Are gaps in new hardwood floors normal?
Newly installed floorboards can immediately develop gaps large enough to fit a penny, even before experiencing seasonal humidity changes. This leaves people unsure if they should demand fixes or fight paying the full installation price. Because they do not know if individual boards can be replaced, many fear the entire floor must be completely redone.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Are gaps in new hardwood floors normal?
- 1Monitoring and adjusting room humidity using a hygrometer and humidifierDid this help you?
- 2Spot filling smaller gaps with an oil putty meant for pre-finished flooringDid this help you?
- 3Using a high-quality trowel fill or wood fillerDid this help you?
- 4Calling the installer back to open up the floor and fix itDid this help you?
- 5Undercutting stone or masonry to hide the expansion gap properlyDid this help you?
- 6Filling edge gaps with color-matched caulk or groutDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Pretty much immediately noticed a few areas where this separation is occuring. I know humidity can affect hardwood but this floor hasn’t been through a winter yet so I’m worried this is going to get worse.”source ↗
“Our GC had Flooret LVP installed and there are frequent large gaps in the install that could fit a penny.”source ↗
“Is this just normal, or should we fight paying the full install price, or have them fix it?”source ↗
“There are so many gaps I fear it can’t be fixed.”source ↗
“Just out of curiosity would there be a fix for this short of redoing the whole room? Not sure if individual board replacement is a thing”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 8What to do about a bad hardwood floor installation
- 5Do I need to take engineered hardwood out of the box to acclimate?
- 3Why is my laminate floor bubbling at the seams?
- 3How to fill gaps between floor boards
- 7Why are my floor planks buckling and lifting up?
- 6How to tell if floor marks are a manufacturing defect or installer error