IMHO, the beauty of this floor should not be hidden by " filling in the cracks",. It looks to be heart pine and I would just screen it, finish sanding any very rough sports and re-stain and finish. I assume that your home is old vintage from the look of the floor.
I agree with everyone! Just secure any loose boards, sand lightly just to scuff up the finish and then redo (do not try to get down to raw wood because you might find there is not enough depth left and you might have to replace them...your board is only as good to the depth of the first nail!). Then stain and refinish. This should turn out perfectly. If there is a draft coming in, go beneath and insulate but do not fill in. We toured an 1870 home that is being restored and the thing I
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like the most was the wide pine planks with scuffs, misfitting, scrapes and bruises! They were stunning!
That floor has lot of rustic charm and it would be near impossible to get it looking like a brand new floor. Is that your hope?
Some water based fillers do a pretty good job at filling smaller cracks...but it appears here that some of these are quite a bit bigger. Considering the height variations a tooled in filler will leave many "corners" of filler., if it is filled before a rough sanding is completed....even then you will still have some.
Do not try to fill those openings. The gaps are simply to wide to fill and expect it to last. Filling a few cracks in wood is one thing, but the spaces between the boards are simply to wide in your case. The result would be that the filler would be pushed out or simply become loose as the seasons begin to change. Living down the shore area as you do, your moisture levels change almost daily making this even more difficult to accomplish successfully.
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A Good quality sanding along with a good refinish job will make the floors look really great. Even with the gaps and spaces. This is the charm of the older floors. Many new flooring systems try to mimic that very look. So your way ahead of the trend.
However if you really want to loose the gaps, you need to hire a high end flooring company that can remove the floor and re-salvage the wood. Then simply re-nail it back down and add a new course or two of boards so the joints and spaces are tight again. Then when done refinish once more.
Some water based fillers do a pretty good job at filling smaller cracks...but it appears here that some of these are quite a bit bigger. Considering the height variations a tooled in filler will leave many "corners" of filler., if it is filled before a rough sanding is completed....even then you will still have some.
A Good quality sanding along with a good refinish job will make the floors look really great. Even with the gaps and spaces. This is the charm of the older floors. Many new flooring systems try to mimic that very look. So your way ahead of the trend.
However if you really want to loose the gaps, you need to hire a high end flooring company that can remove the floor and re-salvage the wood. Then simply re-nail it back down and add a new course or two of boards so the joints and spaces are tight again. Then when done refinish once more.