Skirting on 1940s ex-council house

barleybree

Hi, removed old skirting in a room which had built in wardrobe (type with sliding mirror doors) put in by previous owner, unfortunately skirting inside wardrobe area is completely different to the rest of the room. plaster work on the wall is suprisingly not too bad for its age. at the base of the wall the strip of wood which I believe is called the grounding (I think) is still there but below it is a 4/5 inch gap to the floor boards, I can also see part of the vent on the outside wall through this gap, the outside vent is under floor level. The draught coming up and through where the old skirting was is horrendous. Can I block this gap from floorboard up to the wood ground bar with cement before putting new skirting on? About 3 inches above the ground bar the plasterwork just needs a wee bit patchwork, nothing major.
Also would it be advisable to use small nails to nail the skirting to the ground bar or No Nails or something similar?


Thanks

Carrot007

barleybree wrote: »

Can I block this gap from floorboard up to the wood ground bar with cement before putting new skirting on? About 3 inches above the ground bar the plasterwork just needs a wee bit patchwork, nothing major.

I would think it much more reasonable to use plaster for this purpose! And skirting can hide a lot of things like this.

barleybree wrote: »

Also would it be advisable to use small nails to nail the skirting to the ground bar or No Nails or something similar?

What you use depends on how easy you want it to be removable in the future!


Nails into what? Would have been a block of wood in the plasterwork back in the day. Into the plaster direct sounds a bad plan, for small nails at least. Nailgun and reasonable sized nails if you want to do that (or the wood block). I use the NMN type glue myself, though for that to work you need the plasterwork on the wall to be striaght unless you are prepared to have cuts in the skirting (old walls can be a bit random).




EDIT: I see you were refering to filling the vent. Not a good idea, complete the plasterwork to the floor. The vent is probably needed for the gap unless you want damp.