Fixing skirting

I have over 30 metres of skirting to replace as part of the installation of a new engineered wood floor. I appreciate that the usual methods of installing skirting include using adhesives, nails or screws. The advantage of screws is that it is relatively easy to remove the skirting in the future with the minimum of collateral damage, however I wonder if there is a more simple method of fixing than cutting countersinks and plugs and then drilling the (block) wall so that it will still be readily demountable.

A couple of the flooring companies do clip on skirting but unfortunately the available skirting is not as tall as we want it.

A bit of googling revealed this

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adhesive backed pop stud system which could possibly be recessed into the back of the new HDF skirting quite quickly, aligned with wall and stuck to it.

Any other ideas?

Reply to
rbel
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magnetic catches (2 for £1 in poundland I think)

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

??What's the skirting worth? Worst case you destroy it all removing it if/when you need to?

Jim K

Reply to
JimK

Are these to be natural finish or painted?

I screwed on my skirting many years ago and simply filled over the holes and painted. When I removed it to fit a wood floor last year I had little difficulty finding the screws and removing them.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

No particular insights on fixings: My guess would be that the standard approaches are used because they are adequate in most circumstances. Having fitted some skirting a couple of years ago, however, which was custom made due to the depth, some of it has now cupped away from the wall to a certain extent. This is probably because I mounted it before painting and it has absorbed moisture through the back, so I would defintely recommend painting or sealing it on all sides before fitting to avoid this. I doubt HDF or MDF would be susceptible to cupping, but you probably wouldn't want it to absorb moisture and slowly degrade.

Reply to
GMM

The traditional way of fixing skirting particularly deep skirting like the

7" torus I had at the last house is to use wooden wedges in the vertical ga ps between bricks. It's fairly quick the only time consuming bit is chisell ing out the mortar between the bricks for which a special chisel is needed whose name escapes at the moment, however this can be sped up by the use of a masonry bit in a drill and a bit of waggling in the mortar joint. The se cret is in making the wedges, which are not actually wedge- shaped but are produced by taking a length of timber wider than the mortar joint and chopp ing of diagonally opposite corners with an axe to create a twisted shape wh en looked at end on. The wedge is then hammered into the gap and any excess sawn off. This has the advantage of being able to trim the wedge flush wit h the plaster and helps keep the skirting vertical especially where the pla ster is stopped short of the floor. The skirting is simply nailed on, I use d 2.5" lost head nails punched below the surface. Never had a skirting come loose but still easy to remove when required.

Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

Is it really worth the bother, taking into account the probable frequency with which you will want to remove the skirting?

I have always used cut floorboard nails to fix the skirting, driving them just below the surface and filling. In the very rare event that it might need to come off, they pull out with little effort and virtually no damage.

Reply to
Nightjar

That's because they didn't have SDS drills and screws in those days...

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

These might be better - the discs with a screw hole in:

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Lot stronger too - so 10mm discs should be enough :)

Reply to
Tim Watts

Fitting wooden skirting is asking for trouble unless it has a moisture content of

Reply to
stuart noble

I agree Dave but not every modern method is better than traditional methods . In my case the house had 7" deep skirting but the plaster did not extend down to the floor behind the skirting. SDS drilling could only be done at t he very top even through the torus moulding, this often resulted in the ski rting being out of vertical and a very hollow feeling towards the bottom ed ge. I found using wedges meant I could keep the the skirting vertical by be ing able to trim them flush with plaster. The alternative was going round p atching in the plaster or using packing pieces pratting around with their t hickness to suit the varying thickness of plaster compared to a few deft st rokes with an axe.

Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

Many thanks to all for the suggestions to date. I will try to cover the various questions and comments.

The new skirting is to be HDF, supplied primed and rebated at the back (to take speaker cables). The cost is likely to be around £150 for

30+ metres. Two reasons for it to be readily demountable are being able to change/move speaker cables and to be able to get at the new engineered flooring if needed. The walls are block with what appears to be a cement render and a very thin layer of plaster skim which tends to crack and fall off when doing anything with the existing skirting which is fixed with nails.

I like the idea of using small magnets - I have a pillar drill so could easily cut recesses in the back of the new skirting for each magnet and glue metal discs to the wall. Would the magnets have any impact on the speaker cable?

Reply to
rbel

Oh yes. Eg the poor electrons will start spiralling as they pass through the field which in turn will cause them to radiate. That's why electrostatic speakers are so much better than speakers with magnets in them :))

But Russ Andrews will proably sell you cables which he'll tell you will minimize the effect - eg

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to address is (meant to be) valid

Reply to
Robin

e 7" torus I had at the last house is to use wooden wedges in the vertical gaps between bricks. It's fairly quick the only time consuming bit is chise lling out the mortar between the bricks for which a special chisel is neede d whose name escapes at the moment, however this can be sped up by the use of a masonry bit in a drill and a bit of waggling in the mortar joint. The secret is in making the wedges, which are not actually wedge- shaped but ar e produced by taking a length of timber wider than the mortar joint and cho pping of diagonally opposite corners with an axe to create a twisted shape when looked at end on. The wedge is then hammered into the gap and any exce ss sawn off. This has the advantage of being able to trim the wedge flush w ith the plaster and helps keep the skirting vertical especially where the p laster is stopped short of the floor. The skirting is simply nailed on, I u sed 2.5" lost head nails punched below the surface. Never had a skirting co me loose but still easy to remove when required.

Would you like that to go on the wiki?

NT

Reply to
meow2222

I really like sound of this traditional method. When I've tried anything like this though. I have difficulty in aligning the vertical brick joint and the wooden plug with the nail hole in the skirting. What's the best way to do this? Measuring each plug position from one end, then transferring these points to the skirting?

Reply to
mikehalmarack

Sorry about that, I certainly didn't mean to be puzzling. The nail hole in the skirting would be the hole the nail made as it was hammered in and it would need to align with the wooden plug in the vertical joint. Sometimes I've put the skirting on before plastering, as a straight faced/edged guide and some of the rough brickwork can be quite difficult to mark precisely with a pencil.

Reply to
mikehalmarack

Not usually but I have sometimes made a pilot hole first to check alignment.

Thanks for the useful tips.

Reply to
mikehalmarack

The skirting here is more like 18" high - made up of three bits. But I still found it easier to screw battens to the bricks and pack level then screw to those than use the 'traditional' way. When I first removed the skirting it was to allow floor etc repairs as part of woodwork treatment - and most of those wedges simply pulled out.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I'd like one of these for my screwdriver bit:

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I wonder if it would slip on it. IIRC they are a 6 mm hexagon.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

6.3mm i.e. 1/4"
Reply to
Andy Burns

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