skirting board over carpet

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I have a question that someone may be able to shed some light on. I am about to carpet a room that previously was laminated. The previous owners clearly skirted the room after they laid the laminate as now I have removed the laminate there is a gap of a few centimetres between the floor and the bottom of the laminate.

I now wish to carpet but am unsure as to whether i should, a) carpet with underlay up to the edge of the skirting, thus leaving a vacuum underneath the skirting board; or, b) carepet underneath the skirting board with a felt-backed carpet. This would not fully fill the gap and would still leave a few millimetres between the carpet and skirting. Will this provide a place for dust and dirt to accumulate? Also how is felt-backed carpet laid- is it nailed into place? Is it therefore possible to lay this kindof carpet all the way underneath my skirting? I really don't want to lower my skirting.

Many thanks
 
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well in my limited knowledge of carpet laying,if using a hessian backed carpet (6 mm)and underlay(6mm)and gripper rod then as the laminate is roughly 7-8 mm then you should be ok.
that is unless theyve have used the thick underlay underneath your laminate?then i would suggest installing a quad round your skirtings to cover the gap.
foam back carpet is stuck down,either with glue or double sided tape.
 
You are correct - doing nothing will result in dirty carpets as well as an unsightly gap. To fix this properly you only have 2 realistic options...

1/ re - fit the skirting boards - this will be messy and may result in replastering the wall/damage to decoration

2/ fit a filler between the bottom of the skirting board and the floor and then paint the same colour - you should be able to obtain or make a piece of timber (mouldings?) - this is by far the best option.

...@ Gregers - some laminate floors can take 18mm plus heightwise - there is no way underlay and carpet would hide that!!!! (10mm fibreboard underlay plus the thickness of the laminate)
 
:LOL: @lymmranger that is why i also said,
that is unless theyve have used the thick underlay underneath your laminate?then i would suggest installing a quad round your skirtings to cover the gap. ;)
 
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@ gregors - yes you did! (oops :oops: )

- mind I think quad does look terrible - it can cause a dilema from a from a fitting point of view too - you either have to fit short (to the quad) or over it (which looks odd).
Personally and professionaly dont do it - filleting a piece of timber into the gap is visually far more pleasing and shouldnt take too much longer

....right I`m off to sit on the naughty step ;)
 
Thanks for all your replies people.

I'm considering the quad option (you're right though, quad rarely looks good) or simply shaving some skirting timber to the correct height and filling the gaps with that prior to painting. That won't be easy considering the gaps change in height around the room (it's a top floor, 100 year old tenement so it's full of imperfections). I certainly don't want to remove the skirting board and have the hassle of replastering etc as I'm a DIY novice. But nor do I want to just do nothing, which will result in a dirty (white) carpet PLUS a gap.

Think I'll go with option b), filling the gaps with timber. It won't be perfect but with a couple of coats of gloss, and the fact that the laid carpet will cover at least part of the join, It will be acceptable. It's only the bedroom afterall.
 
Oh sorry forgot about that bit. The gap varies in size. Although I haven't measured it i'd say it ranges from as little as 5mm in places to at least 10-12mm in others. My skirting board is 20.5mm in depth if I recall correctly.
 
so you could get some 18mm sq and plane it to be a reasonable fit in the gap. Need not be in long lengths. I would also be thinking about that corky filler strip used round the edges of laminate or engineered flooring. Would fill the gap, block draughts, and could be painted to match the skirting.

I like to see a bit of a gap to tuck the carpet edge into though
 

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