Gaps in old floorboard joins

[Strungout]

I have just pulled up the carpet in my 1915s house with the intention of getting the Kourie floor sanded & polished .

About 3/4 of the floor is great and all the joins are nice a tight but the rest have gaps of between 3 to about 5mm between the boards.The unfortunate part is its in the main walkway of the room.

I know that this would be pretty common with this aged house but I am just wondering what I can do without pulling them all up ?

Anybody had the same problem?

I am going to get somebody to sand/polish the floor.

Thanks

Greg.

[namtrak]

If you are getting someone to sand the floor, then talk to them about filling the gaps. They should have some pretty good advice.

We used a mix of car bog (not carpenters and not the fibreglass one) and black colouring to fill the joints in one of our rooms (cypress floor). This looks pretty specko and highlights the joins rather than hiding them. To do this though you need to nail down the floor beds pretty well and make sure the joins are thoroughly clean.

[soundman]

A lot of the post war housing commision houses round our way are floored with just square edge boards & yep there are gaps.
I have seen a number of these polished. I know one house they used marine decking corking & the dark lines against the pine looks great, like a boat deck.
the decking cork is flexible.
cheers

[seriph1]

in our hallway (1880's VICTORIAN) I used flexible caulking and strips of Baltic timber - they are practically invisible and have worked well for three years now. If you can't find Kauri, Baltic will do, or even Rimu or Qld. hoop pine (Arukaria) which is in the same family. It takes a bit of messing around but is worth it I feel. Don't jam the timber in there though as the existing flooring needs to be able to expand and contract as needed. I left a 2mm gap and filled it all with the right colour caulk.

Have fun

[Taffy]

Greg,
I had this problem some time ago and asked the same question, I could see daylight through the spaces. after a bit of searching and contacting the caulking companies I went this way.
I used the spline that is used for fly screens to fill the gaps and pushed them down 6mm below the surface, ( I used the tongue of T&G). Then I used a coloured grout to fill the rest of the gap, washed it off as I went so that the filler was concave and below the surface a little. then sanded and polished, it looks great and is in an entry area so it is in a high usage area.

You can buy the spline in 4mm 5mm 6mm. from Bunnies.
Good luck
Taffy