Skirting Board to Wooden Floor Gap

bloke91

Hi all,

Looking for some advice and guidance please.

I have found a room where the carpet is slid under the neath the skirting board. Hard to say for sure but suspect gaps of between 0.5cm and 1cm between bottom of skirting board and floor.

I am not keen on removing and lowering skirting board, but mindful of potential of drafts due to the gap.

Whilst it’s wrong time of year to determine if the gap is causing a draft. I am thinking of proactively filling the gap, which of the below would you feel are best? I doubt Caulk will be an option for the parts of the skirting with large gap.

1) Lay strips of thick carpet underlay under the skirting to prevent draft coming from up from below floor boards. Leave a small gap between underlay and top of skirting to allow carpet to be tucked under still.

2) Fit extra thick draught excluder strips between floor board and bottom of skirting - Stormguard Extra Thick Weatherstrips White 3.5m 2 Pack - Screwfix . i.e. Stick it to the floorboard.

3) Fit extra beading around the edge of the carpet to the skirting board - White Flooring Trim - 2m | Wickes.co.uk. Not keen on this approach.

4) Place expansion cork strips between the floor and the bottom of the skirting board - Vitrex Expansion Cork Strips - Pack of 18 | Wickes.co.uk. Leave a small gap between underlay and top of skirting to allow carpet to be tucked under.

5) Insert Pinewood strips between the floor and the bottom of the skirting board. Make sure the carpet is then fitted higher than the pinewood strips and against the skirting board.

6 I read somewhere that small strips of loft insulation or mineral woold insulation could be used to fill the gap?

I welcome your thoughts, experiences and advice.

Thanks in advance.

Murmansk

You can get expanding foam tape for this purpose. It's nothing to do with the stuff that comes in a can but it's more like - well - foam tape that expands slowly when you take it off the roll. I'll try to find a YouTube item on it https://youtu.be/V6lZXjRR-1k?si=npcpxp39n9dfPriF

FreeBear

Usually, when one lays a carpet, it is tucked down between the gripper rod & skirting. Skirting is normally fitted flush with the floor, and the gripper rods fixed ~8mm away from the skirting.

If you are laying laminate, then it is common to fit the skirting afterwards so that flooring has room to expand. The alternative is to use scotia strips.

As for filling your gap, one option would be expanding foam applied with a gun. Using a gun enables you to get right in under the skirting and lay down a thin bead with control. Using the cans with a built in nozzle/pipe is an all or nothing approach and you end up wasting a lot of foam.

Of the options you list, I'd go for cork - It is slightly compressible, so will cope with slight variations in gap. The Stormguard stuff would work for a 5mm gap, but you'd need to double it up for 10mm gaps.