They were installed 2 years ago but you haven't moved into the house yet? Any climate control in this house during that 2 years?

yes we have the heat on in the winter around 68-70 degrees. and we currently have the a/c on now that it's summer. around 74-76 degrees. and no we haven't moved in yet- long story but reno was slow going while we were living in our apt. we have since sold the apt and trying to finish up the reno. we noticed the floor condition during the winter and hoped that it was just a seasonal thing and would "swell" up again during summer.

Ipe is extremely tempermental when it comes to climate conditions....heat and AC isn't the issue. what are you doing to control the humidity inside the home? and was that in place for the two years?

You can have it refinished, but the dust thing is a bad idea. Ipe dust discolors...One thing you will notice if you do, that it will actually be like a dark yellowish green. and then when finish is applied it will turn red.

You're floor with a coat of finish and all the dust packed into the joints will look weird.

Get a good trowel filler like Wood wise and get it dark! and then fill the joints with that. and be prepared to get the climate inside under control, or you will be re-filling the gaps every season!

What type of climate control would you suggest? A humidifier? We have central air and heat. I had no idea people installed special climate control for floors. If I would have known I would have just gotten something less temperamental and done a dark stain. What a shame and a waste.

Yeah no one i know has a humidifier to add humidity to the air in nyc. We are renovating an 1800 Sq ft home not building from scratch. We removed the old damaged flooring and went to numerous stores looking for new flooring and asked plenty of questions. No one told us about the volatility of IPE and I did plenty of my own research thanks. We acclimated the wood per what I read online but I read nothing about greater potential for gaps. I would have expected at least the suppliers to say something if it was not a recommended material for our climate considering we talked about it with them at length. What did people do pre-internet? Didn't they rely on suppliers to provide information about materials? And I came here asking a question about trying to correct the situation not to be chastised for not doing research by someone who knows nothing about what research I may or may not have done. So thanks for the info about the wood wise. I will look into that.

I'd be curious as to what the average RH level is. Of course you'd have to get readings in the winter and what you have now. I was thinking just as Greg with a humidification system. It's done frequently for those that don't want dry air in the winter. IE: skin, nose etc. not to mention protecting pricey antiques, art and the like.

More than likely it probably also had a high moisture content when installed...not unusual. Brazilian Walnut and its denseness will also take longer to change (gaps close) with more moisture in the air. It won't work as well with only the AC on, though the gaps may close up a little.

"We acclimated the wood per what I read online"

Unfortunately most of those recommendations are wrong, some say 3-5 days, a week etc. Everything has to be in sinc (maintained) for best results. Sub floor, hardwood, crawlspace, basement.

But I don't know what you read.

As has been pointed out, it would be interesting to gauge the indoor humidity levels. A thermo hygrometer with memory would do this.

The filler mentioned above is here: http://www.woodwise.com/woodfiller/prefinish.html And here: http://www.cinhome.com/shop/shop.cgi?page=listn.html

You'd probably need Walnut and Ebony. They can be mixed. Add a little water to the tin after using and seal well. It won't dry out as badly as other solvent based fillers.

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Meade-TM005X-M-Wireless-Outdoor-Hygrometer/dp/B004I08CEO

I just added one to my cart.

Ken, I tend to think it was a high moisture level at install. The boxes were in the house for a few days prior and the a/c was on but I think it was just too hot. And hot in ny is humid. Both supplier and installer had me thinking I was nuts when I mentioned letting the wood acclimate to the house so i thought i had hedged my bets with those few days. Clearly not. Eh I guess they just wanted to install and move on. It's odd though that the wood would have contracted that much in winter. The winter here is not dry and the heat wasn't set high in the house (68). But now I have to figure out how to make the condition not look so awful. What do you think of the full trowel wood wise idea? Any other thoughts on options I may have? I shut off the a/c yesterday to see the reaction. Was that a bad idea?

Thanks jfcwood. I should probably do that before proceeding with any "fix" so I know what I'm dealing with.

The full trowel crack filling method is used during sanding and refinishing. You'll want the prefinish filler.

ok jfcwood, so that i understand, you're saying not to sand and refinish with the full trowel. rather i should get the prefinish filler and try to fill the gaps with that? that would certainly be a lot more cost effective (though would take time given # of gaps, but worth it).

sorry another question- you mentioned "seal well." what do i seal with?

I just realized you may have meant seal the tin well, not the floor.

Can you take pictures of how bad the floor looks with close ups of the gaps?

When taking a picture of gaps it's good to have something to help gauge the size, like a ruler or a coin.

took these pics yesterday. i'll try to take others using coins or a ruler. the floors were covered with paper but they got filled with construction dust during the baseboard install.

one more, but most of the floor is like these pics

Unless you can maintain a temperature and humidity level in the home that your floor will like, it is going to grow in the temperate months and shrink in the cold ones...no doubt about it.

As others have implied, acclimating to the house and not knowing relative humidity levels and moisture content of the subflooring and the flooring itself isn't a good thing.

If the gapping is consistent throughout the floor, I'd suck all the dust from the gaps and be done with it.

glennsfc, what temps would we have to be consistent at? that is easy for us to control. not so much the humidity though. and you're right i have no idea what the current humidity levels are or what the levels were on the sub floor at the time of install. like i said a/c was on but summer in ny is gross. knowing what i know now, that was the worst time to perform an install. you're saying leave as is if the gapping is consistent? i don't believe it's consistent throughout but we have to lift the paper in the rest of the house to check. isn't it ugly though? if there is no solution we may very well have to leave as is. i don't think we can stomach the bill for new flooring and new install.

Well I have to tell you...I know about NYC summers and the possible pitfalls installing solid wood in the summer in a new build. I acclimated a house full of solid maple flooring for about 10 days in a house on Staten Island that was not climate controlled. The builder pressured me to install the flooring and what a mistake that was! Rather than rip out the flooring, I used a wood epoxy product to fill in the gaps, sanded it, stained it and applied finish...and hoped for the best. It worked.

Now I have no good advice for you, because your floor is a prefinished product. Perhaps a flexible colored caulk very carefully extruded between the planks might work. I have done that to site finished flooring to hide occasional obvious large gaps in a site finished floor. Just one other idea for you to chew on.

I’m in the same boat you are. What product exactly did you use? the comments have been very helpful and i too am going to try some of these ideas.

The flooring guy largely blamed the product and the milling job...Not his installation. He has done other homes for me with excellent results but we used different products. He never said anything about about humidity...I live in Texas....very humid most of the year So not sure if this was the best choice. I did a ton of research before purchasing and most flooring people will make you feel more comfortable with your concerns rather than validate them so you purchase (My experience).

Brazilian hardwoood is expensive!! Prefinished Is more. I feel your pain.

I used bellawood prefinished narrow planks. It turned out nothing like the sample. If yours are beveled it is going to look like the gaps are bigger than they actually are. See below after the floors were cleaner. hard to appreciate in a photo far away but close up it is much more obvious.

In a historic home narrow planks were the only way to go. But a prefinished glue down shows every single imperfection.

When it It is time to refinish the floors on a few years many of the issues have will be resolved.

If had it to do over again I would have done unfinished walnut, sanded smooth with no bevel so that when it was sealed and finished it would look like a smooth floor when the light hit it.

My only advice is to clean it and see if you can live with it. If not try the flexible filler option above (Which I may do with the ones that bug me that aren’t covered by furniture)

Since my house is an old mid century. I can get away with some imperfection but if you are going with sleek and modern look it may look more out of place.

Good luck!