Starting a new job meant work on the house had inevitably slowed, so the mammoth task of fitting several hundred metres of skirting had to be done over a number of months, whenever time allowed.
Most builders nowadays glue skirting boards in place with grab adhesives like Gripfill, a seemingly quick and easy solution, but one that wasn't going to work for us. We experimented by trying to glue a couple of lengths and were deeply unimpressed with the results. It was messy, expensive and horribly inaccurate.
Instead we decided to employ the same process as we'd used with the architraves, using ultra-thin, Lost-Tite screws which would allow us to pull the skirting tight against the walls. This was one advantage of using Fermacell; unlike conventional plaster the walls are extremely flat, so the boards should sit against them with no gaps and Fermacell also holds screws firmly without the need for wall plugs.
Pictured below is the spare bedroom before the skirting:
The oak floorboards required an expansion gap to be left around the perimeter of the room, so adding the skirting finally tidied all that up. Another view of before...
...and after.
The skirting boards were ordered pre-primed and once we'd cut them to length, we painted all the sections with the first top coat. After that it was just a matter of screwing them tight to the wall and flat to the floor (not always easy - more on that later...)
We chose to use plain skirting rather than anything patterned or grooved, mainly because it suited the house design, though it also made life easier when joining the skirting, as inside corners could be butt-joined without the need for scribing or mitring. We still had to mitre the external corners though and usually pre-glued these for extra accuracy in alignment before fitting to the wall.
Once the boards had been trimmed and painted, we could lay them in place ready for fixing. As can be seen from the picture below, it was impossible to get the boards to fit without any gaps because no walls or floors are perfectly flat.
Using the ultra-thin screws allowed us to get the skirting fixed really securely and pulled flush to the wall. After that we filled the gaps using the usual two layers of filler, coarse followed by fine...
... then a final coat of paint and the room's done.
The tiled floors downstairs presented several different challenges to the wooden floors upstairs. The hall in particular proved rather tricky. Here it is before any skirting.
As before, we cut the boards down to length and mitred them using a chopsaw set up outside on the front doorstep. Once all the boards had been trimmed, we placed them against the walls to see how they would fit and made adjustments where necessary.
The added problem with the tiled floor was that it wasn't always perfectly level, which often left uneven gaps where the skirting met the floor. The tiling had not been done badly by any means - if it was out, it was only by a matter of millimetres - but we just had to get it right...
So in order to get some skirting boards to sit flat without any unsightly gaps, the boards first needed to be scribed with pencil to match the uneven contours of the tiles and then planed to shape. A real pain!
The external doors presented a few extra difficulties too...
The grey aluminium front door frame was narrower than the skirting so for neatness (or mild 'OCD'), we bevelled the boards on both sides of the door with a 45 degree angled edge using a router.
The hinge side presented an additional issue because the 'knuckles' of the hinge were protruding out.
Once again, we used the router and cut a curved groove in order to shape the skirting around the hinge and stop it from rubbing against the moving hinge parts. Here's the piece after it had been routed and re-painted.
Curved around the hinge above and with a 45 degree bevelled angle below. Quite a nice fit but what a faff!
Once we were satisfied with the fit, we could screw all the sections firmly to the wall using the Lost-Tite screws.
Once again, no matter how much care you take, the walls are never perfectly straight. When fitted the skirting boards have slight gaps, but such small areas are relatively easy to fill.
And this is it after filling and painting.
More skirting trickery was required around the cupboard under stairs.
Below is what it looked like before skirting.
Skirting cut to size and placed into position.
External mitred corners glued together and all pieces painted
Screwed to the wall.
We cut an angle into the piece alongside the door in order to allow it to open fully.
Finally all gaps were filled and the skirting painted with a finished top coat of paint.
Same process on the other side of the cupboard
Screwed in place.
Holes filled.
Sanded down and painted.
To complete the run we needed to fit skirting to the cupboard door. We planed a few millimetres off the bottom edge so that there was no chance of it rubbing or sticking on the floor when it swings open. We then fixed it to the door with packers underneath so that it lined up perfectly with the top of the skirting boards on either side.
After being filled, rubbed down and painted...
...and swinging into action.
