaps between the planks--maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch wide. These have been filled with a wood putty of some kind, smoothed over, and finished (apparently quite some time ago; I have owned the house for only a few months). This has started to dry out and under the punishment of dogs' toenails, flake and chip out in places. I know diddly-squat about flooring. The gaps/cracks aren't large enough to see through to the lower level or anything, and the floor is very tight (not creaky, crackly, or "floaty" at all). Should these be filled back in? If so, what would you suggest I use?

Thanks in advance for all advice, Jo Ann

Reply to
jah213
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Some folks use a mixture of fine sawdust mixed with Watco It takes a good bit to dry but works very well. Or you could go the yacht route and use a polysulfide like sikkaflex that comes in a caulking tube. I'd wait to see what they did with summer humidity before filling with anything, the gaps may close tight on their own.

Reply to
bamboo

Filler cracks and pops out. Filler might not be a good idea depending on where the flooring is in the seasonal movement of the wood. How wide are the individual floor boards?

R
Reply to
RicodJour

The individual boards vary from 3-1/4 to 3-1/2 inches, with a few narrower ones where they fit up against the doorways. I don't see how the gaps will close, because where there is filler, it runs the length of the plank, with the filler popping out in bits and pieces only here and there (in other words, I think the remaining filler would prevent the gap closing with humidity). Also, where the filler is chipping out, the missing bits don't extend the entire depth of the plank; it's just creating little crevices in the thin line of filler.

Not all of the boards have this; some of them fit together tightly. I suspect that when "whoever" decided to finish the wood in order to use the subfloor as an exposed wood floor, the planks had shrunk here and there since the original construction, and they filled in the gaps where that had happened before finishing the floor.

It really is not very noticeable, so is not particularly unattractive. I am a little concerned that the filler below where it is chipped does not have the surface finish, so might take on water when I wash the floors (although I do this with a nearly dry mop). My bigger concern is simply that I'm a new homeowner and I want to take care of my house properly. It's stood here for more than 100 years -- I don't want it to crumble down on my watch !

Jo Ann

Reply to
jah213

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