Will slivers cause buckling?

[LNM]

Hello all. I'm writing from New Mexico (which is not in the UK) but I have a house with a plank floor which I understand is quite common there, where it is quite rare here. My house was originally our village's post office, general store, school, and home of a prominent family from New Mexico's territorial period before it became a state. The walls are constructed of adobe and are 2 feet thick resting on a 3 foot thick stone foundation. The floors are pine planks on top of 8 inch by 10 inch floor joists. The dimensions of the house were laid out in varas, an old Spanish measurement system, rather than in imperial measurement.



The reason I am here is to gather some advice on what to do with the plank floors. There is little to no information on them in the US and they were uncommon here (New Mexico) as only affluent families typically had wood floors in this period (most had adobe floors treated with cows blood to make them cement like). I would like to leave the old floors exposed as the are quite beautiful but they are very gappy and drafty. I have seen where many folks in the UK hammer slivers with glue in the gaps. I have done this in the soon to be kitchen but have become concerned about seasonal movement in the floors.



Has anyone here had problems with floors buckling when slivers were inserted in the gaps due to seasonal floor movement caused by varying humidity? We live in a fairly dry place, but the humidity does sometimes vary.



Thanks for your patience with a long winded post. I included a picture of the house as it is now, how it looked when I bought it, along with one from 1918.

 

[Cubist]

Hi There and Welcome,

You have a wonderful place there and with an interesting history. As far as your floor is concerned, if your last picture is typical of the property, it looks like a tongue and groove plank construction and perhaps dates back to when the building was first constructed. At that time T&G was still fairly uncommon so it's unsurprising that the owners of the time were probably quite well to do. Given the floors obvious age, the boards will have experienced many and repeated instances of expansion and contraction that might induce buckling and I can thoroughly understand your concern that packing the joints with wooden slivers may introduce that threat to the structure.

My own experiences of using this approach to close gaps in floors have all been painful. Not because it introduced any kind of buckling or other damage but rather because it was a tedious, messy and often deeply frustrating method to use - particularly with tongue and groove boards. As a consequence I would urge you to abandon that approach and perhaps adopt the use of Caulking Cotton topped with say a wax to fill the bulk/all of the gaps. This has the advantage of being flexible and capable of moving as the surrounding timbers expand and contract and considerably easier and less expensive to use.

A member here recently used this approach - instigated in part by yours truly - for this very purpose while renovating a fine oak floor in his home. If you look up the following topic name using the Search function for this site you'll find an extensive discussion concerning the challenges one of our members was facing and how he has used Caulking Cotton as part of his solution

Wooden floor sanding project​

If you need more help with this or any other restoration work please ask here as there are many members who can and will support you.

Cheers,
Cubist

 

[LNM]

Cubist, thanks for the helpful reply! I am looking more into your suggestion of caulking the floor. I'm leaning more towards that approach for the rest of the house. The floors aren't tongue and groove but simply planks butted together. I should have said that the photo is the kitchen floor that I have already slivered but have yet to fully sand.

 

[Cubist]

I'm guessing you have a decent table saw available to cut the wedges - any other tool would make the job a real PITA. The thread I pointed you toward concerns a floor constructed of Square Edged boards like yours and, it seems, the owner, @overlander matt has met with some success.
By the way, how do you intend finishing that kitchen floor? Colour matching pine is an equally tedious and sometimes difficult job.

How ever you finally choose to proceed please keep us posted. Good luck.