filling in gaps in old wood flooring
Sherry Townes
I have a 130 year old wood floor, and am hoping to refinish it. I
have heard that I can mix some of the wood's sawdust with either
varnish or wood glue to make a filler...fill in the gaps between
boards, and then just sand and stain the whole thing. Some of the gaps
are as big as 1/8". Can anyone tell me the proportion of sawdust to
varnish, and exactly what kind of varnish I should be using? Is it just
the varnish that I will be putting on the whole floor? Then do I
simply add some sawdust to the varnish until it is like a paste, and
spread it in? Should it be in thin layers, or just fill the whole crack
in one shot? I have 3 kids, 3 dogs, and a cat, so I'd like to have a
very resistant finish. Do I stain it, and then put on a bunch of
coats of varathane?
Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
Sherry
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Sherry Townes (519) 888-4567 x5103
Dept of Information Systems & Technology fax# (519)725-2052
University of Waterloo
sgto...@ist.uwaterloo.ca
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Mr Fixit
"Sherry Townes" <sgto...@ist.uwaterloo.ca> wrote in message
news:Pine.SOL.4.21.020917...@ist.uwaterloo.ca...
You have the right idea on making the filler from the floor's sanding dust &
varnish.
Yes, use the same varnish and make it a paste. I would fill most of the way
and then finish it off, filling a bit high, after the initial fill has set
up and shrunk as much as it will.
This is usually done for nail holes, gouges and the like though and I would
be concerned about movement between boards causing the fill to crack or pop
out.
Filling flaws this way works best when no stain is used as stain will not
penetrate the filler as much as it does the boards so will make the fill
work more noticable.
There are varnish/stains made as a sort of shortcut application that will
help to overcome this problem since the (transparant) color is in the
varnish and on top instead of penetrating the wood.
Once you have an acceptable look you can add as many coats of clear in the
same brand as needed to build up a protective finish.
Sherry Townes
> On Tue, 17 Sep 2002 22:47:10 -0600, "Mr Fixit"
> <gotmysha...@home.net> wrote:
>
> >You have the right idea on making the filler from the floor's sanding dust &
> >varnish.
> >Yes, use the same varnish and make it a paste. I would fill most of the way
> >and then finish it off, filling a bit high, after the initial fill has set
> >up and shrunk as much as it will.
>
>
> rate as the old wood and will not look good. It will also crack in
> a short time as varnish/finish it not designed for anything but thin
> layers.
>
> It might be a good contractors trick for a quick fix without stain to
> make a floor look good when done, but it's not a long term solution.
>
> Bob
>
So what do you suggest? Some of the gaps are pretty wide, at least
1/8". What if I use the stain/varnish combination like Mr Fixit
suggested? Won't that solve the problem of it not absorbring the stain?
Are you saying I should fill it in in many small layers, or that I
shouldn't try this procedure at all?
Thanks
Sherry
William Brown
trowel wood filler I found at Home Depot. It comes in different colors
designed to match your type of wood. I then put on Dura Seal
penetrating wood finish, natural color, with a couple of coats of wax to
finish it off. I check if fairly often, as I had read advice that the
filler would not stick as the seasons changed, but it has been a year
now and it still looks good. I had done the downstairs some years ago
using sawdust with some kind of binder, I think from Dura Seal, but I'm
almost certain it wasn't varnish.
Getting the right color of filler could be a problem, as the Home Depots
here seem to have real inventory problems. I had gotten the Dura Seal
products from a floor refinisher where I rented the sander, but he is
out of business and I had a real difficult time finding Dura Seal
products now; I suspect they try to limit their sales to professionals.
--
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there.
John Smith
"Sherry Townes" <sgto...@ist.uwaterloo.ca> wrote in message
news:Pine.SOL.4.21.020917...@ist.uwaterloo.ca...
>
> have heard that I can mix some of the wood's sawdust with either
> varnish or wood glue to make a filler...fill in the gaps between
> boards, and then just sand and stain the whole thing. Some of the gaps
> are as big as 1/8". Can anyone tell me the proportion of sawdust to
> varnish, and exactly what kind of varnish I should be using? Is it just
> the varnish that I will be putting on the whole floor? Then do I
> simply add some sawdust to the varnish until it is like a paste, and
> spread it in? Should it be in thin layers, or just fill the whole crack
> in one shot? I have 3 kids, 3 dogs, and a cat, so I'd like to have a
> very resistant finish. Do I stain it, and then put on a bunch of
> coats of varathane?
> Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
On my 80-year old floors I used some of the sawdust mixed with the sanding
sealer that we applied to the floor. When the sealer was dry, we used a
sander/buffer with a mesh abrasive medium to smooth the floor once more,
then we hand rubbed the stain onto the floor. After that, 3 coats of
urethane.
As to uniformity of the stain color, the color is the same but the filler is
definitely not 'grained' like the wood is, so it is noticeable if you look
for it, but the human eye tends to blur this anyway - ask you friends in the
psychology dept or neurobiology dept. how the visual cortex 'ignores' this.
Our floors took fine to the naked eye - they are not perfect, but we don't
notice it, and none of our friends say that our floors don't look good.
Depending on how much 'flex' you have in the floor, the filler may work its
way loose after some years. We have a couple tiny areas like that in our
floor, but the rest of the filled areas are holding up fine, and this is now
10-years since the floors were done. Another factor is the change in
humidity levels - if you can keep a constant humidity level in the house all
year, you will reduce the amount of swelling/contracting the floor
experiences. This is why cupboard doors 'stick' in the summer and operate
properly in the winter - changing humidity of the wood - the humidity change
can cause the filler to work loose too.