It is usually sold in 1 pound or 5 pound increments and at the time I’m writing this I found it to be extremely affordable. What Do You Need to Fill Gaps in Wood Floors With Oakum? White oakum is made from jute, Bentonite, and water.īentonite is a clay that expands when it encounters water. Oakum appears to be manufactured by a few different companies, or at least, sold under a few different brand names.īrown oakum is made from natural fibers (could be a combination of jute, hemp, and/or burlap), oil, and often bentonite. However, oakum is now manufactured, as opposed to being reused from marine rigging, so you can expect a consistent result from the oakum you purchase. Oakum is still used today, especially in the construction of log homes. Nothing was wasted back in the day, so oakum was also sometimes used to fill the gaps between wood floors. It can be used to seal plumbing pipes, to caulk cracks in concrete, to seal wooden ships, or for hoof packing for horses. Oakum was widely used for all manner of applications before the invention of chemical caulking. When the ropes finally wore out, someone would untwist the rope (it was a terrible job) and the remaining oil-soaked fibers were called oakum. How did oakum come to be? Sailors used to oil the natural fiber ropes for rigging to make them last longer. Oakum is what was used to caulk wood ships. People sure do find a way to fix a problem, don’t they? I’ve even heard of people finding newspaper shoved between the gaps in their wood floors. This was likely done with either oakum, natural fiber rope, or cotton cloth. The short answer is they shoved something in-between the gaps in the wood floors. How Were Gaps in Wood Floors Filled in These Old Houses? In some areas of our home where there’s not a ceiling below those floorboards, the gap in the floor allows you to see right through it to the room below. Some of the oldest floors in our house (circa 1780s) have wider than expected gaps because edges of the boards have worn or broke off. There could be a variety of reasons, but many wood floors from the 1700s and 1800s (or earlier) were nailed to the floor joists with a bit of a gap between the planks to allow for expansion and contraction of the wood between seasons. Why Are There Gaps Between Old Wood Floors? But if your kids can push 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 below, or if bugs (so many bugs) can crawl through the cracks, you may want to consider filling the gaps between the wood floors. If the gaps in your wood floors don’t bother you, leave them. I had to comb through the internet to find bits and pieces of information, so I’m combining what I learned all in one place with links out to the information that helped me. This is the information I needed when we bought our Colonial Farmhouse and didn’t know what to do about the gaps between the original wood floorboards. For the small percentage of you living in really old houses (bless you!), let me share one of the more historically accurate ways to fill gaps in wood floors with oakum.
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