Rate my skirting!
Discussion
Paying a lot of money for engineered oak flooring plus new skirting. Arrived home yesterday to this. Apparently "no one scribes bullnose skirting - it'll all look fine when the caulking goes on..." 2 rooms all the same plus no fixings apart from gripfill with huge gaps to walls. Give me strength!!!
That's s
t and they're not even trying.
Skirting should:
be mitred and scribed at external and internal angles, as appropriate
tightly abut architraves
run level and scribed to floors.https://nhbc-standards.co.uk/9-finishes/9-4-finishes-and-fitments/9-4-4-finishings-and-internal-trim/
t and they're not even trying. National Standards said:
Skirting should:
be mitred and scribed at external and internal angles, as appropriate
tightly abut architraves
run level and scribed to floors.
Once it’s caulked it will be fine. The most important thing is to have the corners square. Yours are. Your walls being out of true is not the joiners fault. This is how skirting looks when the walls aren’t perfect. You’ve just never noticed before as the fitter is halfway through the job and gaps are highlighted. .
You’re judging a job before it’s finished. Once it is finished with caulk then take a look at it. It will look completely different and you’ll then realise that you were wrong.
No offence but if you don’t really know what you’re looking at and haven’t done it yourself before then you’re not really in a position to judge.
You’re judging a job before it’s finished. Once it is finished with caulk then take a look at it. It will look completely different and you’ll then realise that you were wrong.
No offence but if you don’t really know what you’re looking at and haven’t done it yourself before then you’re not really in a position to judge.
Caulk will sink over time, then all the dust will settle and stick in the gap.
You won't find someone that will do this properly for you though, this is just how it is these days. Gluing the board is fine, but where there are gaps the boards need to be jacked off the opposite wall while the glue sets and getting the mitre to work nicely once the board is bent to the wall is tricky!
It's much easier to do well if you carpet the floor as you can screw blocks to the floor and wedge the skirting off those.
You won't find someone that will do this properly for you though, this is just how it is these days. Gluing the board is fine, but where there are gaps the boards need to be jacked off the opposite wall while the glue sets and getting the mitre to work nicely once the board is bent to the wall is tricky!
It's much easier to do well if you carpet the floor as you can screw blocks to the floor and wedge the skirting off those.
Gaps between the skirting board and the wall nothing to worry about. The big gaps are because the wall isn’t square. It will fill and look fine. No problem with using an adhesive to fix either.
The lack of scribing on the internals and the quality of the mitring on the externals is much more of an issue. At the very least he could have mitred the internals; takes 30 seconds and you can get away with it with MDF skirting.
The lack of scribing on the internals and the quality of the mitring on the externals is much more of an issue. At the very least he could have mitred the internals; takes 30 seconds and you can get away with it with MDF skirting.
Douglas Quaid said:
Once it’s caulked it will be fine. The most important thing is to have the corners square. Yours are. Your walls being out of true is not the joiners fault. This is how skirting looks when the walls aren’t perfect. You’ve just never noticed before as the fitter is halfway through the job and gaps are highlighted. .
You’re judging a job before it’s finished. Once it is finished with caulk then take a look at it. It will look completely different and you’ll then realise that you were wrong.
No offence but if you don’t really know what you’re looking at and haven’t done it yourself before then you’re not really in a position to judge.
I know what I’m looking at as I do it daily, yes caulk along the top will hide wall discrepancies but no excuse for not scribing internal corners, bull nose, Taurus, ogee or not I would still scribe as caulk will not look the same.You’re judging a job before it’s finished. Once it is finished with caulk then take a look at it. It will look completely different and you’ll then realise that you were wrong.
No offence but if you don’t really know what you’re looking at and haven’t done it yourself before then you’re not really in a position to judge.
Also he should pin the skirting back rather than just let gripfill hold it, a few hits with a cleaner and it could come loose.
Gaps below skirting to the floor you can’t do a lot about if you don’t pin it, even then you can only push it down to as much as it will flex in its width which isn’t much.
I can't believe they haven't scribed the internal corners. It looks absolutely terrible and there's no way I'd pay for that workmanship. Caulk is not going to make that look any better (probably worse).
I'd like to think I'd have closed up the gaps between skirting board and wall a lot better than they have. Wedges, pins etc to accommodate the uneven wall. As already stated, the larger the gap to caulk the more scope you have for shrinks and cracks at a later date.
What's the workmanship of the actual oak flooring like?
I'd like to think I'd have closed up the gaps between skirting board and wall a lot better than they have. Wedges, pins etc to accommodate the uneven wall. As already stated, the larger the gap to caulk the more scope you have for shrinks and cracks at a later date.
What's the workmanship of the actual oak flooring like?
Wheatsheaf said:
I can't believe they haven't scribed the internal corners. It looks absolutely terrible and there's no way I'd pay for that workmanship. Caulk is not going to make that look any better (probably worse).
I'd like to think I'd have closed up the gaps between skirting board and wall a lot better than they have. Wedges, pins etc to accommodate the uneven wall. As already stated, the larger the gap to caulk the more scope you have for shrinks and cracks at a later date.
What's the workmanship of the actual oak flooring like?
Flooring is fine, but it's the skirting that you see first!I'd like to think I'd have closed up the gaps between skirting board and wall a lot better than they have. Wedges, pins etc to accommodate the uneven wall. As already stated, the larger the gap to caulk the more scope you have for shrinks and cracks at a later date.
What's the workmanship of the actual oak flooring like?
Douglas Quaid said:
Once it’s caulked it will be fine. The most important thing is to have the corners square. Yours are. Your walls being out of true is not the joiners fault. This is how skirting looks when the walls aren’t perfect. You’ve just never noticed before as the fitter is halfway through the job and gaps are highlighted. .
You’re judging a job before it’s finished. Once it is finished with caulk then take a look at it. It will look completely different and you’ll then realise that you were wrong.
No offence but if you don’t really know what you’re looking at and haven’t done it yourself before then you’re not really in a position to judge.
Bit unfair. So do you think the internal joints are ok just butted up?You’re judging a job before it’s finished. Once it is finished with caulk then take a look at it. It will look completely different and you’ll then realise that you were wrong.
No offence but if you don’t really know what you’re looking at and haven’t done it yourself before then you’re not really in a position to judge.
Promised Land said:
Gaps below skirting to the floor you can’t do a lot about if you don’t pin it, even then you can only push it down to as much as it will flex in its width which isn’t much.
You can scribe to the floor 
My new build was similar, all scribed inner/outer joins , but bendy/non-90 walls means if I square up the corners in skirting the mitres are wrong… plus big gaps behind skirting to fill.
You can use proper filler, then caulk over it.
It’s hard work finding a trade these days that’ll do the job right, without first trying them to find out they’re an idiot.
If any job is something you have even the slightest idea of doing, chances are you can tool/skill up and do it better yourself.
If I were paying a professional I’d expect internals scribed, however I’ve done my whole house myself and mitred. One room was done with pinkgrip but didn’t hold, so the rest has been done with low expansion foam and is solid. Lots of caulk to sort wonky walls later and I’ve got skirting you wouldn’t notice, which is fine by me.
I’ve definitely done better than your guy though, and as a DIY’er was still fully aware it wasn’t done ‘right’.
I’ve definitely done better than your guy though, and as a DIY’er was still fully aware it wasn’t done ‘right’.
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