Traditional floors from natural wood beautiful in every respect - they are environmentally friendly, easy to install, beautiful and practical. However, for all materials wooden planks are most susceptible to various deformations.
So, during operation in almost any wooden floor gaps appear between the boards. These gaps contribute to decay, through them flows a large number of heat, dust and dirt accumulate in them. If cracks appear, they must be sealed. What is the best way to do this?
Reasons for the formation of cracks
Gaps between floorboards can form due to a variety of factors:
- Temperature deformations. Due to regular fluctuations in temperature, the tree dries out, the joints of the coating elements become wider. To avoid this, the material dried at the factory by a special method, in which all water is removed from the cells of the tree with the help of vacuum, helps to avoid this. Ordinary boards dry for several years and during this time noticeably change in size.
- Rodents that spoil wood. Just fixing the flaws in this case is not enough, you also need to get rid of the mice, or at least not let them gnaw through the floor by getting a cat.
- Boarding errors. In this case, you need to securely fix the coating, and then cover up the cracks.
- Poor ventilation, as a result of which the tree quickly rots. Having closed the joints in this case, it will be necessary to equip the ventilation grill in the wooden floor.
Modern repair methods
putty
Covering cracks in a wooden floor with putty is the easiest way, but this option is not durable. If the boards continue to move during operation, the putty will quickly crack and you will have to do it all over again. In addition, putty is very noticeable against the background of wood texture.
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sealant
If the cracks are dynamic, the filling material must also be mobile and have good elasticity. To ensure this characteristic, sealants based on acrylic or silicone are used. The smearing process looks like this:
- the floor surface is cleaned and dried;
- the joints of the boards are filled with a mounting gun;
- sealant is smeared with a spatula.
Silicone sealant can be chosen in a color suitable for the floor. Acrylic based sealants are also great option. They are resistant to fluctuations in temperature and high humidity, are easy to sand, they can be painted and varnished. The tensile strength is very high - the gap can stretch twice without losing the integrity of the sealant.
Mounting foam
It is very easy to close the joints of the boards in the floor with this substance. All you need is a special gun and a plastic soft tube that is compressed and pushed into the slot. The foam should be distributed evenly and with little pressure. You need to act quickly, as the foam hardens almost instantly.
A narrow gap can be covered not from the inside, but by applying foam from above. It is not necessary to smear the foam with a spatula, as the material will stick tightly to the metal. Better to use wet wooden block, oiled soapy water. Excess foam is removed with a clerical knife after drying.
The disadvantages of foam are its ability to break down under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, porosity and dust attraction. But the layer of polyurethane foam works well as a heater.
Scotch
If an additional finishing layer of the coating will lie on the wooden floor, and the attractiveness of the seams is not important, you can simply seal the joints with construction wide adhesive tape. Its edges are fastened to the board with a stapler. Scotch tape will perfectly protect the room from drafts and cold entering through the joints of the boards.
Traditional Methods
These methods of sealing gaps have been tested by time and often turn out to be optimal.
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Wooden slats
It is very easy to close the gap with a rail. The technology of the method is as follows:
- Edges of boards are processed by a manual mill.
- The strips are cut to the correct size. Best to take pine boards because they are easier to handle.
- The edges of the floorboards and the side edges of the lath are lubricated with an adhesive solution.
- The rail is inserted into the slot and securely fixed. The remaining unfilled gaps can be sealed with a mixture of glue and sawdust.
- The resulting surface is sanded with a belt grinder or manually. In this case, you need to protect yourself with glasses and a respirator, as a lot of dust will form.
- Masking tape is glued to the joint.
- The repaired floor is painted and varnished.
- Putty from improvised materials
An old putty recipe, according to which you can make putty with your own hands, is a sticky composition of tree resin and sawdust.
You can also mix sawdust with PVA glue. The resulting mixture adheres perfectly to the tree, and after drying it becomes very hard and durable. The only downside is the roughness of such a putty; to give a decent appearance, you will have to carefully process it with sandpaper. In addition, this material darkens during operation.
A similar recipe is a mixture of varnish and wood dust.
Sewing the floor with plywood, chipboard, drywall
Other similar materials may also be used. It is recommended to close the joints of the boards in this way in the case of very wide cracks that can no longer be covered with anything. Any decorative coating can be placed on top of a layer of plywood sheets or other material.
A frame of miniature logs is formed on the old wooden floor. To do this, you need to use a beam of durable wood. Bars are installed in increments of 60 cm, depending on the thickness of the coating sheets. Under these elements, you need to put pieces of linoleum or roofing material in order to absorb the load on the floor.
A pure wood floor has a number of advantages: it is warm, environmentally friendly, durable and aesthetic. Like any coating, a wood floor wears out and deforms over time, cracks and cracks appear in it. Before proceeding with the elimination of gaps in the floor, it is necessary to find out why these defects arose. Attention! Oak and softwood are considered good options for arranging flooring. It is necessary to get rid of cracks in the floor so that the coating continues to perform its important functions: After competently sealing the cracks, the boards will not rub against each other and make unpleasant squeaks. Attention! The wooden floor needs ventilation in the form of products. If it is decided to eliminate them, it is necessary to carry out air vent through the room. When the main risks are identified and the causes of cracks are eliminated, you can proceed directly to the elimination of flaws. Putty is suitable for eliminating cracks small sizes. If the defect area is large, the composition can quickly crack and crumble. Ready-made putty can also be used when it is planned to lay another floor covering on wood. Work order: Attention! The disadvantage of factory putties is a rather limited color palette, because of which the seams become visible to the naked eye. To seal the cracks in the wooden floor, the tow must be moistened with adhesive. Then the fiber is carefully driven into the gap, trying to fill the entire space. After the glue dries, the floor can be painted in the desired shade. Tow can be replaced with synthetic rope. It is impregnated with PVA glue and used in the same way. After drying, the remaining rope can be cut off, and the surface can be painted. Step by step: Attention! Use building foam with care. minimum quantities, since a large volume of the mixture can raise the floor at the junction with the wall. Such a homemade putty should dry out in 2-3 days. After drying, the surface should be sanded or sanded. Another option for the adhesive composition is with the addition of cement: Work progress: Sealing compounds do not require special efforts when filling. The gun, with which a portion of the sealant is supplied, creates the necessary pressure and allows you to tightly fill the holes. Each of the above methods for eliminating cracks in a wooden floor is proven and effective. In order for the result to meet expectations, it is necessary to carry out preliminary training surfaces and carefully observe the application technology. Sealing cracks in a wooden floor is required in cases where the boards have dried out during their long operation and some floorboards have begun to creak. Since the wooden floor has been used for centuries, a lot of ways to repair it have been invented during this time, and with the advent of new materials, the possibilities for eliminating flaws have expanded even more. Therefore, if it becomes necessary to seal the cracks, you can always choose exactly the method that is most accessible in terms of execution. To be aware of ways to solve these problems, you need to consider some of them. Repair wood flooring can be divided into three types: The boards are carefully sorted out, healthy and strong specimens are selected from them. If required, they are slightly chipped to even out unevenly shrunken edges. It is possible that some of the floorboards will have to be completely replaced, so this must be foreseen in advance by purchasing replacement material. If necessary, some elements of the crate are also changed. After all repair and preparatory actions, the floors are laid again. In this case, the boards should fit tightly and be fixed to the lags. This type of repair is necessary if sealing gaps, due to their size, is simply inefficient. Slots in the floor boards can appear in various parts of it, so you need to consider not only the technology of work, but also options for sealing materials, as well as places where flaws can occur. Between these elements of the structure, small distances are always left for ventilation and in case of expansion of the material during temperature and humidity changes. But if over time they have increased excessively, then they will need to be repaired. This can be done with construction foam, sometimes even adding small pieces of foam to it. The work is carried out in stages: First you need to carefully dismantle the plinth; Then clean the cracks from dust and accumulated dirt; After the foam dries, the excess is cut off exactly along the floorboards; From above, it would be best to seal the seams with puttyso that dust does not collect in the pores of the hardened foam; Floor repair, in any of its areas, can be carried out adhesive composition, which can be made in one of two ways: First option Second option You can repair floor coverings in a different way, using a repair compound made of sawdust and glue, but with the addition of cement. This method is often used not only to seal widened cracks, but also to level the floor surface to a smooth state. If you don’t want to bother with the manufacture of complex compositions from numerous ingredients, you can, of course, do it easier: purchase a special wood putty at a hardware store and close up the cracks with it. This option is suitable if the gaps not big at all. But you need to know that such autumn putty is often quite short-lived - it can crack and crumble over time. Therefore, it is better to use it when it is planned to then cover the old boards with plywood flooring. The finished putty is also applied with a narrow or rubber spatula, pressing it into the cracks. After it dries, it is necessary to level the embedded surfaces using the available means of abrasive wood processing. This method is easy to do and not at all expensive. To perform such a process, you will need a paste, paper and a little blue vitriol, or, as it is also called, “blue stone”. This ingredient of the composition is necessary so that nests of various small insects do not appear in the adhesive mass over time. It has long been known how to seal cracks, and not only between floorboards, but also in walls, using a cord selected according to the width of the holes. The use of this folk technology will help not only get rid of cracks in the floor, but also save residents from the unpleasant creaking of the boards. For the repair process in a similar way you must have twine, rope or cord made of any material, sawdust, carpentry glue or PVA and putty. Since ancient times, a more complex method of sealing cracks has also been used - with the help of thin laths hewn at an angle in the form of wedges. These parts must be carefully fitted and should not burst the floorboards much, but at the same time completely close the gaps. The work is carried out in several stages. In addition to the methods mentioned above, there are many other well-known methods. Besides, construction stores can offer for these purposes numerous modern materials. This material is treated with carpentry glue and tamped into the slots with the help of an improvised tool. After the glue dries, the cracks are tinted to match the common floor. Then, after the glue dries, the cracks are sanded and covered with paint. The sealant perfectly closes the cracks and frees from the resulting squeak. Spreading under the pressure created in the syringe, it closes the entire inner surface without tamping or other effort. This is a durable and fairly reliable material that will eliminate problems for many years. Sealants made on acrylic and silicone base, which are designed to work with wood, are well suited for filling gaps. They are very easy to apply and dry quickly. Therefore, if there is no experience in the manufacture of special compounds or there is no desire to mess with them, but there is an opportunity to purchase a ready-made tool for such repairs, you can opt for a sealant. A wooden floor is beautiful and environmentally friendly, but up to a certain point. Namely, until the boards dry out and gaps appear between them in the floor. How and with what to close the cracks in the floor so that it becomes attractive again is a whole science. Often, within a year or two after the flooring of the wooden flooring, gaps appear between the boards. Boards are reduced in size during shrinkage. This process is natural and normal, but the result does not please him. There is a cardinal decision - to re-lay everything anew, rallying it all over again removed boards and adding a couple of new ones. But not everyone is willing or able to do so. It seems like it's too complicated. Yes. Not easy. But other ways to seal cracks are no easier and take no less time. But let's see how to solve the current problem. If the gaps are not too large yet - 1-2 mm, you can use repair compounds with which they are simply covered. For these purposes, use: After such repair, the floor can be painted. If the color is well chosen, it can be varnished. Here wax or oil, most likely, will not work - neither the mixture with PVA nor the sealant will be tinted and will stand out very strongly.
When restoring an old wooden floor, the gaps can be half a centimeter or more. There are several methods to solve these problems. The first is the same bulkhead and rallying the boards in a new way. But there is one trick here. Old boards along the edge are often deformed. To avoid problems when rallying, carpenters walk between the boards with a hacksaw. So the edges are aligned, and two in one pass, and shortcomings are immediately revealed and badly damaged boards can be rejected. For owners of a hand router, the process can be simplified by using a suitable sized router bit. If a bulkhead is not possible (for example, partitions are installed on top of the floor), there are other options for how to close the gaps: A few words about how to close the cracks with wooden inserts. The slots have different size, therefore, each wedge has to be done separately. Long and dreary, and inserts of different sizes do not decorate the floor too much. There is an option to make the job easier and, at the same time, improve appearance. Take a cutter and fit all the slots to the same size. If some are too wide, two "calibers" or three can be made. It's still better than cutting wedges for every crack. In addition to the advantages described above, we remove old wood from the edges with a cutter, expose the fibers. They will hold the insert better, as the wood fibers smeared with glue will rise, connect with the same fibers on the insert. After the glue dries, tearing this piece of wood out of the groove will be very problematic. If everything is done correctly and carefully, the floor after grinding already looks good, and if it is soaked with stain and varnished (it can be matte, without gloss), it has a very decent look. Stain removes the difference in color, and varnish hides flaws. All these methods are more or less durable, but only if the boards do not sag. If the wooden floor sags, it will not be possible to close the cracks for a long time. From the movement of materials, most likely, they will separate. So first you need to make sure that the boards do not “walk”.
If the boards noticeably “play” when walking, mistakes were made. The lag step was incorrectly chosen or too thin boards were laid. So the solution is obvious: Both options require you to first disassemble the old floor. This is far from always possible. Although, if there is such an opportunity, it is better to do so, but there is also a way without gender analysis. To eliminate the deflection of the boards, you can turn the flooring into a single surface. To do this, dowels are inserted into the boards at an angle, which fasten two adjacent boards. Dowels are wooden rods. The hole for them is drilled so that it passes through two boards. The exact angle of inclination depends on the thickness of the flooring, so it is selected in place. The angle must be chosen so that the layer of wood above / below the dowel is not too thin. Holes are slightly drilled larger diameter than dowels. Usually - 5 mm more. For example, under the dowel 8 cm, the drill is taken 8.5 mm. Under dowel 10 mm, drill 10.5 mm. Did you understand. Why is the hole bigger? Dowels sit on glue. If they go in too tightly, they will squeeze it out. The strength of such a connection will be low. And so, the fibers from the glue will swell, intertwine with the fibers of the dowel. When the glue polymerizes (PVA), the connection will become very strong. When trying to break it, the wood next to it bursts, and the connection itself holds. The drill needs to be very long - you have to drill at an angle not so thin boards. It's hard to find this. Alternatively, weld a rod of a suitable diameter. Another tip: make a template that will allow you to easily maintain the desired slope. It's difficult without him. Especially at the beginning. After several hundred holes, it will be possible to maintain the specified angle even without a template. Then the hole from the inside and the dowel are smeared with glue. For holes, you will need to regular bottle glue (in such stationery PVA they sell) to adapt a long spout from a tube. The tube is taken about 20 cm, soldered at the end. Holes are made in the sides. The holes should not be too large so that when pressed, the glue splatters on the sides. The technique is clear - the sprinkler is inserted into the hole, we press the bottle, the glue gets on the walls. The dowel soaked in glue is installed in place. Leave it like this until the glue dries. Then the protruding part of the wooden chopik is cut off, the cut is polished. It is easiest to cut with a grinder, to grind - with what is. Manual grinder, planer or all the same grinder or drill at low speeds and with the appropriate nozzle. During repairs in the old housing stock, by removing the old baseboards, we often find an unsightly picture. Between the wooden floor and the wall we have a solid distance clogged with all sorts of debris. Immediately comes the desire to seal this gap. It is not worth closing it completely, since it is needed, but you can reduce it. In general, around the perimeter of the wooden floor they leave technological gap. It should be between 1 cm and 4 cm in size. It depends on the size of the room. This gap is needed to compensate for changes in the dimensions of the boards. But if you immediately leave a large gap, over time, the wood dries out, the gap becomes too large. For dried wood, it is clearly redundant. Moreover, modern skirting boards have a width of 2-2.5 cm, and the rest cannot be covered with them. Unless it's made to order. This is also a way out, but you can go the other way. The gap between the boards and the floor can be reduced with wood inserts. From a dry board of the same thickness that is laid on your floor. You can put the insert, but it is necessary to leave 1-1.5 cm between it and the wall. If the edge of the floor is uneven, it will be necessary to file the boards, trim them. Eat manual frezer- it's easier for you. No - with a hacksaw. After the edge is trimmed, measure the thickness of the insert you need. Do not forget that there should be a free space of 1-1.5 cm. From a dry board of suitable thickness, cut out the desired width of the insert. You can pin them to the beams on which the floor lies. The technological gap between the wooden floor and the wall must be mandatory. But emptiness will contribute to audibility, which is far from always pleasing. Alternatively, you can install polyethylene foam or a suitable thickness (it is 10 mm and 8 mm). Styrofoam and polyurethane foam in this case, although much cheaper, but here they will not help. Wood is constantly “walking”, it will tighten the material, then let it go. Foamed polyethylene and damper tape are compressed under load, and after its removal are restored. Styrofoam and polypropylene, once compressed, remain. So they don't make sense. You can use not a damper tape, but a special elastic cord made of polyethylene foam and sealant. This solution is better for soundproofing. Foamed polyethylene cord is used to fill damper (compensation) seams. Its diameter is 1-1.5 cm. Choose which one you need. The cord should not be located at the very surface, but slightly lower - at a distance of about 1 centimeter from the edge of the board. Because batten usually at least 28 mm thick, a "stand" may be required. Here you can use polystyrene foam. It will only support the cord. Cut into strips right size, put in the gap. Above is a cord. Wood sealant is applied over the cord. When choosing a composition, pay attention to maintain elasticity after drying. The thickness of the sealant layer is not more than the width of the gap. Better is less. Otherwise, it will lose its elasticity. After application, it is necessary to form a surface either as in the figure - concave or convex. So the sealant retains elasticity longer and better stretches / shrinks. This relief is formed by any bait of a suitable shape. Even with a fingernail in a glove, even with the handle of a spoon or fork. Now you know not only how and with what to close the cracks in the wooden floor, but also how to eliminate the deflections of the boards, how to close the gap between the wooden floor and the wall. To close the gaps in the floor between the boards, there are many options, you need to study them and choose the most suitable one. A wooden house is the most environmentally friendly and modern building for housing. It is pleasant and cozy to be in it, however, there are a number of problems that the owners of this building face, for example, gaps in the wooden flooring. Cracks can occur due to the drying of the tree. The tree dries for 10 years. Deformations of wood in off-season time are possible. In winter, wood swells, and in summer it dries and decreases in size. Visually, this cannot be detected, however, in the microcosm, under a microscope, you can see how the fibers in a tree change over time. More possible reasons: Do-it-yourself grouting of cracks in the floor is a very economical method, but it is not aesthetically pleasing and is used mainly in dilapidated housing or in the country All cracks, depending on the size and location, are eliminated, you just need to choose the right solution. There are many methods for fixing cracks in wood floors. Cracks up to 15 cm are filled with sealant. In this case, the sealant can be used in 2 types, it is a silicone or acrylic sealant for wood. Special sealants for wood differ in color, which allows you to eliminate joints and gaps as imperceptibly as possible. Sealants have a number of advantages: resistance to moisture, favorable consumption in the process of sealing the gap and long operation after the elimination of defects in the floor. You can fill the gap with wood putty. The choice can fall on acrylic-based, solvent-based, oil-based or polymeric, water-based. You can putty not only cracks and holes, but also irregularities on plywood or wood, as well as cracks. You can seal the gap with foam. However, it is necessary to eliminate cracks very carefully, without spraying foam. Excess foam can be removed only after it hardens. Related article: How to choose a water heater? Cracks are sealed with polyester paste. There can be both one and two-component options. Suitable for sealing gaps and seams up to 5 cm. Sealing gaps with improvised materials, such as slats, tow with paint, glass wool, grout from paste and paper, sawdust and own preparation of putty, is also relevant. Regardless of the size of the gap between the boards in the floor or in the parquet, before removing it, it is necessary to do a dry and wet cleaning, remove dust and clean the place of the gap, let it dry. Termination options: The most common sealing of large gaps in a wooden floor is polyurethane foam. The field of operations performed, it is better to cover the floor with sheets of plywood, the joints of which are also processed and leveled with putty. Small gaps or joints can be covered with putty made from glue and sawdust. Sawdust is taken in a fine fraction, poured with boiling water and mixed until a homogeneous mass. After the solution with sawdust has cooled down, PVA glue is added and applied with a spatula in the localization of the gap cleared of dirt and dust. After the surface of the sealed gap has been leveled to the floor level, it must be left for a couple of days so that the mixture can take and dry. After everything has dried out, the irregularities must be treated with an abrasive, and fire protection should be applied, and only then the selected paints and varnishes. There are mice in both rural and urban areas. If there are any gaps in the houses, then the mice can easily enter the living quarters, they will not only harm human health, as they are carriers of leptosperosis, toxocariasis, streptobacillus and many others that can be fatal, but also harm the room, its decoration, can penetrate food. Related article: How to assemble a coffee table transformer with your own handsWhy close up gaps in the floor
How and what to close the gaps
Repair with ready-made wood putty is the easiest option for embedding. Factory putty will free the master from cooking complex formulations will help you get the job done quickly.
Sealing the cracks with tow is considered an "old-fashioned" way and also does not require much effort. Tow is traditionally used in plumbing to seal threads and pipe joints. This coarse fiber is a product of the processing of bast crops. It has a high degree of hygroscopicity, strength, wear resistance, and is safe for health.Construction foam for sealing gaps
The universal solution for sealing holes in flooring wood can be polyurethane foam. It is used mainly when processing the perimeter of the room - in the area of \u200b\u200bthe baseboards.sawdust with glue
Inexpensive but effective method get rid of the gap in the wooden floor - use the mixture sawdust and glue. The composition can be prepared independently according to a certain algorithm:sealant
The main purpose of sealants is to create reliable coverage impervious to moisture. Wood floors are best treated with indoor sealants:Ways to seal gaps
Cracks between wall and planks gender
Sealing cracks with glue + sawdust
Video: homemade sawdust and PVA putty
Repair with putty
Sealing gaps with paste and paper
Seal gaps with cord
Sealing gaps with strips or wedges
Other repair methods
How to close small gaps
Closing large gaps
You can close the gaps so that the eye will rejoiceHow to eliminate the deflection of the boards
Change boards or lay logs more often - drastically, but reliably To rally the boards with dowels
If the boards stagger, we fasten them first 
How to close the gap between the floor and the wall
The gap between the wall and the floor can be significant How to fill the technological gap
Good to know: how to close cracks in a wooden floor
High-quality sealing of cracks in a wooden floor
You need to know: how to close a hole from mice
A hole from mice so that they do not gnaw through a new passage in a wooden floor can be repaired concrete mortar, after putting metal shavings there
The most proven options for sealing holes in the wall from mice are:
- glass wool embedment;
- Eliminate the defect with cement;
- Mounting foam also helps well, mice do not gnaw it, and tightly seal the hole.
The advice of experts comes down to broken glass, which are placed in the holes of mice.
How and how to seal the seams between plywood on the floor
On plywood flooring, you can often find seams and joints that need to be repaired. You need to know that the most important thing in choosing a putty is elasticity, since plywood consists of wood veneer, and the tree is subject to seasonal deformations. Over time, the plywood dries out, and the joints become more visible. It is also worth choosing a putty according to the color of the wood, as well as a special one, that is, for wooden material.
For sealing seams, are used:
- acrylic putty;
- Elastic sealant;
- hot glue;
- Sawdust with PVA and gypsum;
- Epoxy adhesive.
To seal the seams between the plywood on the floor, it is necessary to choose exactly the putty for wooden floors, since the other simply cannot withstand the load
It is worth considering that chipboard, plywood should be well fixed so that they do not walk and do not vibrate, then the selected putty (putty for wooden floors) will not crack and will hold tightly, closing the gap.
These works are also being done for plywood, on which linoleum will subsequently be laid.
It should also be covered with putty or better silicone sealant, dents in plywood and all joints, cracks. Plywood needs to be coated with an antiseptic. Before laying linoleum, it is necessary to pay attention to the evenness of the plywood and its cleanliness.
Types of putties for the floor from the boards
Today there are enough wide choose putty on wood. Before choosing a putty, you need to decide on the price, scope, type and brand.
