Gaps between skirting boards and engineered wood flooring

[Dedekind]

Hello

A couple of years ago we had our house renovated and put engineered wood over the old floorboards. I think there is some ply, as well as the underlay. Skirting boards were also new.

In general its all good but there is one part of the house, my bedroom, where the drafts are a bit of a pain in the winter. There is some space between the skirting and the engineered wood, not too much to be honest, I think its a normal sized gap. The issue is that part of the room is cantilevered over the ground floor, and lies over some wooden structure which, from the outside, is not weather-proof at all. So the drafts are really noticeable just by standing next to the wall, and the room is by far the coldest in the house. (To be fair the window is a bigger contributor to the cold, but still).

What is the most efficient solution? Anything involving re-doing works to floor or skirting is a no-no, Im thinking more of something to put that can seal the gap or at least partially mitigate the issue. As I said its not the only thing contributing to the cold but if it can be somewhat mitigated then it can help.

Ideally I want something that I don't see, I think silicone would look weird for example as it's not a bathroom. Also I'm not sure what material is right since my understanding is that the engineered wood needs to expand and contract a bit. So I don't want to "stick" it to the skirting, if that makes sense..

 

[crazydaze]

The only thing I can think of is sealant or maybe coloured sealant that may disguise the appearance of the sealant in the gap.

You 'could' add a Engineered Wood Flat Bead around the edge to cover the gap, more attractive than traditional quadrant or scotia beading but perhaps not the finish you would be hoping for around the room having gone to the lengths of fitting skirting over the floor in the first place.

 

[drpepe]

If your skirting is white and it isn’t a big gap, I would just caulk the whole perimeter. Will stop drafts and unlikely to be noticeable.

 

[davecooper]

Most of my house is laminate or engineered flooring now and I have removed all the skirting before laying the floor then fitted new skirting afterwards. I purposely left a gap of about 3mm between the skirting and the floor and I filled this with the thin foam material that is used as a floor underlay and as a packing material. This is about 2mm thick so I use a double or triple thickness and ram it under the skirting with a scraper or filling knife. I push it under enough so that it doesn't show but it can be hooked out in the future if required.