Need solution for gap when fitting smaller skirting to walls

W

woodworm2009

Hello

I have recently had to rip out old skirting boards from downstairs living room of old victorian terraced house. whatever was behind the skirting boards has crumbled away and there is just the brick work.

The skirting board was very high and i cannot replace it with same size (too expensive!) So need to replace it with smaller size.

What do i do about filling the gap between existing bottom of plastered wall and where the new skirting will be?

I had thought i could use plasterboard fixed onto the brickwork and then plaster skim down the wall over the plasterboard and put skirting over that...
seemed like a really clever plan but i have read loads of topics in the forums and am now worried about the DPC, bridging and rising damp issues etc etc.

I'm really stuck and desperately need to move on with this job - its my mums house and it only started out as treating the floorboards and has now turned into this skirting board stumper. Please help.
 
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dunno if your going to be painting the skirts,but have you thought about ripping some mdf down to the required height of old skirting and installing a fancy moulding to it,this way you wont have to make good the walls?
or you could pack out the new skirts and hardwall the gap?
 
Hi. I really didn't want to make the skirting board higher than it was (250mm) and actually wanted to lower it. I am really trying to find out what i can use inbetween the bottom of the plastered wall and where the skirting will start... i had thought about putting plasterboard and skimming but was unsure about the 'bridging the DPC'.
 
Is it a suspended floor - joists 'n' stuff?

If so, then the dpc will be below the bottom of the joists. Never known a dpc to be above the flooring, but i'm not that experienced in these matters.
 
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hi.
Its is a 'suspended' floor so the dpc must be below the joists i guess, so hopefully i can just do the plastering thing and not worry.... will let you know how it turns out!
 
I'm surprised that the mods have not jumped on you yet, having 2 threads for the same thing....
 
If you can't see the DPC on the exposed brick stop worrying and plaster down to the level you need. You can even go almost to the floorboards to make fixing the new skirting easier.

Be careful not to drop any plaster down the space between the wall and the floorboards. If you bridge the gap between the outer wall and the ends of the floorplates on the sleeper wall they will rot.

When I had a similar job to do I used strips of 6mm plywood shoved up against the wall to a) give a gap between plaster and floorboards and b) stop plaster falling into the sub-floor. When the plaster is dry the strips can be pulled out easily.
 
I'm surprised that the mods have not jumped on you yet, having 2 threads for the same thing....

Thanks for drawing attention to it but i didn't know i couldn't.... i'm no building expert and did not know which area would be able to give advice so i tried more than one and have ended up with great advice from those different areas.
 
Many yrs ago watched chippies on '1st fix' - batten fixed along wall below eventual top skirting level.
Using string along length of batten they packed batten off brickwork at each batten to brickwork screw position to ensure batten 'flat' along it's length ie not following wall undulations . Plasterers worked to top edge of batten, skirting fixed to batten, nailed I believe... Proper job they said, and it looked just that.
Not so difficult to strip either. nailed skirting from screwed batten...
--
 
Why not buy the taller skirting - it may be more expensive but you'll have to pay a plasterer to come in anyway with your method. Do you not want to keep the victorian feel?
 

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