I completed my renovation in April this year.

I am starting to see hairline cracks forming between my teak timber strip flooring. My teak flooring is 90mm wide 15mm thick strips of varying length. The cracks form between the strips like maybe there is slight shrinkage.

Is this normal? Mostly it is not visible when you are standing except for some pieces at my staircase.

Should I get my contractor to fix this? I am afraid the problem will reappear after fixing so might as well leave it be or wait until maybe before chinese new year than fix.

Edited October 17, 201016 yr by wind30

are the hairline cracks between 2 separate pieces of timber strip?

are the hairline cracks between 2 separate pieces of timber strip?

yup, it is between two separate pieces of timber strips.

yup, it is between two separate pieces of timber strips.

I think you can ask the contractor to help you do the patching to close the gap.

I think you can ask the contractor to help you do the patching to close the gap.

do you have an idea whether the cracks will reappear after patching? I would hope to wait until the wood is "stable" then patch once and for all...

yes it is better for you to wait at least a year or 2 after the floor has been laid before doing any 'patching'.

i placed 'patching' in inverted commas because it is not that simple. if you simply fill up the gaps with a wood filler, there would be no coating above the wood filler. not advisable because water can wet the wood filler. you could have mold growing.

you also cant simply apply another layer of lacquer or water based coating above the old one because they would not stick to each other. soon you would have problems with peeling.

best for you to wait for at least a year till the wood stabilizes in your home environment, then get a flooring contractor to re-sand, fill up the gaps with wood filler and re-oil.

that way you would not get the crack lines anymore.

lastly, yes, you would get the cracks again if your fill up the gaps before the wood fully stabilizes. which takes time.

Edited October 18, 201016 yr by morganwu