Gap between floorboards and skirting

[harryagain]

If the skirting was damp when installed, it will shrink & leave a gap. The gap can just be filled in, this will also stop draughts. I have used canned foam and silicon in the past.

However. It can also point to the ends of the joists being rotten and sunk slightly. Often happens with solid walls or no/defective damp courses. Commonest (but not exclusively) on the ground floor. Also if the joists are embedded in outside walls.

This is a serious defect if it is so. What it needs is the joist ends probing with a screwdriver to see if they are rotten, taking a floor board up if neccessary.

If you think the walls are damp, you should do this.

[David]

Looking round the house, there always seems to be a small gap between the bottom of the skirting and the floor.

I Googled for a reason, but just got loads of sites telling you how to fill the gap in.

So is there a reason, such as allowing for expansion and contraction of the flooring?

Or is this just a mystery of the ancients?

Cheers

Dave R

[CB]

Is it simply that there was no gap originally, but wood shrinkage (of both the floor and skirting) post installation results in a gap?

[RobertL]

yes, and also shrinking of the joists.

[RobertL]

yes, and also shrinking of the joists.

[Rednadnerb]

It is shrinkage as the others have said but if the gap is large then it mea ns the floor is dropping usually because the joists are rotting. I've seen this where an extension was added at the back of the house and the airbrick s were not extended through to the new outside wall.

[Tim Streater]

I don't know either but I'd like to know how to fill them in. What was your googling term - I'll take a look.

[DerbyBorn]

Tim Streater wrote in news:120220151622455356% [e-mail]:

The gap is a cause of dirty edges on carpets! Opening and closing doors can have the effect of drawing in dust and muck from the area behind the skirting. I have used folded up strips of newspaper pushed into the gap and then finished with cheap decorators caulk.

I have also used that foam that comes out of a gun - but it made a mess of the paint on the skirtings.

[David]

I searched for "skirting floorboard gap"

I thought I'd get an explanation but just got gap fillers.

[stuart noble]

150mm wooden skirting will end up as 145mm or less in the normal drying process. If the house pre-dates central heating, then maybe 140mm even.

[Tim Streater]

Our house is ca. 1930. Got rid of the front-room carpet during a redecoration of the room, discovered that the floor-boards were in great nick - no gaps between them, no dipping at the edges of the room. Had the floor sanded down, stained, varnished, it looks great.

But there is a small gap under the skirting.

[spuorgelgoog]

It's for running phone cables in :-)

Owain

[stuart noble]

Even in the good old days when timber was air dried slowly, it never got below 15-17% moisture content. Put that in a CH environment and you have guaranteed shrinkage of at least 2% in the width. Possibly the boards were re-laid before your time? Very unusual to not have gaps

[PeterC]

That as well. In my house the gap is fairly constant throughout. Now, upstairs is floorboards; I know that the joists are OK, the skirting is about 60mm (so not too much shrinkage). Downstairs, same skirting, same gaps, concrete raft

- I assume that hasn't dropped many mm all round!

I'd never considered any other purpose than a space to tuck the carpets into

- or more likely lino, as the house is ~65 years old and was a Council house.

[DICEGEORGE]

Inside walls don't matter, if its an outside wall there might be a draught coming in.

All DIY stores have tubes of 'flexible gap filler' in white and brown and grey etc

[George]