Thread: Why are my floor boards suddenly cracking after 90 years ?

Originally Posted by Capt. Zero

By the way, how do you guys keep from falling off the bottom of the globe?

Velcro

Originally Posted by Capt. Zero

By the way, how do you guys keep from falling off the bottom of the globe?

Liquid nails..i never leave home without it.

The world map is in fact upside down this is because the English drew it. They did the map and said OH GOD we are on the bottom this won't do at all. So after a lot of meetings at Admiralty House they turned it the other way up.

How do you guys stay attatched down there in the US?

Studley

Originally Posted by Capt. Zero

I've never had probs with cracking floorboards, but I have real dry skin and when I use gas or wood heat in a relatively tight house I have to deal with cracking skin. The fix is place a noncombustable/nonmeltable container of h2o on top of the space heater and it will slowly evaporate the h2o and rehumidify the house. Have to be careful not to overdo it or can cause difficulty with wallpaper or any other item that too much humidity bothers.




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Guys I have a question. If the heater (which does blow hot air across the floor) causes the boards to shrink and crack in winter, will they (re-)expand and push out the gap filler in summer when the humidity in Brisbane icreases

Originally Posted by felixe

Guys I have a question. If the heater (which does blow hot air across the floor) causes the boards to shrink and crack in winter, will they (re-)expand and push out the gap filler in summer when the humidity in Brisbane icreases

A builder friend has told me to leave them until after summer for that very reason. We all know that we get many days here at 90+ humidity, hell i saw a dog drown one day just walking down the footpath one day.

What i dont get is that the house had an fireplace in it (gone now) & why didnt it crack the boards & surely in the 20 or 30 odd years since its gone, someone has used a heater in the place. I know its the heat now but im perplexed as to why all of a sudden.

Maybe the floor verses temperature is an exponential curve & i took it that 1 or 2 degrees higher ??

Maybe. But also your heater is blowing right across the floor. An open fireplace, the heat would rise immediately it left the face. As for drying, etc. Over the years the boards just dry out, re-moisten in summer, dry out, re-moisten, etc.

Originally Posted by Honorary Bloke

Maybe. But also your heater is blowing right across the floor. An open fireplace, the heat would rise immediately it left the face. As for drying, etc. Over the years the boards just dry out, re-moisten in summer, dry out, re-moisten, etc.

Bingo...Give that man a cigar....

Exactly. An open fire has the heat going up as well as drawing in cooler air from across the floor to maintain combustion.

remember...hot air rises, cool air sinks. Thus, hot air from the fire goes up and the cool air travels across the floor to the fire.

Fun Eh?

Originally Posted by glock40sw

Bingo...Give that man a cigar....

Exactly. An open fire has the heat going up as well as drawing in cooler air from across the floor to maintain combustion.

remember...hot air rises, cool air sinks. Thus, hot air from the fire goes up and the cool air travels across the floor to the fire.

Fun Eh?

Take that cigar back from him for a min. The cracks are appearing as far as 20 feet from the heater. It appears that its as mentioned, dry room air & not temp. The heater blows the air out the top which is 2 feet off the floor.

Originally Posted by mick101

Take that cigar back from him for a min. The cracks are appearing as far as 20 feet from the heater. It appears that its as mentioned, dry room air & not temp. The heater blows the air out the top which is 2 feet off the floor.

I actually thought honorary was right, but that is because my convection gas heater blows hot air across the floor. Interesting yours blows it out the top and still cracks the boards.

Did you give the drowning brown dog mouth to mouth to save it?

I am not convinced it is the gas heater that has reduced the humidity, I was of the understanding that gas heaters produce a wet heat as the burning of LPG produces water. Then again maybe I just made that up, been to long since I last studied Chemistry.

I'm with Mr Fix It - blame global warming.

Originally Posted by Burnsy

I am not convinced it is the gas heater that has reduced the humidity, I was of the understanding that gas heaters produce a wet heat as the burning of LPG produces water. Then again maybe I just made that up, been to long since I last studied Chemistry.

I'm with Mr Fix It - blame global warming.

I will search that question on google, tks ..also this is natural gas, not LPG.