Hi all,
See
I expect it's too much for Polyfilla, but I really don't know. A friend told me to use plaster, which I find somewhat intimidating although he tells me it's hard to go too wrong for such a small area.
cant see what needs filing in that pic. Our Wiki has an article on filling
NT
Get some one coat plaster (a 5kg bag will be more than enough - you might even find a large tub ready mixed), and a metal plasterers trowel. Should take all of 5 mins to fix ;-)
Slap some on, and trowel it roughly smooth - but don't worry about getting it perfect or anything. Leave it to go off for at least 20 mins, then trowel it a bit more - its much easier to get a smooth finish as its setting. You can repeat this waiting and troweling a coupe of times, the last after giving a very light splash of water (not much, just a few drops).
If it is a timber floor you need to check the joists below, the ends may have rotted in the walls.
If ok, fill the gap with canned foam, trim off when set & polyfill over it.
Skirting is there to hide the gap between wall and floor. This gap is needed to stop moisture / damp tracking from the floor to the walls. If it's having a wardrobe in front of it, I'd be tempted to leave it as it is, if it's going to be visible, put skirting back where it's on show
The area will be covered by a wardrobe but I'm concerned about insects, and I know it doesn't really matter as it's covered, but it's a new house and it would really bother me to leave it like that.
So, how important is this in practice given that none of the other denizens here mentioned it? For some background, the room is 2m x 2m, I've removed 2m of skirting across the back wall and about 1.2m on the front wall (there is a hole in the wall for the door :) ). I left the other two walls as is. So there would still be gaps / skirting on two of the walls, giving the floor room to "breathe" without ruining the walls.
Lastly, it's a pretty dry country FWIW.
By no means an expert on this but a lot will depend (re insects/breathing) on how it was built and what floor you are on. Is it double skin or single? is it a concrete floor? If on ground floor rising damp could be a bigger issue. As for bugs they will always find somewhere to hide I wouldnt worry about that. I also have a place abroad and if it were me I would plaster flush with the wall and just paint it to match, assuming you must have the wardrobe flush.
Replying to my OP...
I got some plaster, but just a kilo, which wasn't quite enough, especially as I didn't mix enough first time, and the second lot I mixed seemed to go too hard about 5 seconds after I'd finished mixing it. So not a professional job, but I think with another coat I can smooth it out somewhat.
I'll need to sand bits of it that stick out a bit- remember the object of the exercise is to remove skirting panels and fit my wardrobe. Can I sand plaster effectively by hand, and if so what grit would I need?
If an electric sander is needed, what sort? The "mice" type always look weak, and the random orbitals could make a big mess.
Thanks for any continued advice. :)
if skimming as coarse as you can get - less fine dust and quicker
a surform is very good as is a permagrit block - clear the clogging with a wire brush.
Orbital will make a mess and is only good for getting a good finish - you need something coarser
You probably had some set plaster contamination in your mix. You need to make sure the mixing bucket etc are spotlessly clean before doing the next mix.
Give the exiting coats a good soaking with a water sprayer first.
Very coarse grit - say 40 or 60 wrapped round a block of wood.
Anything powered will make a big mess ;-)
Quite right, I did. It's so difficult to get it clean, I scraped and scraped, but to no avail. It looks like it will take forever to clean the bucket.. I was putting the plaster onto the trowel straight from the mixing bucket - perhaps this is a bad idea.
Thanks to all for input, I'm not too upset considering this is my first time working with plaster.
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