Quick skirting board question

[John Greenwood]

I am replacing some skirting and have noticed that all the other skirting in my house is attached so leaving a gap between bottom of skirting and floor.

Why is this? In case of damp in the floor? To make fitting of carpet easier?

Is it really necessary?

Thanks,

John

[Rick Hughes]

This is left for 3 reasons -

1# as otherwise you would have to scribe it in as the floor is probably not perfectly flat.

2# most people have a floor finish 10mm or thicker ... if you fitted down to floor you would lose 10mm of visible skirting.

3# if skirting in contact with floor it will creak & squeak as you walk over the floor.

Rick

[John Greenwood]

Thanks Rick,

The skirting is for my kitchen and I plan to put down some vinyl flooring which is approx. 3mm thick.

I think it will look like a cow if there is a visible gap between flooring and skirting so I might raise the skirting by 2mm.

What do you think?

John

[Reestit Mutton]

Are you sure you didn't mean to say "drop".

The simple solution is to use wooden beading around the edge of the room.

A slightly more robust (and elegant) solution would be to board the floor with ply first (adding, say 6-9mm to the height of the flooring) before laying the vinyl on top. This would serve two purposes

(1) It levels the floor, so that the vinyl finish is smooth. (2) It means you can leave that small gap under the skirting as the ply will likely cover it and, if not, the vinyl on top certainly should.

HtH RM

[John Greenwood]

No, as this would then be below the level of the floor !

I meant 2mm above the foor.

[BillR]

Possibly shrinkage ?