Skirting boards - question

Dylan123 · 14 Feb 2021

Hi,

I have a large room, with 2 chimney breasts, a bay and many, many irregular corners at odd angles.

I am installing engineered wood and I have no gap at all between the floorboards and skirting.

I want to avoid using trim as i don’t like the look of it, and want the floor going under the skirting.

I don’t really want to have to rip the existing skirting up, as I have to take all the radiators off, and then prob put new skirting on which will take ages with all the odd cuts.

ideally I just want to trim under existing.

I can see you can get these little tools that will cut under skirting. Like about 3 inch vibrating blade, and you just go on an angle and slice the bottom of the skirting off.

I need to remove about an inch off all of them.

Is this the best way to go about it? It seems easier than taking off and replacing (worried - how do I get it all off without breaking it? Damage to plaster etc)

or is using a tool like that for a big room tricky?

is it easy to get a straight line? Shall I score the line with a Stanley first?

Any advice on this appreciated

thank you

foxhole · 14 Feb 2021

You can't fit under fitted skirting, think about it?

Dylan123 · 14 Feb 2021

foxhole said:
You can't fit under fitted skirting, think about it?

the skirting is nailed or glued to the wall, it doesn’t stand on the boards.

you can fit under fitted door frames, I’ve done it and chiselled a recess out.

can you explain what you mean?

foxhole · 14 Feb 2021

How are you going to get the last planks down by the far wall?

Dylan123 · 14 Feb 2021

foxhole said:
How are you going to get the last planks down by the far wall?

90% of that wall is a sliding door with a couple of tiny bits of skirting either side.

I can take it off if you think it’s easier, it just seems a total ball ache to rip it all off and put it back on, and the radiators, which I’ve never done!

axtually thinking about it, it causes issues on 2 walls.

hmm

perhaps I just trim on the ones with radiators?

shaggybawz · 14 Feb 2021

Why go to the expense of nice new flooring and bodge the skirtings?

Ripping out a channel for the flooring to fit under the skirting sounds like a right ball ache.

Tigercubrider · 14 Feb 2021

You could hire a door saw.
It's a circular saw on it's side that uses a flat plate on the floor, you adjust the depth and height using screws. Corners are still an issue

Deleted member 174758 · 14 Feb 2021

You can sometimes hire a jamb saw to undercut skirtings and door casings/linings (these things cost £400 to £800 to buy, hence the hire suggestion), but I've always found them to need a wee bit of cleanup afterwards. Still, it's a lot less work and a quicker and neater job than going round the whole way with a multitool. Note that there is a type of jamb saw designed for cutting corners which has a u-shaped base plate, but you'll probably still need a multitool to finish the corners and finish trimming the door bottoms. The process can use a lot of blades depending on the make up.of the wall and it is a very dusty procedure, so get a vacuum on it

One problem is that you will be slicing a lot out of the bottoms of your skirtings, which might leave them looking a bit odd. As a joiner I'd probably take the hit and remove the skirtings before installing the flooring (much easier to get the expansion gaps right) and finish off by reinstating (if the old stuff will.clean up nicely enough) or replacing the skirting, but this does involve a lot more work

Dylan123 · 14 Feb 2021

JobAndKnock said:
You can sometimes hire a jamb saw to undercut skirtings and door casings/linings (these things cost £400 to £800 to buy, hence the hire suggestion), but I've always found them to need a wee bit of cleanup afterwards. Still, it's a lot less work and a quicker and neater job than going round the whole way with a multitool. Note that there is a type of jamb saw designed for cutting corners which has a u-shaped base plate, but you'll probably still need a multitool to finish the corners and finish trimming the door bottoms. The process can use a lot of blades depending on the make up.of the wall and it is a very dusty procedure, so get a vacuum on it

One problem is that you will be slicing a lot out of the bottoms of your skirtings, which might leave them looking a bit odd. As a joiner I'd probably take the hit and remove the skirtings before installing the flooring (much easier to get the expansion gaps right) and finish off by reinstating (if the old stuff will.clean up nicely enough) or replacing the skirting, but this does involve a lot more work

that’s it settled. I’m going to take them off. I’ll put the old ones back, they are original 30s and I like them, plus they are all cut to shape already

Dylan123 · 14 Feb 2021

Just final question, I’ve asked this before but had mixed responses.

I’m laying engineered wood over floorboards, but want to go the same way as the floorboards.

provided everything is totally nailed down beforehand, if I use a good quality underlay, is laying the flooring the same way as the planks OK?

I was going to board over in ply but several have said unnecessary provided a good underlay. Others have said board it.

further opinions welcome

Deleted member 174758 · 14 Feb 2021

I'm not a floorer, I'm a joiner, which colours my response. I was taught, decades ago, that when you lay new wood flooring over old wooden floors you always either lay it at between 45° and 90° to the original boarding, or you install a thin intermediate layer of plywood atop the original floor boards so that any cupping, discrepancies, etc in the old floor are smoothed out. I've worked on quite a few old buildings where new flooring was laid on top of old and I've never seen one yet which wasn't done that way

dazlight · 14 Feb 2021

As long as the floorboards are flat you will be ok. If cupped then a scratch coat of a fibre smoothing compound or plywood.

JaimieH · 14 Feb 2021

I've just finished two oak floors in an old house where the customer was adamant they didn't want the original skirting removed. I undercut the entire skirting and architraves/door lining using a Dewalt plunge saw laid on its side. I used a Fein multi tool to get into the corners and behind the radiator pipework. To get the plunge saw blade to sit at the correct height I stuck window packers to it using duck tape. Be careful to set the blade depth correctly for when cutting below any sockets. This is the first time I've fitted any flooring this way and would always normally remove the skirting, but to be honest it worked really well and the finished result looked great.

Deleted member 174758 · 14 Feb 2021

The OP did state that it was original 1930s skirting, so maybe better not to cut?

Dylan123 · 14 Feb 2021

JaimieH said:
I've just finished two oak floors in an old house where the customer was adamant they didn't want the original skirting removed. I undercut the entire skirting and architraves/door lining using a Dewalt plunge saw laid on its side. I used a Fein multi tool to get into the corners and behind the radiator pipework. To get the plunge saw blade to sit at the correct height I stuck window packers to it using duck tape. Be careful to set the blade depth correctly for when cutting below any sockets. This is the first time I've fitted any flooring this way and would always normally remove the skirting, but to be honest it worked really well and the finished result looked great.

to be honest, I’m quite happy to take it off if it’s easier. I’m mainly concerned about taking chunks of plaster with it, not being able to fit the corners back flush, and also the radiators - they are really close in and I will have to take them off to take the skirting boards off.

what you describe involves me buying a lot of tools for one DIY job, gonna just have to figure out how to remove and reattach radiators.

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Skirting boards - question

Deleted member 174758

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