Have laid ply throughout downstairs of my house am about to feather coat. Most of the ply is butted right up but in a couple of places there is a small gap between the sheets (2mm). Will the feather coat fill these gaps ok or is it best to apply a flexible wood filler or something else first? Thanks in advance
I butted the sheets up cos being a new build the rel humidity is dropping and now heating is on it will only get dryer, so ply will contract if anything rather than expand
If the ply was installed in the property with high humidity levels (or early/mid site conditions) and now the heating has been put on, it maybe worth hanging on before you do anything else. Rapid and/or excessive movement is a real possibility, of course depending on other factors like the moisture content of the ply, moisture content of the substrate etc. What floor covering is being put down? You may have mentioned that in another thread, but it'll give context here.
Thanks wes, should be ok though as I have had a dehumidifier on for 3 weeks and heating on for a week, (ply was in there for a week when heating was on) and been monitoring relative humidity of room, everything has had plenty of time to acclimatise, rel humidity is around 58% at the moment, perhaps i should have left a 1mm gap to be safe but then that gap would have been filled with the feather coat anyway so dont really see the difference....The covering is LTV (Karndean Knight planks throughout downstairs and amtico spacia in the kitchen). I was doing other things last few days so left all the flooring out of boxes at 18 deg since last thurs, (has been hard to keep it exact cos thermostats not installed yet but have been measuring mins and max between 17 - 19) , started laying today
Errrrr....What wood expands when it dries up.....?! More humid air will cause wood to expand, drier air will cause wood to contract, and it normally moves most along the grain.
All wood expands and contracts at different rates I'm guessing your going over chipboard that's going to move alot and the ply not so much so your ply is going to get very tight indeed I would think . Chipboard big shrink ply not so much so in a backwards way the ply will expand I've got gripper that has moved probably half inch away from skirting