I live in a house that is 100+ years old. It has finished wood floors
that I suspect may be the original subflooring. I don't know my woods
really well, but I think it may be pine. In some places, there are
gaps between the planks--maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch wide. These have been
filled with a wood putty of some kind, smoothed over, and finished
(apparently quite some time ago; I have owned the house for only a few
months). This has started to dry out and under the punishment of dogs'
toenails, flake and chip out in places. I know diddly-squat about
flooring. The gaps/cracks aren't large enough to see through to the
lower level or anything, and the floor is very tight (not creaky,
crackly, or "floaty" at all). Should these be filled back in? If so,
what would you suggest I use?

Thanks in advance for all advice,
Jo Ann

Some folks use a mixture of fine sawdust mixed with Watco
It takes a good bit to dry but works very well.
Or you could go the yacht route and use a polysulfide like sikkaflex
that comes in a caulking tube.
I'd wait to see what they did with summer humidity before filling with
anything, the gaps may close tight on their own.

wrote:
I live in a house that is 100+ years old. It has finished wood floors
that I suspect may be the original subflooring. I don't know my woods
really well, but I think it may be pine. In some places, there are
gaps between the planks--maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch wide. These have been
filled with a wood putty of some kind, smoothed over, and finished
(apparently quite some time ago; I have owned the house for only a few
months). This has started to dry out and under the punishment of dogs'
toenails, flake and chip out in places. I know diddly-squat about
flooring. The gaps/cracks aren't large enough to see through to the
lower level or anything, and the floor is very tight (not creaky,
crackly, or "floaty" at all). Should these be filled back in? If so,
what would you suggest I use?

Filler cracks and pops out. Filler might not be a good idea depending
on where the flooring is in the seasonal movement of the wood. How
wide are the individual floor boards?

R

The individual boards vary from 3-1/4 to 3-1/2 inches, with a few
narrower ones where they fit up against the doorways. I don't see how
the gaps will close, because where there is filler, it runs the length
of the plank, with the filler popping out in bits and pieces only here
and there (in other words, I think the remaining filler would prevent
the gap closing with humidity). Also, where the filler is chipping
out, the missing bits don't extend the entire depth of the plank; it's
just creating little crevices in the thin line of filler.

Not all of the boards have this; some of them fit together tightly. I
suspect that when "whoever" decided to finish the wood in order to use
the subfloor as an exposed wood floor, the planks had shrunk here and
there since the original construction, and they filled in the gaps
where that had happened before finishing the floor.

It really is not very noticeable, so is not particularly unattractive.
I am a little concerned that the filler below where it is chipped does
not have the surface finish, so might take on water when I wash the
floors (although I do this with a nearly dry mop). My bigger concern
is simply that I'm a new homeowner and I want to take care of my house
properly. It's stood here for more than 100 years -- I don't want it
to crumble down on my watch g!

Jo Ann