Victorian floorboards are a timeless, robust, hard-wearing and beautiful feature of many of Britain’s homes. Wooden floorboards withstand spills and heavy traffic much better than carpeting and are more hygienic and hypo-allergenic as they do not trap dust and dirt in fibres, pollutants which can reduce your home’s air quality and irritate asthmatics and allergy sufferers. Though blessed with many virtues, home owners can be frustrated by the gaps between their floorboards which can result in unwanted draughts and dust kicked up by underfloor breezes.
Step One
There are several ways of dealing with gaps between boards such as: ‘mass fill’ where sawdust from sanding your floors is collected, mixed with a resin and laid between each board and stained to match
Step Two
wood fillets created from old floorboards and hammered into place with a rubber mallet and sanded down and stained to match the boards.
Step Three
While these approaches can stop the gaps between floorboards, they are costly, time-consuming and must be undertaken at the time of your floor’s refurbishment.
Step Four
One way to seal the gaps in your floorboards is with the DraughtEx DIY floorboard filling system. DraughtEx is a flexible, rubber-like tubing that comes in three widths for insertion in different sized gaps. DraughtEx can effectively reduce the chill of your home and the company website claims that:
Step Five
A 12 x 12ft room has approximately 25 floorboards and an average gap area of 3.87ft² which is similar to a small window being left open. Based on the results of research carried out by The Energy Saving Trust, it is estimated that filling floorboard gaps can save a household up to £20.00-£40.00/room/year.
Step Six
Our own customers have had great success with DraughtEx, which not only seals gaps between boards, thereby reducing cool draughts and dust, but also results in a very clean and attractive line between boards. Best of all, DraughtEx can be installed by you after your floors have been sanded and stained at a very low cost and with the minimum of mess and fuss.