Skirting board material???

[Jackie77]

Hi everyone

Hoping someone can tell me what my skirting board is made of? It’s a red material that is kind of like brick? It’s seems to be rotting in places and turning to dust.

Hopefully I have attached pictures!

Many thanks!

 

[ktuludays]

Yeah that is red brick

 

[Jackie77]

Wow, never heard of skirting board made out of red brick! Very unusual. It covers the whole downstairs.

Thank you!

 

[Tigercubrider]

Where I work has what are possibly brick or concrete skirting.
It was built in ww2 but I have seen other public buildings with stone/brick skirting.
Possibly done for damp proofing purposes?

 

[Jackie77]

It’s a 1940’s ish ex council house that was owned by a single gentleman all his life. Hasn’t had any work done for quite some time. Obviously asbestos has been a worry, but that all seems fine. I’ve just never seen skirting boards like these before.

 

[mrrusty]

It looks like red coloured concrete/mortar which would explain why it's crumbly.

This might be helpful https://www.skirting4u.co.uk/blog/post/can-you-get-skirting-board-covers

 

[^woody^]

They look like terracotta skirting tiles. Can you see joints every 6" or so?

Unusual for them to decay like that unless they were poorly fired, or if that place gets a few frequent kicks or knocks?

 

[Jackie77]

I can’t see any joints, but I’ll know more at the weekend when we remove more. They are very old and have been painted numerous times. Here’s a close up pic

 

[foxhole]

Probably cheap alternative to timber , in short supply during war years .

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Probably cheap alternative to timber , in short supply during war years .

And afterwards - building materials were rationed until 1954