Gaps between floor boards - help!

[hotandbothered]

Our new house had horrid smelly carpets which we took up to find reasonably decent floorboards under. Hooray! However, the wind was whistling up between the boards so my dh stuffed strips of newspaper down and then used filler on top. It looks awaful and it's all crumbling away everytime I hoover. It obviously wasn't the right thing to do...
Anyway - what should we be using instead? It's freezing in the winter but I'd love to sand the floorboards and have nice shaggy rugs on top.

You can use sawdust mixed in with wood glue.

Thank you. Does it then stay stuck when you hoover? And can it take a stain or varnish? Also - do you do it before or after sanding? Sorry - complete DIY novice here!

If you don't mind some very hard work, you can lift the floorboards and put netting over the joists and then fill the gaps with mineral wool which is very good insulation...

if you sand, then collect the sawdust and use that it will be the same colour as is already there. Don't know about staining it though.

I love MN! I hadn't thought of that Furball - sounds a great idea. I am a bit work-shy so think I'll give the lifting the floorboards a missThanks tho' Mumpbump

careful though, when we got ours done the guy said that wood floors expand and contract so it may or may not work!

Oh It makes sense tho'. But I'm sure I've seen gaps filled before and it looks great - how do they do it then?!

I've also tried filler when I sanded the floorboards in my attic bedroom. It looked bloody awful and wouldn't take the wood stain as I thought it would. As my floorboards turned out to be in bad condition, I've decided to carpet the lot when I can afford it!

hotandbothered, we had the same problem too, so we found a wood expert who filled the gaps with pieces of real wood and then sanded the floor. I think it looks amazing and it's definetely insulated the floor. If you live in the south wet I can give you his name

Oh alas... Franca - was it horribly expensive? Silly me thought this would be really straightforward.

yes, it was expensive . However it looks good. Upstairs we have two rooms that had been sealed with the glue and sawdust method (done by previous owners), I think, it doesn't look too bad either!

check this out!

Oh Franca - I think I love you that's excatly the sort of thing I was thinking of!

Dh used the isulation roll stuff that you can get in any homebase/similar for round doors/windows - you can get it in brown - doesn't match as such, but is dark so you don't really notice it ... only good if you've got big gaps, though

Our gaps are so many different sizes... probably wouldn't work but thanks for the suggestion

KEEP US POSTED ON THAT STUFF H AND B!!!

SOZ 4 CAPS

The wood glue and sawdust works very well, but it's no mean feat. It is worth the effort though. For very big gaps we used a wood filler, then varnished the lot. It looks great (well, it did when it was done five years ago, needs re-varnishing now though with all the building work going on).

With the sawdust and glue, you need to fill the gaps two or three times as the mixture sinks a little as it dries and it takes ages to do it by hand on your hands and knees. We didn't do it in the dining room (first room we did) and sorely regretted it. So when we did the rest of downstairs, we got stuck in. It makes such a difference to both the appearance (nothing gets stuck down between the gaps) and the insulation factor.