Laying flooring without removing the skirting

oxygen

Hey

I am about to start pricing laying hardwood flooring in my three rooms downstairs. It will be going ontop of existing flooring (thats in a very bad condition) but that has skirting already fitted.

I was going to just get the flooring down and run a strip along where is joins the skirting, but Ive heard this doesn't look too good and that I would be better to remove the skirting and lay the flooring then replace the skirting.

Can anyone vouch for either way? I'm leaning towards not removing the skirting myself, but am not sure.

Thanks

mathepac

It's up to yourself really, for a "proper job" appearance I'd remove the skirting.

If you haven't done it before it can be difficult to avoid damaging walls, paintwork and the skirting itself. Getting it off studded walls can be the easiest believe it or not as the layer should have driven nails into stud through the skirting. If the skirting is nailed to a block wall its tougher. If someone has used "No More Nails" it can be tougher.

mp22

As above remove the skirting,when you put the skirting back on it traps the edges of the floor and helps to stop creaks.

oxygen

Yea. I found a previous thread off google and everyone recommended removing the skirting. It wont be me doing it like, Ill get the carpenter to include it in the price of the job. Im not being lazy (too much) I have a broken ankle and would rather get it done by someone who knows what there doing.

Nearly all the walls are concrete so I dont think there was much, if any, glue used. The dry nails as mentioned above should be too hard to come out.

oxygen

oh, and I just have the undercoat paint white down, so not too worried bout that.

tribalwings

Can the floor your covering be lifted ? It would be a far better job to lift the existing floor and remove the skirting. If you don't, you'll end up with huge hideous quadrant beads against the skirting to leave room for a solid floor to expand and contract

paddy147

A large monkey bar or pry bar and a hammer will have the old skirting off in a matter of seconds.

A 16 foot length of 5 inch red deal molded skirting board is approx 7 euro in Heaton Buckleys.

Get a few lengths,whack them on with grip seal and some 50mm tack/wood nails or screws.Give a coat of wood primer,then a fine bead of white painters mate/caulk to the top of the skirting.Wet you're little finger and smooth off the small bead of caulk with you're finger.
And then a coat or 2 of eggshell.
Job done.

michael999999

^^
Always caulk your woodwork before the final coat of paint or the caulk will yellow over time!

mathepac

paddy147 wrote: »

... Job done.

Ooops drops on the floor between the two tins; white spirit job.

paddy147

mathepac wrote: »

Ooops drops on the floor between the two tins; white spirit job.

Yep,one small drop on the floor,after painting new skirting boards throughout the entire house,is a major crisis.:D

North West

Hi Oxtgen Temp
If I were putting in a new floor I would take off old skirting and architrave on inside of doors and replace all.When you say the existing flooring is in bad shape, is it just dirty worn out or is it warped/cupped or anything like that. Is the old flooring on joists or concrete. are the rooms cold ? The reason I ask is because I put in a floor that was on raised joists no insulation under old floor. it was one hell of a job.
NW

Welease

Remove the skirting board..

Many years ago, I laid a beautiful Rhodesian Teak floor and didnt remove the skirting boards.. I used the layer of cork around the edge for expansion.. which looked terrible.. I then covered that some with some wooden beading.. which still didn't look great..

It bugged me every day that I didnt take the time and effort to do it right the first time.

I have never laid another floor without removing the skirting

Al Capwned

Remove the flooring - imo that quadrant is nasty looking stuff and should only be used as a last resort....

Paul.C

If you put the new floor on top of the old one you ARE going to have problems.

To do the job right You have to remove the existing floor and lay onto 18mm sub-floor (chipboard or ply sheets) thats if your using solid cleated method.

If your using semisolid(which in my opinion is way better) then this subfloor is not needed and the floor can be glued and floated.

Either way, as for the skirting, this is down to aesthetics. Beading would do the job but it looks crap and will fail overtime.

I would also use thermo underlay for better cold resistance.

Basically if your getting someone to do it right, then let them do it right. ie. remove the skirting and invest in new.

A 14ft of skirting is about 6-7 euro per lenght. That beading/scotia is 3/4 euro per lenght and comes at 8ft. So coverage to price they are about the same. The only thing is it costs a little more to install as it takes a bit longer. Just make sure it is glued to the wall, taked and caulked.

Oh and another tip is to get wider skirting to cover the messy caulked line where the old skirting touched the wall at the top.

Best of luck with it

bigalk

1) definitely remove the old floor
2) it is ALWAYS a good idea to do a moisture / damp test before laying a solid hardwood floor - regardless of whether the house is new or old. rising damp or moisture will wreck a solid floor and the problems may not have shown up with laminate. do you know if a damp proof membrane (DPM) was used under the existing floor? this will most likely need to be redone if so.
3) there may be enough room under the skirting to accommodate a new floor
5) if there is a risk of damaging the skirting you could consider trimming it in place using a jamb saw
http://bit.ly/yZAAg5
as far as i know these are the only irish company selling online

best of luck with it!