Sealing Gaps in floorboards - Taffy ?

[mic-d]

Sorry Jane, it hadn't clicked you were sanding afterwards, so forget the masking and tooling as others have said. The powered caulking gun is the way to go... I haven't used one, but its pretty hard work pumping out rows and rows of caulk as you've discovered

Cheers
Michael

[Gaza]

the powered gun is a over kill in this case, the feed rate will be to high and this will mean lots of waste. just get a really good manual one not a $5 job.

[Carpenter]

Hello again Jane, if you're deadset on going the powered option, have a look at this; http://panasonic.com.au/products/det...m?objectID=192
I don't know how serious you are about going down the road of automated caulking, but with this baby you could launch into a whole new enterprise! The boys are right though, you may find it hard going with the manual gun (not like us neanderthals...whats that discomfort?...who cares...whats that doc, RSI?....how did that happen?!!!). The poly is very heavy compared to no more gaps so either the air or cordless option could make a tough job easy, but if what Gaza says is true about air, then the cordless may be the best solution. Its a lot of coin, but I suppose you could buy it, do the floor then sell it on ebay when you're finished. I always recon buying, using then selling is better than hiring stuff thats usually buggered, & you can take you're time.

[Jane C]

Carpenter, that looks great and I am sold already. It is expensive but I will just factor it into the total cost of getting the whole lot sanded and polished and forget about it. You are right my hands are so sore already just by doing that little bit. Hopefully I will be able to get a bit back after, good idea about ebay. I am still trying to find brown sikaflex, so far I have only seen black and cream. Will let you know the end result. Thanks

[Jane C]

Hey, I just looked on ebay and there was a cordless caulking gun that I think may be simular to the other one and not so pricey. Will research more.

[Jane C]

Hi all,

Just to let you know the mammoth task of sealing is now over and the boards have been polished and they look sensational.

In the end I used a product called Fullers caulking in colour in warm brown, an exact match for thr jarrah. It took me 35 tubes !! and a very sore hand, I was going to spash out on the auto gun but my husband wasnt as keen, mind you he wasnt doing the job either !

I ended up taping up both sides of the boards and caulking the middle. It just got to messy to do it any other way.

The floor sander was amazed at the result and hopefully now it will last. Even if I get 3 yrs out of it i will be happy.

Thanks for everyone's info.

Jane

[soundman]

Pictures jane lets see some pictures

[Larry McCully]

WOW, all of this advice over some gaps.........3 pages of it all. Its all simple, There is two ways you can go about your gap problem.
1/ As trevor stated by using a product called sikoflex pro 2hp. It does come in different colours, but i found that they are limited and i to be quiet honest havent had much succes with the colour matching. You could use a pourable pro2hp and mix into it paint tint to get a chance of getting a colour match, and then trowl on the solution using a rubber squeegee, but that process is not to be attempted by the layman. It can get very messy so i dont recomend that. It would work though, and you will need to get the floor sanded and re coated. IT does bulge in summer months, The boards do close up and compresses the compond up protruding above the boards, your feet will feel these bulges. I have done it a couple of times and i would not rush into using it again on the larger gaps. However i would trowl fill the floor with a timbermate compond. It is expensive so a alternitive is by buying some plaster of paris powder , some paint tint... Burnt umber and red oxide and yellow oxide in liquid form. You can buy this tint from a paint shop. you need to match the mix to the colour of coated timber floor and not the bare timber. depending on the sq area you will need 3 or 4 kilo of powder. take the powder and add the base colour first. If it is a red timber , put in redoxide first, only a little as red is a strong colour, then you may need to darken it down with burnt umber, experament with a small mix first to get a match, then if your happy with the colour, make up a bigger batch at one thirds of the totat amount need. This prevents it from hardening before you use the lot. Using a rubber bladded trowl, simular to the one tylers use to trowl in grout. You will need to do this process at least twice. First time make it to the consistance of a runny custard, you want it to run to the bottom of the gap. You want it to fill the gap and not just bridge across the gap. Allow it to dry and sand it of. It is best to do this process at the first cut stage of the floor sanding. After that is done you will see that it has saged into the gaps, The gaps are only half full, You then repeat the process using the same colour mix as before. MIx the tint and powder together using a mixing paddle on the end of a varable speed drill, you need a compete blending. trowl on the second mix, wait for it to completly dry and then continue on with the rest of the sanding. This process will work, i promice you, and it will last for obout 7 years. The coating you put on the floor binds the mix and unless you have excessive board flex when you walk on it , will hold for a long time, next time you get the floor sanded again you may need to repeat this process and get the same results. It works dispite what the other sanders say. But you do need to do a double fill and not just the one.

[MelbSander]

If you have messy kids and vomiting cats it might be best to invest in lino.

[glock40sw]

Sell the kids into slavery and shoot the cats...

[Carpenter]

Heh Larry, I dont doubt you're superior knowledge & experience in this department, but your story of polyurethane bulging tells me that if there's that much movement,you need a product that will cope with such a high degree of movement....polyurethane! It's sure gonna last more than 7 yrs, & so what if you can feel it under your toes. Beats doing it all again in my books.

[Larry McCully]

The best solution is to do a two stage fill using either timbermate or a mixture of plaster of paris and paint tint . you all might think it is crazy , but it works. But it has to be done in two steps. if you use timber mate, itr has to be thined down to the consistancy of runny custard. Same with the plaster of paris. Some contractors use cornice cement and mix in paint tint to get a match with the timber colour. Depending on the species will depend on the tint colour. The first stage is trowled into the joints using a rubber bladed trowl, much like the ones that tilers use to trowl in grout. The first application allows the mix to penertrate to the bottom of the joints, it then gets sanded of with the 40 grit or 60 grit paper the contractor will use, after he has completed that sand, you need to apply a second trowling and fill the rest of the joint, this time using a slightly thicker mix. This way you will not get shrinkage, at the whole joint is filled. This method is succesfull and will get you through untill the next resand of the floor years later. Most floor guys dont like filling, because they only put one fill down and not two. What happens is that the fill can bridge the gap and not penertrate into it, and when you sand it off, a very thin layer is left, it looks like it is filled, but as soon as the first seasonal movement happens, it cracks and caves into the gap. You need to fully fill the gap. Go slow and blade the mix along the gap and not across it. The coating you put down will bind it all together. it is a cosmetic thing only. If you have a lot of flex in between the board then it will crack and when you vacumm the floor it wil go with the dirt. So your floor needs to be stable for this to work. Sika is a good product, But you experence a bulging at the joint in high humidity seasons. If you dont experence high humidity then sika PRO 2 HP is the answer. 600ml sauage and chaulk it in.

[Larry McCully]

Heh Larry, I dont doubt you're superior knowledge & experience in this department, but your story of polyurethane bulging tells me that if there's that much movement,you need a product that will cope with such a high degree of movement....polyurethane! It's sure gonna last more than 7 yrs, & so what if you can feel it under your toes. Beats doing it all again in my books.

True.....i can remember filling some gaps on some houses on hamilton island in north queensland, we filled gaps about 3 to 4 mm apart. i was surprised just how high the compond extruded above the surface, even to the point that the builder asked us to sand it of so that the client would not feel it. ever since then i have favoured the trowl mix system on wider gaps and use sika on thinner ones, or standard timbermate out of the tin.

[soundman]

Don't shoot the poor little pussys.:eek:








Youll ruin a good pair of slippers.

[ashton13]

Hi - I'm hoping I can resurrect this thread and that the OP is still listening. I would love to find out how the Sikaflex held up long-term? I am renovating a 1901 house in Brooklyn NY. It has the original pine floors, but lots of significant gaps (some 10mm+). The flooring contractors I've spoken with just shake their heads and say there's nothing that can be done - that anything they'd do would crack and come loose over time - but I'm convinced there must be an outside-of-the-box solution.