Flooring - remove the skirting or not?

MaggieBaking

Just about to get re-flooring done throughout the house. It's a reasonable sized 2 up-2 down and we've bought it to renovate, live in and sell on.

We're looking to get laminate flooring, roughly priced at £10-15 p.m.sq (not decided it yet - but to give you a rough idea of the quality we are aiming for.)

We have had all our walls replastered recently, without removing the skirting so I fear that removing them to put the flooring in will cause some remedial b*llache when putting them back on!

Cheaper option will be for scotia then, but I'm not sure I like the aesthetics, though I can't find many pictures to check.

What would you do?

mrschaucer

Scotia is pants. You know you'll regret it ...

victor2

I replaced my skirting board when I put laminate flooring in the living room. Bit of a pain behind radiators but worth it.
Given that you've had the walls replastered without removing the skirting I agree it could get a bit messy. You could look for some slightly taller skirting than that you'll be replacing to perhaps cover the edge of the new plaster. Old skirting tends to be nailed in place, these days you can just glue it so have a bit more flexibility when fixing it. Worth painting the new stuff before fixing it to the wall too!

irnbru_2

MaggieBaking wrote: »

We have had all our walls replastered recently, without removing the skirting so I fear that removing them to put the flooring in will cause some remedial b*llache when putting them back on!

It will, when re-installed only the top of the skirting will be flush with the wall. You'll need to fill it out the gap where the skirting was with something like plywood to pad it out to the newly plastered depth.

UncleZen

Quadrant looks fine to me if you get the right stuff that matches.

McKneff

You should be able to buy matching beading where you buy your flooring from.

Leif

I removed skirting because the skirting and the walls just above the skirting were vile, and having professionals fit new skirting saved me massive amounts of work. But I found out a few things. Firstly removing skirting may well cause damage to the plaster. Mine was nailed, and when I pulled out each nail I created a conical hole, sometimes quite wide. I avoided too much damage by placing a carpet tile against the wall as protection when using a chisel and hammer to lever away the board. I repaired holes that extended above the new skirting using Easi-fill. If you have a wall skimmed, and put back skirting, or as you are doing, skim, remove skirting, then put back tall skirting, the skirting will sit farther out from the wall, and will not match the architraves. Ooops. Mine was bevelled, and looks quite nice, but some retentive people will notice. The pros who fitted my skirting had a large table mitre saw in my lounge, with a bed about 3m long. Impressive! Oh, and the new skirting might not match the architraves e.g. torus skirting and plain architraves. That might bother some people.

To be honest, if your skirting is okay, and really just needs a dab of paint, I'd leave it, and use some beading/quadrant. IMO it looks nice like that, and you don't have what estate agents refer to as a 'prestige house', so don't go overboard, just make it look nice and spend according to the quality of the house and the flooring. (Not trying to be snobby, just realistic, I've done likewise in my home.)

aliasojo

Quickstep have a new edging which looks a bit better than quadrant imo. It's called incizo and is a multifunctional doodah.

http://www.quick-step.com/europe/uk/en/qsincp.aspx

irnbru_2

MaggieBaking wrote: »

We have had all our walls replastered recently, without removing the skirting so I fear that removing them to put the flooring in will cause some remedial b*llache when putting them back on!

There is another option of trimming the skirting in situ to fit laminate. In practice you still need to take one side off however depending on the lock you can avoid this if you can exert enough force and pull the laminate back into position.

prowla

When I first glanced at the thread title, I read the first word as "Flirting"; it gave me a whole different perspective!

jcb208

If the skirting is fixed well your chances of getting it off without damage is slim.So proberbly better to replace If you dont want a moulding around the edge