The wooden floor is beautiful, warm and environmentally friendly, but during operation it can bring a lot of trouble. One of these problems can be gaps. To solve this issue, you need to figure out how it is possible to close the cracks in the wooden floor.
When necessary
Sealing up cracks in a wooden floor may be needed in various situations, the reason for which is one - drying boards:
- if the floor creaks;
- during repair and replacement of flooring;
- if the apartment is flooded;
- violation of the technology of laying boards.
These are not all options, but the most common. In any case, if a major repair is carried out for any reason, you will need to eliminate the cracks in the floor with your own hands.
Ways to eliminate gaps
There are tons of options to help deal with the problem. The choice depends on the design features of the floor, the materials available and the type of flooring:
- the use of foam with foam (suitable for eliminating gaps between the wall and flooring);
- the use of sawdust mixed with adhesive;
- wood putty;
- a composition consisting of paste and pieces of paper;
- cord closure;
- driving rails and wedges;
- tow;
- a mixture of epoxy adhesive with cement;
- thick oil paint with sawdust;
- plywood sheets (for complex cases when there are a lot of cracks in the floor);
- sealant seal.
Depending on the complexity of the situation, you can use any of these options. Further details about the technology of the most common methods.
Before starting work with your own hands, you need to clean the surface of the boards from dirt, dust and debris.
You can treat wood with an antiseptic. This will extend the service life and protect against damage by various microorganisms. After that, you can fill or fill the cracks.
Construction foam
It is used for the perimeter of the room. Work is carried out in the following order:
- remove skirting boards, clean the surface of dirt and dust;
- if necessary, put pieces of foam in the slot;
- fill the gap space with foam;
- wait for the drying time and cut off the excess;
- then you need to putty the surface;
- after the putty is dry, install the baseboard.
Sawdust with glue
Suitable for sealing in any place. It is carried out in the following order:
- small sawdust in a convenient container is poured with boiling water and mixed until a homogeneous mass;
- wait time for swelling and cooling, mix;
- add the adhesive composition (PVA or carpentry) to the mixture and mix thoroughly;
- apply the composition to the coating with a spatula and tamp inward without effort;
- the composition is leveled and the excess removed;
- drying time - 2-3 days;
- after drying, grinding or scraping of the coating is performed.
There is a second option for the preparation of the composition - with the addition of cement. It is prepared as follows:
- 2 parts of glue are mixed with 15 parts of warm water;
- 5 parts of cement and 5 parts of sawdust are added to the solution;
- the mass is mixed and infused for 5-7 minutes.
Use such a composition must be warmed up. The disadvantage is a long time of complete drying due to the presence of cement (about 2 weeks).
Putty
Suitable for small crevices. It is best used as a preparatory stage before plywood flooring. Disadvantages - fragility, cracking and spilling. Allows you to easily prepare the mixture without complex operations. The work is carried out in the following order:
- prepare a solution and a tool - a narrow rubber spatula;
- putty is applied to the surface of the joints, while it must be pressed into the cracks;
- drying of the composition;
- leveling using abrasive products.
Do-it-yourself putty allows you to quickly get rid of cracks, but soon repair can again.
Driving slats and wedges
Stages of the work:
- preparation of slats narrowed in the lower part and coinciding in size with a gap;
- processing slats and gaps with PVA glue;
- gluing the slats into the slot, hammering with a rubber mallet or ordinary, but through a wooden board;
- if necessary, after the glue dries, the protruding part of the wedges and slats are removed with a planer;
- leveling the floor with a stain or stain.
Close up tow
The material is treated with an adhesive composition. After that, tamp the tow in the crevices. After the glue dries, you can paint the floor in one color. The material is made from flax, so it has a high degree of environmental friendliness and safety.
Plywood laying
Suitable for wide slots if the floor is badly damaged and needs reinforcement. In this case, it is not effective to apply the sealing of individual slots. Plywood allows you to carry out work with minimal labor costs.
Order of execution:
- If necessary, putty is used as a preparatory stage. Only some flaws can be glossed over. Putty will increase the reliability of the repair.
- Lay out plywood sheets on the floorCustomize the sheets to the required sizes.
- Fastening is performed on self-tapping screws. In this way, you can quickly close immediately all the existing imperfections of the floor.
Sealant
For work, choose compositions on an acrylic or silicone basis, designed for work with wood. The advantage is the lack of the need for complex formulations and ease of application. The sealant packaging usually has a convenient shape and a nozzle-syringe, which is easy to fill all the cracks.
It doesn’t matter what method is used to fix the problem, putty, other compounds or materials, you need to follow the technology and carefully prepare the floor surface. This will delay the next floor overhaul.