Chris Bacon wrote:
doozer wrote:

I like the idea of thin slivers of pine (the boards are pine) glued up
and then banged into the gaps. The trouble is I have only found a few
posts on this which were fairly vague.


You can do this, but only glue one side of the filling strip. Try to use
a slightly darker timber if you can.


Good point. Don't want to glue the floor solid :-)

I like the idea of using some dark hardwood but I suspect that would be
pig to get down into the gaps.

An idea just occurred to me though. What about balsa. It's fairly soft
and springy so expansion won't be such a problem and it's really easy to
work with. I think it would probably also take a stain right through the
wood as it's quite porous. Once it's got a couple of coats of floor
varnish on it I imagine it will be tough enough to withstand the traffic
it gets. Your opinions please :-)


I actually bought some sealant and was going to give it a go on a
small section but chickened out at the last minute. I wasn't sure it
would match or that I would be able to get it out the gap if I didn't
like it.


Silicone sealant isn't really suitable - you can't overpaint or sensibly
stain the stuff, and it's a pain if you smear the job, and a pain to get
off if you need to. Again, if you use a filler, use one a fraction
darker than the boards. I have used papier mache on boards, made with a
dollop of wallpaper paste in the mix. It's OK, and will sand/stain
easily. However, you are likely to get some cracking as the boards will
continue to move over the years.

As I don't want to stain the boards I am not sure papier mache is the
way forward. I have read about the idea else where but most people
seemed to say it was best suited for when you were painting the boards.

I think I might just have to learn to live with it.