How to fill behing removed skirting?

Mistral001

bobgroups wrote: »

Now tempted to leave some of the old nails where they are and maybe cut them with an angle grinder..

Normally you would not do that as they will cause rust marks on the plaster if they are close to the surface, but since the plaster will be behind the skirting it does not really matter in this case. If you cut them so that they are abot 6mm shy of the surface it should cover all bases.

cyclonebri1

The bonding you have will be fine, don't worry.

Remove the nails if you can, twist them out with grips, knock them in, or snap them off, all dependant on how well they are fixed.

Don't worry about the quality of what is /was behind the skirting, it was fine before and will be once fixed up.

Bond the new skirting on with no more nails or similar, fill gaps between skirting and wall with and acrylic or similar paintable filler/sealant.

keystone

Perhaps one of the Board Guides could merge OP's two threads on this subject together?

Cheers

Stooby2

I have used expanding foam to successfully fix new skirting onto old crappy walls in similar circumstances. So long as it's all clean, moisten the wall sightly and don't go mad with the foam, it fills the gaps and glues the board firmly in place without needing nails or screws. It can push the board away if you use too much foam, so I wedge the board in place with a bag of sand while the foam goes off.

I should add - I only tried it as it was a suggested use on the can.

Leif

bobgroups wrote: »

this is all behind where the new skirting board will go. (Removing old skirting then someone else putting wooden flooring and i will put some new skirting on). So i dont care too much about the finish on the wall. My idea is to smooth and fill the large holes so easier to put new skirting on and wall behind is fairly straight + if I screen new skirting on then I need to fill the gaps as necessary for screws.

Another point to add is that old plaster is really crumbly - it's a grey cement colour - so will bonding or similar stick to the sections of old plaster that are crumbly?

Should i remove all old nails. i'm tempted to leave most there and only remove if really necc. Each time i remove a nail old crumbly plaster comes off with it leaving another hole to file.

The plaster will come away when you remove nails. Just bung in some plaster. It does not take much time, and you don't need to be too neat behind skirting. In fact it might not even be worth bothering unless the hole extends beyond the board. Draw on the wall a line marking the top of the skirting, so you know where the finish matters. For a finish, a small bag of Easi-fill is cheap, easy to mix (plastic bowl, wooden spoon), and easy to sand.

Grey plaster is not cement based. Plaster can be pink or grey. Mine is mostly grey, very porous, and it was full of small holes. There is tanking, which I think is cement based, and grey, and used by damp proofers. It usually extends from the floor to about knee height. It is very hard, so you'd know if you had that.