Help! Cracking Skirtings!

[kriss_boy]

The painted skirtings and facings have all appeared to have shrunk and thus cracked?

What options do I have? Use painters caulk and just touch it up?

How would I avoid this? Paint the skirtings with a rough coat then wait a month till they crack, to then put the finsihing coat on?

i think its partly because the internal walls in the house are brickwork but not through to the founds, they just rest on wooden tracks so theres movement in them, compared to walls that go right through the floor to foundations.

 

[noseall]

it is not the skirtings that have shrunk but the architrave blocks.

 

[gcol]

Get your caulk out.

 

[kriss_boy]

It will be a ver, very laborious job caulking it all and touching it all up.

Is this something that only happens once? The paint shrinks the wood, and so just one touch up should be the final work on it?

Ive got more rooms to do but im tempted to do a couple of coats then wait a few weeks till it all shrinks and settles, then caulk it and do the final coats.

 

[big-all]

It will be a ver, very laborious job caulking it all and touching it all up.

Is this something that only happens once? The paint shrinks the wood, and so just one touch up should be the final work on it?

Ive got more rooms to do but im tempted to do a couple of coats then wait a few weeks till it all shrinks and settles, then caulk it and do the final coats.

the wood shrinks when the moisure content reduces
assuming your timber was new it should have been acclimatised before use to allow the mosture content to match the room its used in
once it reaches the minimum moisture content it wont shrink any more

other things that can cause problems is if you fit skirting to a plasterd wall that hasn't had time to dry then the skirting will slow up the drying prosses

it will also take longer to dry if you paint the wood

as said above the gap in your picture is the architrave block as timber only shrinks accross the grain not along its length

 

[Third_Eye]

Is the "wood" mdf by any chance ?