Filling Gaps In Old Wood Floors With Rope

Filling large gaps with natural fiber rope is a traditional method commonly used on wide plank floorboards in very old homes.

Filling gaps in old wood floors with rope.

As with using pieces of wood you will want to measure the rope to fit. Then place a section of rope on top of the gap and use your fingers a 5 in 1 painter s tool a plastic spackling knife or a similar tool to gently press the rope into the gap. 1 scrape debris from between flooring planks with putty knife or painter s tool. You can use rope as a way to fill up a big crack and then just top up with filler so you don t have to use as much filler but the filler itself will still crack and fall out over time.

This method harkens back to the days of arabian shipbuilding techniques and has an added bonus of providing some minor insulation. How to fill floorboard gaps with rope. Be sure to use. If your gap is truly wide enough to even consider filling it with rope and the gaps don t close up in summer use cork instead.

Repeat for each gap. Avoid synthetic rope and wedge it into place. 2 vacuum floor clean of all dust and debris. An old but popular method for filling large gaps requires rope.

4 force rope into gap between planks with putty knife or painter s tool. 3 if desired tint rope with wood stain to match floor. Set the angled tip of the tube into the gap and pull the trigger. It should help the filler to go in between the boards a bit more evenly.

Filling floor cracks with lengths of rope might seem strange but ropes made from natural cotton or jute are stainable flexible and they adjust to changing humidity along with the floor. 2 vacuum floor clean of all dust and debris. In this video this old house contractor tom silva explains how to fill gaps in a wide plank wood floor. 3 if desired tint rope with wood stain to match floor.

Before you begin filling gaps in old wood floors with caulk make sure you have properly inserted the tube into a standard caulk gun. The old school way i have seen to fill large gaps in wide plank flooring is with rope. Instead use sections of rope. Now you are ready to actually correct the gaps in your hardwood floor.

While the rope doesn t look like wood you can stain it to blend with the floorboards and the filled gaps will be much less noticeable than the dark empty gaps. As to filling the gaps don t use some sort of wood filler. 1 scrape debris from between flooring planks with putty knife or painter s tool. A smooth cotton rope stuffed into the gap loaded with carpenters glue will stick very well.