How to fill shrink gaps in pine wood floors?
We installed tongue and groove pine floors in our new home. Wood putty was used in flaws and gaps. Over time the wood has contracted and expanded and the wood putty is cracking and coming out. Any good ideas on what to fill these gaps with?
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Sounds like the flooring was improperly installed. If it was nailed down every foot or so into the tongue along the length with a power flooring nailer it shouldn't move. At this point would be to measure the gaps and rip some wood strips to fit the gaps and glue them in with wood glue.
Depending on the width and depth of the gaps you can either just clean and give a heavy coat of varnish. If the gaps are more than a quarter of an inch you can fill with varnish. I used this technique when I needed to refinish the cabin sole in my boat. It came out beautifully and has held up for seven years in a tough heavy use unvironment.
Sand, brush & vacuum the floorboards. Wipe down tack cloth to clean the floor, best to do this in sections. I used a large syringe and a turkey baster to drip the varnish into the crevasses. Let cure. When you have filled all the gaps give the floor a good coat of varnish.
Time consuming but well worth the effort.