Installing Skirting...

Hi everyone,

Quick question about installing new skirting, I have just polished my timber floors and removed the old skirting to remove the old tiles more easily, the old skirting is now to short to go back on so we are sourcing some more slightly higher skirting...

Anyway, getting to the point, we are thinking of painting the skirting in antique white which is different to the walls which are a slightly off white... as I have just done the floors i don't really want to paint the skirting once installed I'd much rather do it prior... this means I won't be keen on nailing the skirting, so is there an adhesive thats suitable? - just plain old liquid nails or something better? the skirting will be MDF, approx 90mm high

Cheers...

I've used both liquid nails and silicone to stick skirting to a wall - both work well ... but to be honest, it is pretty easy to patch up and paint a few nail holes.

Also using nails it's easier to get the skirting to "conform" to the wall, whereas with glue, you have to somehow hold it in place while the glue dries.

If I was you I would prepaint the skirting, nail it to the wall and then touch up.

I removed the skirting to paint it when renovating a couple of rooms about 10 years ago.
I glued them back using liquid nails and there has been no problems with them since.

Recently fitted new (painted) skirting to a room that had none and used nails and spaghetti to do it. It was a matter of an hour or so to fill
and paint the nail marks.

Given that I had to do this again, I'd go with nailing.

I reckon you get a much better finish painting in-situ. Unless your walls are dead straight, you're going to have gaps here and there which need filling - in my opinion it looks ordinary when you can see a gap between skirting and wall.

You could give them one coat first and then a second after installing. I would nail them because it gives you positive contact to take up any wobbles in the wall (again, unless they are very straight).

Journeyman Mick uses hot melt glue and sikaflex when he is gluing skirting, the idea being that the hot melt sticks immediately and holds it in place while the construction glue goes off. You could try that.

I still like to paint after installation though.

Great reason to get a compressor ( if you don't already have one ) and a 50mm brad gun , The touch up afterwoods is easy tiny brush and some paint in a plastic cup proberly don't even need to fill the very small entry hole of the brad.
The other thing is that you can pull the skirting hard up against the wall as you go to remove gaps with the wall, you won't be able to eliminate all the gaps using an adhesive unless you brace the skirting hard against the wall while the stuff dries :C

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Originally Posted by silentC

Journeyman Mick uses hot melt glue and sikaflex when he is gluing skirting, the idea being that the hot melt sticks immediately and holds it in place while the construction glue goes off.

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That is a good idea.

Expanding on what silentC is saying, you could always paint the bottom half of the skirting (actually you could paint the whole thing) and then fit the skirting. Once fitted you could gap (caulk) the wall/skirting junction and then paint (i.e. cut in) the junction area. Or if you don't want to caulk, you could just cut it.

Hmm thanks everyone... lots of options there... glad i asked the question now - i almost wasnt going to bother... great point silent C about the gaps... the last place we rented had gaps in the skirtings and it looked real bad... I might just leave the last coat of paint off and then paint once they are in - carefully with a smaller brush... should i mask the floor boards or just use a drop sheet and be extra carefull...?

Depends how messy you are. :)

:U I'll cover the full floor with 2 layers of sheeting then... only kidding... I might mask though so I get a nice straight line, don't like the idea of sticking things to my newly polished floor boards tho...

If you are concerned with putting tape on your floors, use the 3M painters tape as it has less adhesive and does not leave residue. Can say on for up to 14 days and leaves a straight line when peeled off. Downside is that it's a little pricey if you have quite a few metres to do.

Just been through exactly the same situation. I primed and painted beforehand, then screwed and patched as required and gave the whole lot another coat once it was installed, but did not need to get too concerned about getting the bottom edge all the way to the floorline as it already had a good coverage there (but still used masking tape on the floor anyway as a precaution).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silentC

...........Journeyman Mick uses hot melt glue and sikaflex when he is gluing skirting.............

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I'd rather nail it when possible though.:D

Mick

we painted all our skirting before it went on then touched up the nail points. Wouldn't know to look at it.