How's it done? No skirting boards

[hoicem]

Flicking through some of the various interior design mags and I see a lot of nicely done new builds have no skirting boards at all. The plaster seems to sit about 10-15mm off the floor and the line is perfectly straight.

How is it done exactly? Seems a bit tricky to me to achieve with dot/ dab and skimming to get a perfectly straight edge with nothing to plaster up to.

[Andrew May]

It's called a shadow gap and with plastering it is achieved with a stop bead which is a strip of expanded mesh (like the corner beads) but with a lip. This is attached at the required height and then plastering is done up to it. Don't know whether the effect can be achieved with plasterboard.

Andrew

[The Natural Philosopher]

Use battens and remove when plaster is set.

Then install flooring of a depth 10-15mm less than the battens were..

[Andrew May]

But that gives a very weak edge, one that is going to get chipped when kicked or when the hoover is knocked against it. A stop bead provides some protection, in much the same way as a corner bead does.

Andrew

[Man at B&Q]

But why? Just seems like a huge dust trap to me, or is it "fashion" or "design"?

[hoicem]

Thanks! It seems there's various types of bead out there including plasterboard beads.

interesting.

[The Natural Philosopher]

well that wasn't specifed in the OP's question. :-)

Agreed a stop bead works very well.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Cheap.

[George]

You do a good bird impression.

[hoicem]

Not according to this:

"In other words, if you don't think you can get them right, don't attempt them in the first place. They can be so time consuming and labour intensive that you may ask if they are worth the bother."

[The Natural Philosopher]

Was that skirting boards?

Getting THEM right is very hard. no paint on the walls or floor..

[hoicem]

No, he's refering to stop beads to create a gap shadow

[Skipweasel]

Space for the fleas and silverfish to lurk in! I do think that's taking green living a bit far.

[Mark]

and it keeps reloading the page.

M

[fred]

Seconded, I got bored with it and stopped all internet traffic while I looked at the page, 5mins later it had tried to contact the google ads server 150 times. Opera with automatic redirection disabled blocks most difficult ads for me but it does dampen the browsing experience a little.