Repairing hardwood floor with bowed boards?

[Andy Hill]

We had a roof leak a bit over a year ago that resulted in water getting under a bit of a hardwood (oak) floor (roughly 30 sq ft effected). Now that the floor has had a chance to get back to ambient moisture levels, the boards in the effected area are badly bowed, such that there is a 1/16"-1/8" gap between the boards.

I've considered kludging the problem with wood putty and sanding, but the gaps are wide enough this doesn't look like it's gonna be a reasonable solution.

So, do I have any other options other than ripping / replacing up the problem boards and refinishing the area? At least the area is along the edge of the floor, so rip-up won't be drop-dead horrible, but I'm not really looking forward to the job...

[SQLit]

Ask this Old House had a show on this a couple of months ago. They used sisal rope and a putty knife and stuffed the cracks, then stained it.

[dadiOH]

Splines? Use a cutoff saw to rip along the joints so that you wind up with gaps of uniform width (use a straight edge as guide). If the gaps are less than the width of the saw blade, one pass is all you need. Only cut about

1/8" deep...you want to leave the existing tongue and groove.

Make or have made some oak strips the same thickness as your grooves and about 1/16 wider than the groove is deep. Glue them in, shave off excess with a plane and finish.

Even better is to have the splines slightly thicker than the groove and taper them very slightly. That way they will self adjust for variations in groove width when you glue and hammer them in.

-- dadiOH _____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[Andy Hill]

Hmmmm. Interesting idea. Ever actually tried this with dry oak? Just curious if a 1/8" wide spline of dry oak would hold together while I ripped it off with the ol' table saw. Of course, nothing like trying it...I think I have some oak scrap out in the shop...guess I'll fire up the table saw and see how fine of a spline I can rip off.

[dadiOH]

Oak, no. Teak, yes. Did it to the transom of my sailboat once years ago. Lasted as long as I had it which was 20 years.

-- dadiOH _____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at