Trimming skirting

[MarkF]

Hi I'm planning to fit some engineered wood flooring in our living room. It all looks fairly straightforward apart from the edges. I don't like the look of the edging strips to cover the expansion gaps and I really don't fancy removing the skirting.

Would a door trimming saw allow me to trim the skirting in situ? The one on the HSS website claims it is adjustable for depth of cut and height above the floor so it should work shouldn't it? Anyone any experience of actually doing this - what sort of finish is possible?

Thanks Mark

[john]

I think you will have an issue on two adjacent sides of the room when it comes to finishing off.

John

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

What he means by this is ...how do you get the wood flooring underneath the opposing wall skirting length ways and width?

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[Set Square]

*And* get behind it to squeeze the joints together! Answer: Mission impossible!

IMHO you cannot do an adequate job without removing the skirtings. Even removing half of them won't work because, although you'll be able to slide the starting end under the in-situ skirting, you won't be able to remove the spacers.

Obviously, its not feasible to remove door frames and architraves. You can undercut those and slide the flooring under (still maintaining an expansion gap) - but you have to plan the order of doing things very carefully in order to be succesful with this.

[tarquinlinbin]

Yank the skirtings off and put new on,its no big deal.

Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

[MarkF]

Bum! I see what you mean. I obviously hadn't thought that through had I. Oh well, suppose I'll have to think about taking the skirting off completely then.

Thanks anyway. Mark

[Set Square]

I would - in fact I *did* when I did my hallway - and I had 6 doorways and a newel post to contend with. Fun!

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

MarkF wrote: [snip]

I would seriously think about fixing beading around the gaps because taking skirting off is a messy job,wrecks plaster, and then the hassle of putting it back.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[zymurgy]

Definitely. I used stained real wood quadrant rather than the nasty mdf floor edging and i'm really happy with the result.

Cheers

Paul.

[Set Square]

Only if you want it to look like a naff retro-fit job rather than a wooden floor which was meant to be there. You don't put the original skirting back - you put *new* skirting on - held on with Gripfill or similar, having first cut it to size/mitred it and painted it. Yes, you may need to repair the plaster - but Pollyfilla will do the job - it's not like plastering a whole room!

[Rick]

points have been made about removing the skirting. Important point is scribe in the first row, get a good fit to wall, then pack out with even spacers .... fit the first 3 rows, with D4 glue, clamp up with flooring webbing straps, and let the glue set overnight before doing the rest.

[Richard Conway]

Sometimes it is plausible to put slightly taller skirting in place which should cover any damage done whilst removing the old stuff.

[Set Square]

True - but you still need a flattish surface to fix it to - so if chunks of plaster have broken away, it's still best to repair the damage. Taller skirting is probably a good idea if you're *not* re-decorating.

[Christian McArdle]

Yes. I've always used much larger skirting when replacing. People are often so cheap with the skirting, when a decent 20-30 cm looks so much better (especially ogee) for a few extra pennies. Some modern houses have 5cm skirtings which look absolutely dreadful, just like those smaller covings.

Christian.

[Chris Bacon]

How do you affix new skirting and *not* decorate?

[Christian McArdle]

The "re-decorating" applies to the wall. If you don't want to repaint/repaper the walls, then using taller skirting obviates this need, as the s**nk that results from removing skirting is kept well below the new skirting/wall join.

Christian.

[Mark]

Even _im_ surprised at the things some builders do to save a buck. I recently saw a delivery of 150mm reversible Torus / Ogee skirting to a site, must have been a job lot as they then cut it in half and used it in alternate houses. ;-(

-

[Chris Bacon]

8" skirting? *12"* skirting? Where do you get that from? I think it would look dreadful in many modern houses.

A few extra pennies? What's the price of 8" skirting compared to

3" (I have not seen any 2")??

[Set Square]

You paint it before sticking it on, fix it so that it slightly overlaps the existing painted or papered area, and fill any slight gaps along the top with decorator's caulk.

[Christian McArdle]

20cm for most houses. 30cm for period houses of a certain calibre. You might get away with 15cm for a modern house. Anything less looks rank.

Christian.