Cracks in Wooden Floors?

[lawnchick22]

My log home is about 2 to 4 years old (it took about 7 weeks to stack the logs, and another year and a half for me to complete everything else.)

Both floors are wood. The upstairs was installed with the logs, the downstairs, not until about a year after the logs were stacked.

My supplement heat source in the winter is in the basement, a wood stove.

The floors have cracks between the slats and I don't know what to do to fix them. Do I caulk? If so, what time of year is best? Is there a product out there that will move with the humidity changes during the year?

Any advice / experience is appreciated.

Donna

[Brandon]

It seems to me that the main problem is that the wood is overly expanding over the fireplace that is in the basement, causing cracking. I'm not sure how you would fix it, but once you do you might want to cut some vent holes in the floor if you haven't already. :wink:

[jeffro]

There are a few things you can do to reduce the shrinking in the winter.

1. put a heat shield (reflective metal will work fine) above the stove under your floor and let the heat come through vents.

2. try putting a kettle of water on the stove and letting that evaporate as you heat, it will keep the humidity above the single digits.

3. a combo of 1 &2.

Good luck this year, I would wait to see if this takes care of the problem before caulking. You would have to caulk when the gaps are open, most modern caulks that advertise very long term flexibility should follow some wood movement, but might create small bumps when the boards squeeze back together in the spring/summer.

Jeff

[peterst7]

Was watching T.O.H. and they went to a home that also had cracks in their wood floor. Anyway, what they did was take some rope... not the nylon stuff, but the brown, hemp like stuff. Stained the rope the color close to their floor by dipping it in a buck of stain... and then pushed it between the cracks. As the cracks got smaller, they took a braid out and continued until they couldn't stuff it in the crack.... I think they used a putty knife to push it in the crack. But after it was done, the gap was filled and it looked nice. Any notice of the rope in the floor was character. Good luck.

[Kama]

I know some folks that have encountered the same situation. Their resolve was to lay down another layer of wood flooring perpendicular to the first layer.

They had dust coming through onto the first floor. This stopped it.

I'm not sure that this is the best method. Just something I know someone did.

[RockEngineer]

The rope stuffed in the cracks is a good old fashion fix that works well with a log home. As the boards shrink and swell the rope will compress and expand to fill the cracks. "This Old House" often has some good ideas.