Floorboards Question please

[lesterlassone]

Ripped up the disgusting "inherited" carpet from hall, stairs and landing yesterday in my typical 70's estate house. Would really like to paint the floorboards but, whilst they are mostly in an OK condition, there are quite big gaps between some of the boards.

Initially thought I could fill gaps with that squeezy woodfiller stuff and then paint the entire board, job done. But now realised a couple of boards on the landing have "access screws" to allowing the pipework below to be reached if necessary, so woodfiller is not such a good idea.

Honestly can't afford to have a carpenter replace the boards (doing this renovation on a very strict budget with just me and teenagers helping do DIY work).

Does anyone have any suggestions please?

upstairs floors aren't usually draughty, why do you want to fill the gaps?

some people do it with papier-mache' stained to match the boards, or a bit darker so it looks like the crack.

There are something called 'shivers' i.e. pieces of wood that joiners can use to fill in the holes but possibly quite expensive.... :s xxx

When we had the boards repaired and sanded in our bedroom, the people who did it used a resin based product to fill the gaps, which coudl then be stained (or painted).
There are a few products available, eg here
www.wood-finishes-direct.com/categories/wood-finishes/wood-fillers.htm

Worth calling adn asking for advice.

There's a fantastic rubber filler- flexible and removable if necessary. Recommended on MN and called Draught-ex or similar, it is amazing stuff. Also, very easy to lay. It's dark, so looks like the shadow of the crack, though they are also launching a white version.

That's just the sort of info I needed, thank you - especially greyvix as I'm wanting to paint boards chalky off white, as opposed to staining / natural wood finish.

MN comes to the rescue once again :)

Papier mache made with pva works.

Doing the pva glue and sawdust thing is a nightmare and looks a complete mess. Use this stuff, its brilliant stopgap

Really easy to fit, and you could put it around the access boards and pull it out when you need to get in there. Neutral colour would do the job for a white floor. Think this is what greyvix is referring to.