For about 30 years we've had some used "Monticello" parquet oak floor stored. We recently laid it in a 10X17' room using a cold cut "tar" adhesive similar to what had originally been used. Because the pieces have dried out & shrunk differentially along and across the grain, we have a lot of 1/16 -- 1/8" cracks in and between some of the "squares". We like the rustic look--we don't expect or want it to be totally tight, but how do we fill these cracks without sanding which is bound to leave lots of scratches. We think it has a factory finish on it--is there someway of priming it without sanding and then sealing floor filler. We were told that if we put floor filler in the cracks it would just dry out unless it was sealed. Suggestions we been given: using colored caulk to fill cracks, oak saw dust and wood glue, heavy paste wax. We're currently filling some of the large cracks where hexagonal pieces butt together with thin slices of flooring--that isn't practical for all of this. We've worked weeks on this flooring--Help Please !

The traditional and typical way is to trowel fill the floor with a filler made for your wood species. Woodwise and Timberline make colored, waterbased trowelable fillers for use on different species of wood. The part you don't want to hear. You need to sand the floors. You could trowel fill then attempt to sponge off or use a damp towel before the filler dries too hard and then apply a coat of finish (poly) or wax, depending on what kind of finish is on the wood now. I've done this with strip floors where there were gaps between the boards and it turned out pretty good. The filler is water-soluble so even if it dries, one can still remove it by scrubbing with a damp towel. The waterbased fillers are the only ones you can do this with.

Gary, is there are problem with raising the grain if you use waterbased fillers? I understood your post to mean it might be possible to fill the cracks without sanding, or did I misinterpret what you said. I thought you were saying that sanding is the preferred way to go, but it might work without sanding. Thanks for your help. Mort

Or you can buy a tube or two of color match filler and spend hours on the floor filling every board with your finger and a towel to buff it off.

Spending hours filling every crack with tubes of floor filler isn't a real problem. It has already taken us many weeks to sort, clean, and lay the parquet. A day or two of filling cracks one at a time would be okay if it would work. What we still don't really understand is how would this filler hold up if we don't sand and recoat the floor. Or as my neighbor said, "Why don't you just fill those cracks with tinted caulk?" I told him I had never heard or read of doing that, but I didn't really know why not.
Thanks for all your help.
Mort

Color match filler is basically tinted caulking. Some are made in paste and some made in putty form.

Apply, wait about 2 minutes and buff off the excess.


Home Depot has it in both the paint section(Elmers) and in the wood & laminate section,(Bruce & Tarkett) More color choices with the Elmers and you can mix two or three colors to get that just right color. Although you have to remember, it dries a lighter color.


The reason your floor shrank and is now gapped, is because you brought it from a moist humid climate and immediately installed in in a much drier climate inside your home. Acclimation, acclimation, acclimation!!!!

Thanks for the responses from Floorguy and Gary. I think I need to clarify the history of this floor. I bought it used nearly 30 years ago, when it popped when the owner switched from AC to evaporated cooling-common in Tucson-the change greatly increased the humidity and inadequate expansion space caused the pops. The filler got scrapped from the joints and the worst of the asphalt was cleaned off the bottom. I got contradictory advice as to how to lay it in my house and gave up in frustration. I boxed it carefully and in to the shed (hot & dry) it went for about 25 years. When we had to remodel a room this spring it was time to either use it or get rid of it. We picked the brains of the best hardwood floor people in Tucson. They advised using cold cut-back asphalt mastic (the original mastic) and glueing part of it up into "squares" (5, 10" st. pieces bordered by 4 hexagonal pieces. These were laid down by connecting them with 5 loose straight pieces at 90 degree. The pieces sat in the room for 3 wks or so to acclimatize. Will they ever absord enough moisture to expand to their orignal cross grain width? Will any of these fillers really work without refinishing the floor-we really don't want to sand it. Is there some way to prime it and recoat it without sanding. It seems to have some sort of poly finish on it. The room has its own AC, which we usually use only in monsoon season and now evaporative cooling when it is 103 with 7% humidity. Thanks to everyone. Mort