Woodblock Flooring used as Skirting?

[timjh0]

We have just finished laying Oak block flooring, and have a load left over. Being 350x60x22mm we're considering the possibility of using the spares as "skirting".

Having done similar with slate/porcelain floor tiles its looks quite, but not sure about using woodblock (probably a double row)!

Has any one done similar? Advice for/against?

Thanks,

Tim.

[Piers Finlayson]

We had solid oak t+g flooring used as a skirting board in a bathroom a few years ago (the same room as the oak flooring was itself used in). This was much wider (120mm IIRC) and much longer (probably around a metre lengths). The tongue was obviously taken off. It looked really quite good and I'd consider doing it again.

Note sure how it would work with the sizes you're talking about but presumably it's fairly easy to try out on a small area.

[mikey]

As they say (on another site) diynot!

Its a natural material... no different to usual skirting. To make life easier though, I would glue and clamp 6 or 8 blocks together first, to make a plank, and once cured, would fix these to the walls using screws and plugs or gripfill... making a plank out of them prior to fitting would help with alignment and fixing.

[Tim Watts]

timjh0 ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Monday 31 January 2011 13:05:

I want to do this - for the hall and kitchen. These are (hall will be) done in green slate (which I got cheap for a ton's worth as it is nearly half the ground floor area all told) - thus I have a fair few spare plus lots of 1/3 offcuts.

I like stone/tiled floors for mucky areas as they hoover well and when they get gross enough a mop and bucket sorts them out properly.

However, it would seem foolish to use wooden skirting as that will just get knackered with the mopping.

How did you do it? In particular -

1) Did you just fix them like wall tiles (wall tile adhesive rather than heavy grade flooring adhesive)? 2) Did you use the same grout for continuity or different for contrast? 3) Silicone or grout on the wall-floor joint? 4) What height did you go for (I have 2.4m ceilings and slim 90mm skirting is working OK for me in the bedrooms).

Cheers

Tim

[timjh0]

Depends on wall/floor: Upstairs used no-nails equivalent to fix amd coloured silicone to "grout" to allow for a bit of flex and ensure waterproof. Downstairs normal floor adhesive and grout as I had it to hand ;-) Height - only used about 10cm widths, though looks ok, Tile cut in to

3 bits, the middle bit had to be cleaned up a bit - no factory edge (wet emery paper/diamond file).

re:To make life easier though, I would glue and clamp 6 or 8 blocks together first, to make a plank, and once cured, would fix these to the walls using screws and plugs or gripfill... making a plank out of them prior to fitting would help with alignment and fixing.

Thanks for the comments guys. Making a plank may be harder than applying to wall. Would need a large flat area to ensure they were true when assembling. Fixing to wall would give the opportunity to follow any irregulairties in wall.

We're not sure of the asthetics of it TBH. Yes long planks would look less busy, jury's still out. Cheers

[Tim Watts]

timjh0 ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Tuesday 01 February 2011

14:26:

Cheers for that - I think I will do something very similar...

[stuart noble]

Decidedly iffy on the aesthetics front I would think. Skirting is part of the wall, and shouldn't match the floor. IMHO of course :-)

[timjh0]

But think of where vinyl is turned up the walls in loos etc. As mentioned above cut floor tiles look good as a seamless finish to the floor and provide a cleanable skirting... but wood block as skirting may be a step too far ;-)

Cheers, Tim.

PS Good luck TimW.