Gaps between skirtings and floors

Mlo

Just finished our new house last september.

We have an engineered oak floor, painted deal skirtings and underfloor heating throughout. Downstairs is fine as it's all block walls, but upstairs where there's studding there's been a reasonable amount of movement. and with gaps between flooring and skirting boards upstairs up to 5mm in places.

Now I really don't want to rip up the skirtings or fit quadrant, so the question is what would otherwise be the best way of filling these gaps. The skirtings are painted and I don't mind having to recoat them.

gsxr1

Mlo wrote: »

Just finished our new house last september.

We have an engineered oak floor, painted deal skirtings and underfloor heating throughout. Downstairs is fine as it's all block walls, but upstairs where there's studding there's been a reasonable amount of movement. and with gaps between flooring and skirting boards upstairs up to 5mm in places.

Now I really don't want to rip up the skirtings or fit quadrant, so the question is what would otherwise be the best way of filling these gaps. The skirtings are painted and I don't mind having to recoat them.

the only way to get it right is to re skirt. It happens quite a lot in new houses.
Our great Irish building supplier's keep there timber outside in the rain.

Once the 9X2 dries in the first year they shrink by 5mm, pulling on upstairs stud wall and cracking plaster , creating squeaky floors, cracking tiles and separating floors from skirting.

I have dealt with this before using flexible filler. But its look exactly what it is. A quick fix.

Mlo

Once the 9X2 dries in the first year they shrink by 5mm, pulling on upstairs stud wall and cracking plaster , creating squeaky floors, cracking tiles and separating floors from skirting.

We do have extra joists, but the gaps have probably been exacerbated by the fact that we have a 37mm concrete scread for the heating sitting over them.

Funnily enough it's not the re-skirting I'm dreading, it's the repainting, by the time I've knotted, priimed, filled sanded and given it 2 to 3 coats of finish it adds up to a lot of work, whereas I'll probably reskirt it in a day .

If I'm smart about I suppose I can wait till the summer and pre paint the skirting before fixing it, then all I have to do is touch up afterwards.

paddyc

can you not put a line of beading around the edges of the skirting?

gsxr1

Mlo wrote: »

We do have extra joists, but the gaps have probably been exacerbated by the fact that we have a 37mm concrete scread for the heating sitting over them.

Funnily enough it's not the re-skirting I'm dreading, it's the repainting, by the time I've knotted, priimed, filled sanded and given it 2 to 3 coats of finish it adds up to a lot of work, whereas I'll probably reskirt it in a day .

If I'm smart about I suppose I can wait till the summer and pre paint the skirting before fixing it, then all I have to do is touch up afterwards.

OH. Tell me. how did the screed work out for you? Does it stop the foot steps sound from upstairs?

Has it cracked anywhere.

I have seen it being pumped into a few new houses but was never around to see the result.

Mlo

can you not put a line of beading around the edges of the skirting?

I could do, maybe as a temporary fix, but I never think it looks right. Also the landing is quite long so I'd have to join strips to make the lengths, I'll also have to get a beading that is a reasonably close match to the flooring.

I might try doing the landing and see if I can live with it, but probably plan to redo the skirtings later on.

I suppose at the end of the day it will annoy me to have shelled out on nice oak flooring and for the look to be spoiled for the sake of a day or two's DIY.

Mlo

The screading has worked out just fine, no cracking. We went for timber upstairs with lower joist spacing and a ply sub floor covered with a 37mm scread, covered with an engineered oak floor. Primarily for cost as a concrete subfloor was going to add about €20k to the build.

Unless someone is jumping up and down on the floor you can't hear a thing, even with the wood flooring.