Wooden flooring - advice for edges please

Flamingo_2

Hello,
I'm after some advice please. My husband is going to lay wooden flooring in our hall (currently carpet). He's not done anything like this before but is determined to do it himself & has taken a week off work.

We're debating what to do around the edge to cover the expansion gap. Would you suggest removing the skirting board & then relaying to cover the gap?
Or should we leave the skirting board in place & add wooden beading once all the flooring is down?

Would you advise one over the other? If so, why?

Any advice would be gratefully received Many thanks in advance.

wr1ght

is it solid wood ? if so removing the skirting looks much better, using scotia makes it look like laminate

hotcookie101

Lifting skirting and refitting gives a much more professional finish, we had to use scotia around cupboards and the fireplace-def looks worse than if the edge was hidden by skirting....

Flamingo_2

Thanks very much for the advice - lifting the skirting board is the way forward!

keystone

Bear in mind that a hallway is full of doorways and stairs as well. The quantity of skirting involved is minimal compared with a reception room. The architraves and door frames will have to be undercut too.

Sorry to be blunt but I don't think your project is very MSE. The hallway has to be the most difficult to do from a DIY perspective and certainly for a noob at it. If he's taken a week off work I hope the company is paying him as holiday. Despite his enthusiasm for the task which is laudable If not then you should weigh up the cost of lost income and a weeks worth of disruption compared with paying a professional fitter a days money for the job.

Cheers

Flamingo_2

Thanks Keystone - i completely see where you are coming from! I have tried persuading him to get someone in to do it but we've had a couple of bad experiences in the past which has left us very untrusting of tradespeople
He's adamant he want's to do it himself, so who am i to stand in his way....!
PS He's on paid leave from work.

laurel7172

Have a look on Youtube for videos showing you how to scribe the architrave and cut underneath for a neat finish around the doors...it's a simple trick once you know it.

I second/third/fourth skirting board over trim, but it does involve additional faff re filling and repainting. It will be worth it in the end, though...I have one room done with beading (because it had just been papered) and another with the skirting replaced...and there's no comparison.

Steve_the_fitter

You can always undercut the skirting as well

keystone

Steve_the_fitter wrote: »

You can always undercut the skirting as well

Indeed he can and that would be a much better option that ripping them off with the resultant redecoration costs.

He'll need an undercut (or jamb) saw like this:



£150 ish to buy £60 ish to hire for a week.

Don't go in too deep though. Just enough for your expansion gap.

Cheers

Flamingo_2

Again, thank you for all the useful advice

Can i just check - is this the right kind of saw that we would need to hire?
http://www.hss.com/g/3141/Door-Trim-Saw-inc-Blade-.html

keystone

Flamingo wrote: »

Again, thank you for all the useful advice

Can i just check - is this the right kind of saw that we would need to hire?
http://www.hss.com/g/3141/Door-Trim-Saw-inc-Blade-.html

Yep thats something like it - of course the doors won't need trimming if they open inwards away from the hall. Watch out for the nails in skirts etc. They can nerf a blade just like that.

Cheers