OK. Probably a really stupid question but,
How easy is it to remove skirting boards? (Are they nailed on?)
Am I likely to be able to re-use them after removing them?
How do I stick them back on? (Do I have to nail them or something or can I use 'No Nails' or something?)
Typically nailed on, although the nails have probably partly rusted and are going to grip really well.
If you remove them carefully, they should go back. I have a special nail-head remover drill bit - it looks like a hollow cone at the end. You find the sunken nails with a metal detector and push this bit down on the nail head, which it removes. The skirting board comes off, leaving the shafts of the nails sticking out of the wall. They can then be pulled out.
To replace, nail back using the old holes but larger nails, the countersink hole left by the head remover can be filled with plastic wood, or putty.
Can you say where such a nail-head remover drill bit can be bought, please?
Anode.
All depends wether its old skirting? also wether its been taken off before? they might be nailed on.
You can reuse the skirting but its cheap enough nowadays to replace ie its
55p a foot for 6" taurus by me. See what price it is by you?
find the smallest magnet you can(the type found in small headphones speakers), and gentley glide it over the skirting till the magnet sticks or buy a cheap metal detector. When nails are found hammer them right through the skirting with a center punch.
The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote: ...
Oooh that's a good tip... :-)
That sounds cool. Where'd u get the drill bit from?
Fairly new. House is only 6 years old.
Saying that if they match the build quality of the rest of the house they should come off in my hand with a slight tug....
Being nosey, why do you want to take them off then re-use them?
I bought mine from Trago - which has brances in Devon and Cornwall.
LOL, although I don't think you are supposed to use it for this, you can use it to make pins to pin things together.
Simply belt a nail into one piece of wood, leaving it standing proud. Then grind the top of the nail off, to leave a pointed "spike". Then put another bit of wood over the spike and tap it into place.. Holds stuff together whilst the glue on biscuits or dowels dries.
For putting them back on, I'd use gripfill, "no more nails", "who needs nails", "I can't believe it's not nails" etc. - it's a lot easier than nails...
Fitting wood flooring...
As long as the wall is straight......
Especially if the wall isn't straight. Trying to bend and fix skirting over contours never looks right. If you let it sit straight and back fill with plaster, it creates an illusion of straightness in walls that are pissed.
If the OPs house is 6 years old, the old boards are possibly / probably stuck on with that allready, straight onto the drywall, which renders alot of the usefull tips to deal with nails useless and renders the old boards useless too.
And probably the plasterboard by the time he's got the skirting off !
AWEM
hmmm. Yeh. Pulled one off.
Stuck on with 2" nails straigh into the plasterboard. Going ot be a job not to wreck the plaster as well....
Skirtings were made of that crappy chipboard/carbboardy stuff not solid wood.
Should I drill the nails out first rather than yanking it. I'm afraid of wrecking the plaster too much.
Behind it or above? if above just score it where the SB meets the wall. Removal of the nails lessens the chance of damaging plaster though.
I have removed and replaced a fair number of skirting boards, particularly in old houses; the bottoms of these were then planed to allow for flooring above the original and nailed back on. I have found that the best way to remove the old nails is from the rear, if they are pulled from the front then the wood will tend to splinter; lever the skirting board from the wall and then pull the nails right through with a sideways pull from a claw hammer. New nails or even the old can then be nailed through the existing holes and even better they can match up with the holes in the lath or framing.
Managed to get the skirting boards off without too much problem in the end. They pretty much pulled off. Then I was able to pull the masonry nails out with a claw hammer afterwards.
Sticking the new boards back on wasn't so easy. Admitedly, not helped by a couple of B&Q banana-shape skirting boards. In the end I glued using no-nails and used a few small nails at the ends and middle as well.
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