laminate floor and skirting

juraj.kecso

Hi All,

I am after a bit of advice.

I will be replacing laminate floor and skirting in our house soon and have a bit if a dilemma.

When replacing the floor and skirting, which one goes on first?

Do I put the skirting in first, then lay floor and finish with beading or do I lay floor first before putting skirting on top of the new floor?

Personally i think that putting skirting second makes for a neater look as you will not need beads. Do I leave any gap between skirting bottom and the floor? What if in the future I want to replace the floor again or maybe put in a carpet.

Any advice?

rob7475

The neater option is to lay the floor and put the skirting on top to cover the expansion gap.

When you lay the floor, leave around a 10mm gap around the edge (flooring instructions will state their recommended gap). Most skirting is around 18mm so will cover the gap.

When replacing the floor, you may need to remove the skirting along one wall to get the flooring up.

juraj.kecso

Hi, laying skirting on top of flooring is my preferred option as looks cleaner.

Do I leave any gap between the bottom of the skirting and the floor or does the skirting sit on the floor?

spadoosh

Id leave a tiny gap, so its not sat directly on top of the laminate. Youll probably find your floor is uneven and trying to get it to sit flush with the floor whilst being level on the wall impossible (or having to force the flooring down in places). So leave a few mm gap and finish off with sealant.

Dont forget the architraving, if its existing youll porbably need to remove a section at the bottom to slide the flooring underneath. If youre replacing, just put it on when you do the skirting.

king132

Skirting after laminate or any hard floors - leaving a bit of space for expansion.

Skirting before when laying carpet.

keith969

Definitely skirting after laying the floor. It looks so much better than putting beading down.

If you stick the skirting on with something like 'No More Nails' then it's (relatively) easy to get it off if you ever need to replace the floor.

dogshome

Floor first, Skirting second


When fitting the skirting, put thin spacers between it and the floor ( 1mm to 2mm thick )
This allows you to slide a sheet of newspaper under the skirting when painting the skirting, to keep paint off the floor

searchlight123

dogshome wrote: »

Floor first, Skirting second


When fitting the skirting, put thin spacers between it and the floor ( 1mm to 2mm thick )
This allows you to slide a sheet of newspaper under the skirting when painting the skirting, to keep paint off the floor

thats a good tip :T

jk0

'No more nails'?



Attach it with screws, then you can unscrew it, surely?