What you re seeing happen is perfectly normal for all things made of wood in your home including your wood floors.
Why gap hardwood flooring.
Often it s a floor owner concerned with new hardwood floors separating or gapping.
This leaves your floor looking even worse and requiring you to dig out the old putty and replace it.
Adding filler is not a good idea.
Water logged wood will first swell then shrink as it dries out.
But to answer a common question.
The total expansion possible is a direct resultant of how many boards there are.
The larger the room the larger the gap must be.
Gaps in hardwood floors can be a huge visual annoyance.
Wood fillers are also not meant for use with large gaps.
Hardwood floor gaps cracks.
The best times to repair hardwood floors are april and october.
During winter months complaints usually start trickling in.
Hardwood gaps are generally caused by one of a few installation errors.
They weren t there in the summer solid 3 4 hardwoods will expand and contract with seasonal changes in moisture.
For larger gaps that don t close up call in a professional contractor who can repair floors properly.
Yes it can still have gaps.
Thankfully for most hardwood floors the answer is no.
Putty fillers were once a mainstay of hardwood floor repair.
With older tongue and groove hardwood or even wide plank floors gaps inevitably develop between the boards mostly because the wood shrinks over time as it dries out and loses moisture content.
Why do we have gaps.
Over time however the putty hardens chips and flakes.
Not only are they an eyesore they can also collect dirt and dust.
The reason hardwood floors have gaps.
Failing to install the first board perfectly straight in a hardwood flooring installation.
The problem is magnified when the boards were not tightly laid in the first place.
Jasper hardwood canadian silver maple collection in montebello gray sku.
10098557 don t delay fixing hardwood floor gaps.
Another exacerbating condition is water damage.
Why you should avoid putty fillers.
It will get pushed out as the wood expands with moisture.
Improperly acclimating the hardwoods prior to installation.
This is because the hardwood flooring expansion occurs on each board.
Failing to keep boards straight when working.
For normal gaps no repairs are needed.
Gapping in engineered hardwood can be due to many factors including but not limited to the material s manufacturing changes in humidity and the type and quality of the installation.
If you do discover that your hardwood floor is beginning to gap in spots it s important that you take care of it sooner rather than later.