Between the floorboards

[leucothea]

Just wondering if anyone's ever seen or had to deal with this kind of thing filling the gaps between floorboards? Varnished caulking? Appears to be quite hard to remove...

 

[leucothea]

I fancy replacing it with oakum.

 

[ThornhillMike]

I fancy replacing it with oakum.

I'd be patient and wait for Toby Newell to come along. He's the man for all things floors...

 

[leucothea]

Okay, thank you—I will wait for the expert!

 

[masochists-r-us]

Lovely boards. Look like Elm to me. We’ve got a similar floor but with gaps so will be interested in the answers you receive esp from Toby. We’ve seen paper pulp soaked in stain in the past as well as string - both quite daunting so hope there is something better on offer now.

 

[masochists-r-us]

Whoops just looked up Oakum. Suspect this is the way to go. Think we’ll give it a try.

 

[jamest]

Don't use oakum, it contains Stockholm tar and that will leach into the wood and create dark stains along the edges of the boards. I've used it to seal gaps around infill panels in a 17th century oak timber frame and the staining can spread up to an inch laterally - it would look very unsightly on those otherwise quite nice boards!

 

[leucothea]

Thank you for the info re. oakum. I do like the idea an alternative to plastic, but obviously not if it's going to cause staining—sigh!

 

[Lacan07]

I guess its definitely not slithers of wood glued in place with varnish on top then?

There's lots of branded floor gap fillers out there, or it could be some kind of binder mixed with saw dust. Removal might be quite difficult.

Toby is the resident expert

 

[jamest]

If he doesn't show up with some sage advice, Toby Newell's webpages (newellwoodworks) have a wealth of information about traditional and modern wood finishing and repair. There's a section on the various ways to fill gaps between floor boards on the 'methods' page.

 

[Toby Newell]

Apologies, just putting my underpants on the outside in the local phonebox.

Yes. I have had to deal with every filler possible. And removed all of them. Impossible to say what it is without removing some. Just use your imagination and a selection of sharp, thin things. I often use antique chisels, a Japanese mini pry bar and Olfa laminate scorer...

Oakum? That's a bit Elizabethan, but ok. I use a mixture of Lecol 7500 cellulose resin and sawdust, two part polyester, two part cement repair expoxy, reclaimed wood slivers or slivers I cut myself. You could also not fill it after cleaning.

It's oak btw. Massive medulary rays on the lighter board and quarter grain flecks on the others close up. You cannot see quarter grain figure on elm. Excellent guess though looking at the similar very short cathedral grain, I get fooled often too.

 

[Toby Newell]

Very pretty boards btw. Some modern caulks set rock hard and are awful to remove. Silicone will peel off. Old linseed putty usually very brittle. Two pack polyester goes brittle after many years but still very hard to remove. Try knocking hole with chisel then raking.

I am giving you the golden BB here... after cleaning several kilometers of floor board gaps, this is the best thing I have found.

Olfa PCL - Perspex (Plastic/Laminate) Cutter

Heavy-duty plastic/laminate cutter, designed to produce a fine score line to precisely break plastics, acrylic & laminates

signgeer.com

It's also Japanese and works like magic.