Skirting against stone, opinions and suggestions please

[mointainwalker]

Hello All

I was thinking that i would put skirting against the wall in my barn-conversion. Will be helpful in hiding cables as well.

Decided just to try a board against the wall to see visual effect and was very disappointed. The wall is pretty straight and flat for a hay-barn. but shows very big gaps when a straight edge is laid against it.

Can you tell me what you have done in similar circumstances or what you suggest in this case ?

Photo 1 Looking at board, photo parallel to floor

Photo 2 Looking down onto plank close to wall

Photo 3 Showing gap of 20 -25 mm/

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• mointainwalker
• 27 Sep 2010
• 2

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• mointainwalker
• 27 Sep 2010
• 2

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• mointainwalker
• 27 Sep 2010
• 2

 

[Deluks]

Not gonna happen is it?

Unless you want to bring the skirting out a couple of inches, and scribe a top piece to the wall? What you will then have is a simple 'boxing in' of the cables. But might look a bit guff.

 

[maltaron]

I have previosly done as "deluks" has suggested to hide pipes and if done well it looks OK. It is of course difficult to scribe to a stone surface such as yours but a skilled joiner could do it (at a price)

 

[gregers]

could you not just fix a batten to the wall and floor then the skirts to the batten with cups and screws?and then just carefully back fill between wall and battens?

 

[geraldthehamster]

I agree it doesn't look good. Is it practical to have no skirting, or does this leave awkward gaps at the edge of the board? A top piece scribed to the wall is probably the only way to deal with the gaps, with wooden skirting.

At one time it wasn't unusual to use quarry tiles for skirting - they wouldn't blend in with your stone, but could you instead create a skirting from slate tiles? That might work if slate is part of your local vernacular, and would give you a bit of tolerance to take up undulations in the wall.

Cheers
Richard

 

[mointainwalker]

Thanks for your replies.

@ Deluks - That's my feeling.

@Maltaron. A possibility, but no local carpenter/joiner would ever deign to look at such a small job.

@gregers, No problem to do that, just thought the result would not be something ( aesthetically) that I would like.

@gerald, Thinking about no skirt, but means I will have to "bury" cable-conduit and also leaves me with an expansion-gap problem. Finish will be engineered wood on UFH.

Can;t see how slate gives any advantage over wood except colour difference and gaps therefore not so apparent.

Grateful - keep the synapses firing and the ideas coming !

 

[Deluks]

Would it be possible to get a wall chaser and grind an expansion gap into the wall? Then the floor would 'disappear' into the wall itself. Fiddly, but diy-able.

 

[^woody^]

I think it is important to keep the timber skirting straight, as any wavy or segmented skirting will look crap

So as gregers mentioned, filling the gaps with some mortar and stone slivers and taking these up the wall slightly to gradually blend them in may be the best option

Alternatively a skirting of long narrow sections of stone or slate or suchlike may give you the upstand effect, but again the wavyness may not be appealing

That's the probelm with these old fashioned buildings - no such problems in a nice modern plastered wall box room

 

[mointainwalker]

@Deluks

I'm now thinking that's going to be the best idea. Have asked the flooring forum if it would be a problem if I removed the tongue on penultimate board to make fitting easier and undercut smaller.

Would be fairly easy to do as the stone is schiste, so fractures easily.

@woody

I had one of those boxes, bought from new in '89 - height of Lawson boom. I thought it was crap at the time , but if I had known then what I know now, I would have gone after those monkies with a piece of 10 mm re-bar.

It was badly-built with poor materials ( windows by Boulton and Paul - absiolute rubbish, wouldn't have liked to have seen their fighter-plane !) and needed/needs lots of maintenance. In contrast this barn has stood for 200 years with just work on the roof and would - probably - stand for another 200 in a fairly extreme climate because it was superbly-built with local materials by the owners who put the time in at the construction-stage to obviate work down the line.

Sorry about that, woody, but you -unknowingly - touched off my diatribe about those builders ( men and company) who I absolutely despise for the rubbish they were responsible for ( which included ordinary pb in the showers which disolved after a few years . )

The box also came with a less attractive outlook and -usually -leaden grey skies.

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• mointainwalker
• 30 Sep 2010
• 1

 

[geraldthehamster]

Alternatively a skirting of long narrow sections of stone or slate or suchlike may give you the upstand effect, but again the wavyness may not be appealing

I think if you used slate or stone that was a similiar colour to the wall, fitted straight, then filled the gaps with the same mortar used in the wall, that would look OK.

However, scribing the flooring so that it seemed to disappear under the wall, and having no skirting, would probably look better.

cheers
Richard

 

[geraldthehamster]

A further thought, bearing in mind that you were asking for a solution that would enable you to fit wood skirting:

How about if you fitted the wood skirting, then back-filled the gaps with mortar that matched the wall, perhaps taking it up onto the wall a bit to avoid a horizontal surface, and make it look more like part of the wall. I assume the wall is built with lime mortar; lime putty is available from some builders' merchants, and you should be able to seek out a local sand to match what was used in the original wall (3-1 sand-putty, I think is the usual mix for lime mortar). You might be left with the odd gap against the skirting as it dried, but you wouldn't have the inch-wide voids, and as you say, this isn't a rectangular box.

Cheers
Richard

 

[JohnD]

I find the batten method is very good. One flush with the top of the skirting, one 18mm up from the floor. You have the advantage that you can screw and plug into joints if you want (e.g. if the stone is difficult to drill), using no-more-nails or similar into the holes before you insert the plugs if the joint is fractious or crumbly.

then fill the gaps between batten and wall with tinted mortar (it is much easier on a plastered wall). If you are goint to paint the skirting, use filler and paint that, the battens, and the skirting, to match.

as the battens are well-fixed you only need small screws to hold skirting to batten. Brass screws can look good, or you can sink and pellet (or filler, if painting)

the gap between battens and skirting can be used for audiovisual or phone cables but not (in the UK at least) for power cables.

This method is also good on brick walls if the bricks or mortar are difficult, but in that case, chase the plaster off first.

 

[maltaron]

Just to add another bit of advice. If you plan on using oak, it is essential to use brass screws. Any steel near oak will cause it to "blue".

 

[^woody^]

 

[WestmidsChippy]

Thanks for your replies.


@Maltaron. A possibility, but no local carpenter/joiner would ever deign to look at such a small job.
!

...or you mean you are not willing to pay someone who knows how to do such a job and pay him a fair amount.

Thats what i think when i look at these bankers/managers and the ilk.

Besides the obv that after reading your posts i would feel the need to give you a quick pow in the kisser i will let my emotions run free from the following.

I would suggest you get some 3 x 1, scribe the 3 x 1 to the wall, fix skirting to 3x1 (depends on what final finish you are having for the skirting, as if stained then fix from the back of skirting face and remember the glue).
Cut some packers and fix to the wall. if you do it right it will look a 'proppa' job.