I have a friend with wide plank pine floors. They are vintage mid 1800s taken from their original structure and used as flooring for a living room addition. The shiplapped joints open up in winter as much as 1/2″.
Can anything be done to fill and or glue the joints? I suspect that gluing and allowing expansion in the springtime will result in splitting in the following winter.
Any other remedies, short of reinstalling the floor?
Replies
Pound in Sisal rope and oil it heavily. Like caulking a boat plank.
The rope will squish enough to save the floor from buckling.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
There are caulks meant for caulking decks on boats. I believe they are polysulfides and are sandable and elastic. I have not used them and am not sure of the allowable joint size, but it may be a direction to continue your investigation. 1/2 inch joints are huge, boards should have been laid with tight joints.
How wide are the boards?
Are they tight in the summer? If they are not tight in the summer you could try the sisal. Or they could be taken up and re-laid tight when they are at their fattest. But if you did that there would be no putting anything in the gap that opened in the winter because when they swell to full width in the summer then you would have problems.
The other thing is to try and minimize the humidity swings in the house.
Steve