Skirting board - damp? rot? is it a big problem?

tagz

Hiya

We have now moved on to painting the hall and I noticed that outside the downstairs loo the skirting board either side of the door had bubbled paint. As I'm sanding/ stripping the wood prior to painting anyway I grabbed my scrapper and found that all the layers of old paint had bubbled and the wood is dark brown and soft. It doesn't feel damp but I did notice that above on the wall on the other side (inside the loo) the paint was starting to come off. There is no damp smell. Will the wood need replacing, could this be a sign of bigger problems, and most importantly will it be costly? We didn't see this when we moved in two years ago but is it something that would have built up over time?

Will be grateful for any ideas.

newfunk

The wood is most definetley rotten. It sounds like You could have a small damp problem, but how big, I couldnt say without looking....before replacing the wood, you need to get someone to take a look for you, and have their opinion....

weekendwarrior

Hi, You could have a spot of rising damp!

It is not difficult to fix and can be cheap as long as the plaster has not perished. Ensure you treat any new skirtings with wood preserver before painting.