REMOVING SKIRTING BOARD

I have really high victorian skirting board that i wish to remove before putting wooden floor down( cant stand beading!) . does anybody know a way of taking it off with out damaging it and doing as little damage as possible to the plaster behind it ? any suggestions would be very welcome.

Reply to
mark al
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If I knew that, I would be a rich man! I have just removed mine for the same reason, threw it all away and damaged the plaster (badly in one spot) :-(( but it wasn't nice Victorian stuff.

Use the widest, flattest bolster chisel you can find and split a length away from the wall in several places before trying to pull it.

Damage the plaster in preference to the wood. It's much easier to patch.

Reply to
Bob Mannix

I think that you will have real difficulty getting it off non-destuctively - and it's best to think in terms of replacing it. If you want to match the existing section, but can't find any, it sounds like a good excuse to ask Father Christmas for a router so that you can make your own.

An alternative which you could consider - and I don't know how well this would work - would be to remove and replace the bottom 3 or 4 inches of the skirting, having run a circular saw along horizontally at the appropriate height (finishing by hand in the corners). The top part of the existing skirting hopefully wouldn't impede your flooring activities too much. The difficult bit would be replacing the lower section without the joint showing.

Roger

Reply to
Roger Mills

If it's a high skirting board, it's probably made in sections, with the largest bottom part you'll want to remove the final one to be fixed when new. But it will also be fixed by cut nails, which don't give up easily.

To facilitate making good when replacing, I'd strip the paint at the fixings - find a couple and you'll get the spacing - and remove the nails first to avoid splitting the wood - holes are easier to fill. Also strip the paint at the top where it joins the rest.

There probably won't be any plaster behind this part - it will be spaced off the brick or studs with wood battens.

Reply to
Dave Plowman

These old skirtings are made from a flat panel and a moulding on top, so you need to remove the moulding first by taking a wide bolster and pushing it between the top moulding and the vertical panel, then wedge the top mould upward and off. You'll find that you bend a few nails in this operation, but it's the simplest and least destructive way of doing it.

Reply to
BigWallop

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