Reviews for Oakum to Fill Gaps in Hardwood Floors

For the small-scale percentage of you living in really old houses (anoint you!), let me share one of the more than historically accurate means to fill up gaps in wood floors with oakum.

This is the information I needed when we bought our Colonial Farmhouse and didn't know what to exercise about the gaps between the original forest floorboards. I had to comb through the cyberspace to observe bits and pieces of data, so I'm combining what I learned all in one place with links out to the information that helped me.

If the gaps in your wood floors don't bother y'all, go out them. Only if your kids tin button things through the cracks like it's their very own slot machine, if a cup of juice can spill through the gap in the floors and land on the basement floor beneath, or if bugs (and then many bugs) tin crawl through the cracks, you may want to consider filling the gaps betwixt the forest floors.

Why Are At that place Gaps Between Former Wood Floors?

There could be a diversity of reasons, but many woods floors from the 1700s and 1800s (or before) were nailed to the floor joists with a fleck of a gap between the planks to allow for expansion and contraction of the wood betwixt seasons.

Some of the oldest floors in our house (circa 1780s) accept wider than expected gaps considering edges of the boards have worn or broke off.

In some areas of our home where there'southward non a ceiling below those floorboards, the gap in the floor allows you to see right through it to the room below.

music room wood chandelier

How Were Gaps in Wood Floors Filled in These Old Houses?

The short answer is they shoved something in-between the gaps in the wood floors.

This was likely washed with either oakum, natural fiber rope, or cotton cloth. I've even heard of people finding newspaper shoved betwixt the gaps in their wood floors.

People sure do observe a manner to fix a problem, don't they?

What is Oakum?

Oakum is what was used to caulk woods ships.

How did oakum come to exist? Sailors used to oil the natural fiber ropes for rigging to make them last longer. When the ropes finally wore out, someone would untwist the rope (it was a terrible chore) and the remaining oil-soaked fibers were called oakum.

Oakum was widely used for all fashion of applications earlier the invention of chemical caulking. Information technology tin be used to seal plumbing pipes, to caulk cracks in concrete, to seal wooden ships, or for hoof packing for horses.

Nothing was wasted dorsum in the day, and then oakum was also sometimes used to fill the gaps betwixt wood floors.

Oakum is still used today, especially in the structure of log homes. Still, oakum is now manufactured, equally opposed to being reused from marine rigging, and then you can look a consequent event from the oakum yous purchase.

Oakum appears to be manufactured by a few different companies, or at to the lowest degree, sold under a few different brand names.

Brown oakum is made from natural fibers (could be a combination of jute, hemp, and/or burlap), oil, and ofttimes bentonite.

White oakum is made from jute, Bentonite, and water.

Bentonite is a clay that expands when it encounters water.

What Exercise You Demand to Fill Gaps in Wood Floors With Oakum?

You demand oakum. It is usually sold in ane pound or 5 pound increments and at the time I'yard writing this I found information technology to exist extremely affordable.

(If you lot don't desire to employ oakum to fill the gaps in your wood floors, you could also use a natural fiber rope either as is or stained to friction match your floor. The same installation techniques detailed below will apply.)

You'll also need a tool to shove the oakum into the flooring gaps. I used a multipurpose pigment tool, but a putty knife would piece of work in a pinch.

I wore gloves because I didn't like how the brown oakum I ordered felt on my hands.(I learned almost the white oakum later.) It feels a bit like touching really oily man hair. Aren't yous glad yous have that visual? Ha!