How to seal the seams between the floorboards. How to close the gaps between the floor and the wall? Material selection and recommendations
Very often, before painting the floor, the question arises of how to repair the floor. During the service, the boards dry out, begin to creak, and this is absolutely normal. As technology advances, methods become even more perfect. Therefore, when it becomes necessary to eliminate a defect, you just need to choose the method that you like best.
The general scheme for eliminating cracks:
- Prepare materials.
- Clear cracks.
- Fill them in.
- The material must dry.
- Sand, remove imperfections.
- Paint.
Varieties of floor reconstruction
Repair of a wooden floor can be divided into:
- Dismantling and enumeration of all floorboards. Such major work should begin if the crevices have reached enormous sizes. The boards must be carefully and carefully sorted out, unevenly dried edges should be planed, leaving only whole and strong floorboards.
- Partial dismantling. It is carried out when wide holes and squeaks appear.
- Seal a small number of medium-sized gaps. Used most often.
Methods
It should be remembered that between the boards there is always a little space left for ventilation and in case of natural expansion of the boards. If the gaps become too large, then they need to be repaired.
- Construction foam. Cracks can be sealed with construction foam. First you need to dismantle the plinth, then clean the cracks, and then foam them. Under the foam, you can lay a little foam. After drying, remove excess foam, and putty on top for tightness.
- Glue + sawdust. Troubleshooting is carried out using adhesives. There are two types:
- Wood chips swell for two hours in boiling water, then mix well. Pour PVA or wood glue into the swollen mass and knead until a viscous consistency appears. The mixture is applied to the cleaned surface, carefully rammed into the gap, but without effort. After complete hardening, remove irregularities, for example, process with sandpaper.
- You can make a mixture of glue, cement and sawdust. Coloring agents can be mixed into the composition. The method can still be used to create a perfectly smooth floor.
3. Wood putty. If they are small in size and there is no desire to independently prepare repair mixtures, then you can buy putty. It is important to take into account the nuance: over time, the putty cracks. It is optimal to use it if, as a result, the floor is covered with plywood.
4. Paste and paper. The easiest and cheapest way. The paper is filled with water. While it swells, a paste is being prepared, copper sulfate is necessarily added to it (about 1:10). Vitriol will prevent the reproduction of insects. Then the paper pulp is squeezed out, added to the paste and mixed.
5. Cord. A long-proven folk method, it is used to eliminate cracks not only on the floor, but also in wooden walls. First you need to pick up the ropes of the required diameter and length. Coat the cord with glue. Then putty, sawdust and glue are mixed. The rope is deepened into the crevice, and the remaining space is filled with the prepared mixture.
6. Wedges. A rather complicated method, which implies that the slots will be clogged with thin slats, which are hewn to look like a wedge. It is very important to correctly and accurately fit the wedges to the size of the gaps. The wedge and the slot must be treated with glue, then the rail should be glued into the slot, knocked out with a rubber mallet. If the wedge has not entered completely, then the excess material can be removed with a planer.
Other repair methods
Other materials can be purchased at hardware stores and other methods can be used to remove gaps.
- Tow . A well-known linen material that has not lost its demand even against the backdrop of the emergence of new modern compositions. Tow can be tamped into the cracks with any improvised means. For reliability, it must be treated with wood glue.
- Cement and epoxy. Two ingredients are mixed in equal proportions, perfect for masking small cracks. It is necessary to pour the mixture, taking into account the fact that after drying there will be natural subsidence.
- Plywood . Last resort when there are too many of them. Plywood is fastened with self-tapping screws and immediately covers all the imperfections of the floor.
- Sealant with a nozzle in the form of a syringe. Acrylic and silicone-based sealants are perfect. They close cracks without any effort. It is a material with a long service life, very reliable and proven.
Cracks in the wooden floor can occur at any time in any part of it. Before starting work, it is necessary to evaluate the materials to eliminate the shortcomings, the places of their localization and disassemble the technology of work to eliminate the shortcomings of the floor in stages.
All photos from the article
During the operation of wooden floors, the boards begin to dry out and deform, which leads to the appearance of gaps between them. In most cases, such a defect is not a reason to replace the floors, since it is easy to fix. In this article, we will take a closer look at how cracks in a wooden floor are sealed with different compositions.
Crack sealing
There are quite a few options for filling cracks in a wooden floor.
The most common are the following:
- Glue with sawdust;
- Cement composition;
- putty;
- Paste with paper;
- Cord ;
- silicone sealant.
Let's take a closer look at all these options below.
Glue with sawdust
This method is quite versatile, as it can be used on different parts of the wooden floor.
Work in this case is carried out in the following way:
- First you need to prepare sawdust - pour them into a suitable container and pour boiling water over them. The resulting mass must be mixed until a homogeneous composition is formed. After this, the sawdust must be left for several hours so that they swell.
- Next, add PVA glue to the sawdust and mix until a viscous consistency is formed.
- Then, before covering the cracks in the wooden floor, you need to carefully prepare them - clean them from dust and dirty deposits. If necessary, the space between the boards needs to be slightly expanded so that it can be completely filled with the prepared composition.
- Next, using a small spatula, apply the adhesive to the gap and tamp it inward.
putty
If you don’t want to bother with making putty with your own hands, you can use ready-made wood putty. True, it should be noted that this option is the simplest, however, not always reliable. The fact is that many types of putty crack and crumble quite quickly.
Therefore, when choosing how to putty cracks in a wooden floor, it is better to give preference to an acrylic or latex composition. They dry quickly, have no smell and at the same time do not crack over time.
If putty for wood is chosen as the material, the filling of cracks in the floor is carried out according to the same principle as described above for other mixtures. It can be applied with both a rubber and a metal narrow spatula.
Paste and paper
To create this tool you will need:
- Paste;
- Paper;
- A small amount of copper sulfate, which will protect the floors from insects.
This putty is quite durable, while its price is minimal.
It is performed as follows:
- Paper should be cut into small pieces and filled with water.
- Then you should prepare a paste from flour or starch. To do this, the water must be brought to a boil, and then gradually pour one of the selected ingredients into it. In this case, the mixture must be thoroughly mixed so that there are no lumps in it.
- Next, copper sulfate should be added to the finished and cooled paste in a ratio of 1:10.
- After that, you need to grind the paper with your hands and add it to the paste. The result should be a homogeneous and rather thick consistency-putty.
As in all previous cases, in order to achieve a high-quality result, before sealing cracks in a wooden floor, they must be well prepared, cleaned of any dirt and flaking surfaces. After that, the mixture needs to fill the space between the boards and compact it as best as possible.
Cord termination
This option is good because it allows not only to eliminate the space between the boards, but also to get rid of their unpleasant squeak.
To carry out repairs in this way, you will need the following materials:
- Twine, cord or rope of suitable diameter;
- Sawdust;
- Joiner's glue;
- Wood putty.
The work is done in this order:
- The cord must be moistened with adhesive so that it is lubricated on all sides.
- Then you need to make a mixture of putty, glue and sawdust.
- Next, the rope must be laid in the space between the boards to a depth of several millimeters.
- Then you need to apply the prepared mixture over the cord. Moreover, the putty should rise slightly above the floor, since in the process of drying it will definitely shrink.
If the floors "play" and there is no way to firmly fix them, then it is best to use silicone sealant to seal the cracks in the wooden floor.
The application process is extremely simple:
- The composition is drawn into a syringe.
- Then the tip of the syringe is lowered into the prepared slot and the sealant is squeezed out.
Due to the fact that silicone remains elastic even after drying, such a seal can last quite a long time.
Seal the space between wall and floor
Separately, it should be said about how to remove the cracks in the wooden floor that occur between the boards and walls. It should immediately be said that in the case when the gap is 1-2 cm, then it can not be closed, since it is.
If the distance reaches 5 cm or more, then this space can be closed in two ways:
- With the help of foam;
- Filling the space with mounting foam.
Note!
Before using mounting foam, the surfaces to which it will be applied must be moistened with water from a spray bottle.
Here, perhaps, are all the most common ways to get rid of cracks in a wooden floor.
Conclusion
As we found out, there are a lot of ways to seal cracks in wooden floors, and all the options discussed above are quite effective. Therefore, you should choose based on the condition of the floor and the presence of certain ingredients.
You can find some additional information on this topic from the video in this article.
Wooden floors are a decoration of any home. However, wood is a fragile material that requires constant care and may lose its qualities and attractiveness over time. Due to prolonged use, wooden floors begin to creak, the boards can dry out, cracks appear, and the coating has to be repaired. Sealing gaps in a wooden floor is a painstaking task, but it is easy to do and even a person who does not have special skills can do it. There are several ways to improve your floors and extend their lifespan.
Conventionally, the repair of wooden floors can be divided into three types:
- Complete, which includes the dismantling of the previous coating and the bulkhead of the floorboards;
- Partial - does not require complete dismantling;
- "Cosmetic" - sealing cracks in a wooden floor.
The first option is the most labor intensive. It is necessary in cases where the joists of the crate on which the floorboard is laid are damaged. Using a crowbar and a hammer with a nail puller, the coating is dismantled. Boards are carefully inspected for defects, specimens that have become unusable should be replaced with new ones. If necessary, lags are also subject to replacement. After that, the floors are laid again. The boards are fitted close to each other and fixed on the logs. After the repair, there may be differences in height. The floor is leveled with a planer.
If the damage to the boards is local, then complete dismantling is not required. If wide gaps have formed between the boards, it is enough to remove the flooring in the right place and lay a new one.
Replacing part of the wooden flooring in the photo With careful operation and timely care of the wooden floor, you can get by with cosmetic repairs and only close up the cracks. This work can be done in a variety of ways. The choice of method depends on the reasons for the appearance of cracks, the location of defects and their size.
Reiki or wedges
One of the most common and effective ways to get rid of gaps in a wood floor is to use slats. Their advantage lies in the fact that the slats, pre-coated with glue, are very flexible and therefore easy to hammer into the slot. Let's take a look at this method in more detail.
- Use a cutter to process the gaps between the boards, drive in the dowels.
- From dry pine boards, make slats of the desired size. For example, for a gap of 8 mm, a rail of 7.5 mm is suitable. Reiki should have a tapered downward shape, like a wedge.
- Apply glue to rails and crevices.
- Glue the slats and knock them out with a mallet or an ordinary hammer, placing a plank on top of the slat. If there are minor defects, they can be puttied with a mixture of sawdust and PVA.
Sealing gaps with wedges - After the adhesive has dried, sand the surface with a grinder with sandpaper.
- Disguise traces of repair. To do this, you need to stick masking tape along the board so that the joint is invisible, and then apply stain (or paint matched to the tone) and varnish.
A visual diagram of eliminating the gap between the boards Glue with sawdust
You can also repair a wooden floor with glue mixed with sawdust. There are two options here: prepare a mixture of only glue and sawdust, or add more cement.
Option one:
- Pour boiling water over sawdust of fine fraction and mix thoroughly.
- Leave the mixture to swell for one to two hours and mix again.
- Add PVA or wood glue to the sawdust and knead the mixture until it is viscous.
- Clean gaps from dirt and dust. If necessary, the upper part of the gaps can be expanded.
- Apply adhesive mass with a spatula to the gap and tamp inward. Smooth the mixture and remove excess.
- After the glue dries (it will take 48-72 hours), sand the cracks with sandpaper or scrape with a special tool.
Option two:
- Knead the adhesive mass. To two parts of glue add 15 parts of hot water and mix until smooth. Then add five parts of cement and five parts of sawdust. Stir and let the solution stand for 10 minutes. The mixture can be immediately given the desired color by adding thick oil paint or coloring pigment to it.
- Clean the cracks in the floor and cover them with the glue that was used to prepare the mixture.
- The mass itself must first be heated and then quickly close the gaps between the floorboards, leveling the surface with a spatula.
- After 14 days, when the applied mass is completely dry, level the surface with abrasive materials.
Homemade putty for sealing small cracks and cracks: a mixture of sawdust and PVA glue This method is applicable not only for sealing cracks in wooden floors, but also for leveling the floor surface.
Other repair methods
Those who do not have the time or desire to mess around with mixing the adhesive solution can use simpler ways to seal gaps. For example, you can buy wood putty in the store. However, it should be noted that, firstly, this method is applicable if the gaps in the floors are small, and secondly, the repair will not be durable, since the putty tends to crack and crumble over time.
The main ways of redecorating wooden flooring One of the cheapest ways to get rid of gaps between boards is with paper, paste, and blue vitriol. How it's done?
- Pour water over small pieces of paper and let them soak.
- Prepare a paste from flour (starch) and water.
- In a warm paste, add copper sulfate in a ratio of 1:10.
- Squeeze out the paper mass, grind it and add to the paste. Thoroughly mix the mass. As a result, it should have a homogeneous, thick consistency.
- Clean gaps from dust and dirt.
- Cover the cracks with a mass, leveling the surface.
- Level the surface with abrasive materials.
- After the composition has dried, paint the floor.
You can also repair a wooden floor with a cord. So you can not only close up the cracks, but also the floorboards. To work, you will need a cord across the width of the gaps, sawdust, putty and wood glue or PVA.
- Coat the cord with glue.
- Mix glue, sawdust and putty.
- Lay the twine in the gap so that the distance between it and the floor surface is no more than 4 mm.
- Fill this distance with the prepared mass. There should be a slight excess on top, since the mass, gradually drying out, “sits down”.
Scheme for sealing a gap with a cord If mice have gnawed through the floor
If there are mice in the house, they can gnaw through the floor, and cracks will appear as a result. The above methods of embedding are indispensable here, since an unpleasant story may repeat itself. To prevent this, the gaps must first be filled with a mixture of cement and broken glass. After that, the gap is sealed with putty (you can use a store-bought one or prepare the mixture yourself). Then the place of repair is skinned and covered with paint.
For a better seal, instead of cement and broken glass, you can use a concrete solution with aluminum chips.
In addition to the described ways to close the gaps between the floorboards, there are many others. The most modern of them, according to professionals, is the use of silicone or acrylic-based sealants, which are designed specifically for woodworking. If you have something to add write comments!
Traditional natural wood floors are beautiful in every way - they are environmentally friendly, easy to install, beautiful and practical. However, of all materials, wooden boards are most susceptible to various deformations.
So, during operation, gaps between the boards appear in almost any wooden floor. These gaps contribute to decay, a large amount of heat flows through them, 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 sealers are also a 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
Closing the joints of the boards in the floor with this substance is very simple. 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. It is better to use a damp wooden block, lubricated with 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. It is best to take pine boards, as they are easier to process.
- 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 ground with a belt grinder or by hand. 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 recipe for putty, according to which you can make putty with your own hands, is a sticky composition of wood 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.
