There are more types of fillers than you would think and they serve different functions.
Large area and Stable wood:
Duraseal Trowelable Wood Filler.
If you do not expect a wide range in environment moisture or humidity, your voids are minor, the boards are not moving from an uneven subfloor, and you have a large area to cover then Duraseal Trowelable wood filler is a great option. It is easy to spread, dries hard, and is economical. Coming in a variety of sizes and colors. It sands easily and accepts stains, and finish much like wood.
Spot Filling Larger gaps in stable wood:
Duraseal Wood Patch.
Wood Patch is thicker than trowel filler so is less ideal for large area trowel applications, but it is designed for larger voids, with less shrinking and more flexibility. Precolored, accepts stains and finishes like wood, is economical and sands easily.
Goodfilla Wood and Grain Filler is trowelable, but it is thick, the tradeoff is less shrinking. The chemistry is unique in that it expands slightly while drying counteracting some of the loss in moisture from drying. Dries hard, pre colored, accepts stain and finish.
Unstable Wood.
For spaces with moisture/humidity swings which cause large expansions and contractions, or for old floors where the wood itself moves with your weight.
Troweling on unstable wood:
Berger Seidle Pak Stop mixed with precolored Pafuki Powder. Pafuki Powder can be mixed with water creating a rock hard trowel filler but when mixed with Pak Stop it dries to a flexible rubber like mass which can be readily troweled. You can choose the color of Pak Stop desired for your floor. This is a great option for old pine floors where the old house itself is often humidity unstable, unstable wood species, and/or the subfloor isn't totally flat (leading to individual board movements.) The dry time is relevant to the thickness applied. For this reason if the gaps are large enough you may want to insert inexpensive foam backer rod before filling. It is important to understand that the sanding process of removing rubberlike excess is more challenging so more time and labor need to be accounted for. Pak Stop is not stainable so choose finished color.
Finished Flooring:
Spot Filling on unstable wood:
Berger Seidle Flex Fill Color comes in standard sized caulk tubes in a variety of colors. Not just the beiges and browns but white and greys for flexible filling in or around alternative mediums. This filler has been used for large gap projects but has more so been used for the smaller quantity void situations on both unfinished and finished floors. It is impressive how big of a gap it can fill and remain flexible. Sticking tenaciously to everything, it in fact doubles over as a glue. You can tape off finished boards, mist, and apply. With the tape misted a clean pull will be achieved. Flex Fill Color is not stainable so choose finished color.
Filling small holes on finished flooring:
Duraseal Wood Putty comes in 12 colors corresponding to Quick Coat Stain colors. This is a non hardening putty which can be pressed into nail holes and small dings with your thumb and easily cleaned with water. A very easy and economic option for handling minor imperfections after the fact. Great idea to have a jar on every prefinished installation.
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