Best method of skirting fixing..

House_Hunter

Happy new year, finally got some nice new oak skirting and was now thinking about the fixing...

What are peoples thoughts with regards the best way of fixing - glue, screw, both or something completely different?

Would appeciated anybodys findings - pro's / cons or the respective options...

Cheers! :j

debbie42

I had oak skirting fitted a while back, and used screws + dowels to cover the holes. Looks really nice. Mine was fairly deep solid oak, so not suitable for glueing.

keystone

Plug and screw most definitely.

Cheers

andrew-b

Depends on the construction of your walls and more importantly how straight they are.
Straight wall...no more nails (or similar) will do the trick for minimal effort (not so great if you ever want to remove them!)
Not so straight walls ...lost head nails or plug and screw....choice depending on skirting and wall construction .
I tried all three methods to get one length on ...glue didnt work as not straight enough walls, nails bounced off the hard cement render under the plaster, plugs and screws did the trick. However with yours being oak i'd be favouring gluing them on rather nails or screws.

I've seen systems for skirtings and architrave where you screw special brackets in place and the skirting simply hook on...still relatively expensive but at face value seems like a good solution ...until you find the plaster undulates all over the place between the fixings!

House_Hunter

Cheers for the replies...

Walls are fairly straight as have been recently re-plastered, which leads towards no-more nails option..

...but then again, concerned about the future damage if I ever wanted to take them off (e.g. to fit new wooden floor or lift floorboards etc..)

Conversely, I also wonder how "secure" screwing would be - are the boards likely to bend away at the top? What are the plugs you refer to?

Walls are "old" solid brick with a fairly thick backing plaster and skim...

keystone

House_Hunter wrote: »

Walls are fairly straight as have been recently re-plastered, which leads towards no-more nails option.

Not for hardwood IMO but if you really are set on doing it that way then go for a trade grab adhesive. NMN is pants.

Conversely, I also wonder how "secure" screwing would be - are the boards likely to bend away at the top? What are the plugs you refer to?

Be quite secure as long as you don't expect to fit a 10 foot length with two screws. Drill wall, fit wall plug, screw through skirting board into wall plug. Don't firget to make the screwhole in the board deep then you can dowel it and the screw will be hidden after finishing.

Cheers

andrew-b

Tut! You've omitted a vital step....pilot hole through board to mark the plaster...

To guarantee all your drill holes line up first time, drill pilot holes through board so you mark the plaster (wood bit), take board away widen hole to size of rawlplug (using masonry bit), countersink board if your filling/painting white or drill larger holes centred on your pilot hole for dowels, stick rawlplugs in, screw in, dowels in..done. Worth having more than one drill on the go. Cordless screwdrivers come in handy (i find them great if you have a countersink bit for them too!).

Nails are so much quicker when you can use them! And glues way quicker..i like Forget Nails (wickes equivalent)..the ultimate version. Never had probs with adhesion with that or NMN (expensive though!), not tried Sticks Like Sh*t (yet!)

ormus

i used wickes glue and used heavy paint tins/bricks to hold the skirting in place. whilst the glue dried.
been there for 3 yrs now. no problems.

27col

So I suppose you will be removing the paint cans soon then, ormus

keystone

andrew-b wrote: »

Tut! You've omitted a vital step....pilot hole through board to mark the plaster...

Why thank you Andrew for pointing out my omission. Pretty obvious really though. I didn't get the impression that the OP needed their hand holding that much.

Cheers

leveller2911

Hi OP,
The first thing to do is to make sure the plaster is thoroughly dry because if it isn't and you fix the skirting back within a day or so it will "cup"(bow) and if it does then its a case of throw it all away and start again.

IMO theres no short cuts when using Oak.You can stick short lengths with "Gripfill" (the best IMO, but don't use the low odour one as it doens't have the same "grab ") With longer lengths I would screw and "Pellet" them.Drill half way through the oak with a 1/2" bit, then drill through the centre with a 6mm drill bit.Then hold as tightly to the wall as possible and drill into the walls(brickwork or blockwork) with a 6mm masonary bit,stick red plugs into the hole and fix with 4x40 screws(longer if needed).Then glue 1/2" Oak pellets into the holes.Don't use PVA glue as this will react with the tanic acid in the oak and you will see a black ring around the pellet.Use either "Cascamite" or PU (polyurethane)glue...On external mitres the mitred corners should be pinned together with sheradized pins and then "stopped" (oak coloured filler)........

remember internal joints are scribed and external mitres mitred......you can buy pellets from timber merchants