How To Fix Wood Floors That Are Separating

They weren t there in the summer solid 3 4 hardwoods will expand and contract with seasonal changes in moisture.

How to fix wood floors that are separating.

Do your best to work neatly and efficiently but don t take too much time. I have a new home with oak hardwood floors. A floating laminate floor is not glued nailed stapled or otherwise secured to the subflooring. Water logged wood will first swell then shrink as it dries out.

In some locations the space is wider than a credit card. 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. Repair cracks in wood floors. How to fix separating hardwood floors.

This is especially noticeable with site finished floors whose final appearance after the work has been done is near flawless. Instead it is put together almost like a puzzle with planks snugly fitted together. Often floating engineered wood floors are installed over existing tile vinyl or another floor. With a directly bonded engineered or solid floor once plank separation has occurred it is rare that a repair to an adequate standard without removing the floor is possible.

Often it s a floor owner concerned with new hardwood floors separating or gapping. Don t be afraid to use more glue than you think you need you don t want the planks separating again after a few short days. Adhesive injection is sometimes used but the success of such a method is very much dependant on the reason for plank separation. The floor was put down in august and started to separate in december.

Almost every wood floor will show some separation between boards particularly in the winter months when homes are heated and the air is dry. We can hear nails pop. Is this normal or was the installation defective. The problem is magnified when the boards were not tightly laid in the first place.

The comfort zone about how the air in buildings affects wood floors and the troubleshooting column look out below about crawlspace moisture wreaking havoc on a solid wood floor. Another exacerbating condition is water damage. Wood glue dries quickly and once it does it will be tough to get a second shot. How to fix wood flooring separation there are few things that spoil a nice wood floor more than boards that have separated and developed gaps.