tongue and groove floor

We recently laid a brushbox t&g floor. Alas my husband read the instructions incorrectly and had brain fade at the same time. He has left expansion gaps along the length of the board where the expanse is over 5m instead of at right angles to the board. Can we fill these with something or learn to live with them and make out they are supposed to be there. We have built a whole house with no probs. Can't believe this has happened in the most 'in your face' place. Floor has been sanded and oiled with combination of orange & tung oil. Looks fantastic apart from the gaps. Any suggestions?

Assuming that the gaps you are referring to are along the length of the joint then you have very little effective T&G support for the joint and the only solution is pull it up and start again..... sorry..... next time ask a carpenter!

Welcome to the BB Hochy. Are you saying that he fitted the boards loosely so there is a gap running along the length? That being the case it sounds like you might have to lift them all up and do it again, depending on the size of the gap. There are lots of fillers out there if you are talking about thin gaps but without seeing it, it is hard to make any recommendation.

Studley

Hi Hochy and welcome
Must agree with the above posts, another problem may be if you left the expansion gaps parallel and did not put any at rt angles you could well suffer from expansion problems come summer.

The trouble with life is there's no background music.


Ashore

Sorry guys, I meant the gap is at the joins in the boards. So where one length of board meets the next, not where the tongue goes into the groove. Sorry my terminology is not very carpentry like!!

Hochy, i'm open to being wrong but the expansion joint should be at 5 to 6 meters and along the length of the board not where the ends of the boards butt together over the joist. The butt joints should be tight.
The expansion joint is normally 'provided for' up against the rooms walls and where the room is wider than 6 odd meters a minimal gap is usually allowed for over several (many several) boards instead of a large gap in the one place. Continuous flooring through doorways is not generally worried about.
If you've got gaps in the butt ends of the boards you could try a filler to match or a putty made of saw dust from thebrush box but being rigid i don't know how long it will stay put. Others may have better ideas.
If its possible to get at the ends of the run of the boards I'd try seeing what a sledge hammer might achieve to tap the joints together. - just a thought.

G'day Hochy, try plastic inserts, cut then to size and colour can be used to highlight or accentuate the timber.
I'm currently installing t&g and for expansion I'm using 2.7mm whipper snipper line, all sorts of colours are out there and chips are more expensive :).

Filling is ok unless he left gaps in endmatched boards

The best solution is to re-lay the floor, but you already know that. :)

As has been said, provided there are expansion gaps where they should be, (besides these ones that shouldn't be ;) ) then you can get away with filling. IMHO, the best method is to get a good clear glue, a quality PVA'll do, and make a paste with some sawdust from sanding the floor, using this as the filler. It'd give a better colour match than off-the-shelf fillers, unless you plan to try and hand tint 'em.

It won't be perfect but, like many flaws in floors, the average person won't notice unless their attention is called to it...

Depending on the width of the gaps:

~ under 2-3 mm -- try putty (you can either find premixed one or mix your own with saw/sand dust). One of the products I used with great result is Bona Mix & Fill:
http://www.ezifloor.com.au/index.php...898547175-5093:

~ greater than that: I would cut V profile strips out of offcuts of your floor. The bottom part is narrower and in the top part is wider then the gap. I would cut either along or across the grain and hammer them in with PVA glue, then sand, then more putty, then refinish, either entire floor or patches. I suppose your finish allows to patch it up;

You shall be able to do it neat enough so that from standing position one can hardly see the faults.

I've done similar patching with parquetry and you can get it to the level where you notice it only if you know what to look for.

IMHO, ripping it out and replacing is a bit extreme, one of the advantages of the natural wood, compared to the plastic laminates, is that you can patch it.

if your end matched joins have gaps in them and are not over a joist then they will not have t&g support. If you can get to the underside of the floor fit a piece of timber between the joists under the join for support otherwise the flooring will split and break in time.

Hochy,

Another option ..... dump your husband and select a new one from Woodwork Forums.

Cheers Martin

Nice suggestion Martin but since its the only major stuff up in 3 years of building a house together I think I'll stick with the one I've got. thanks for all the suggestions everyone.