# Forum Home Renovation Doors, Windows, Architraves & Skirts  gap between floor and skirting

## Damo182

we have just recently ripped up old carpet in our 1920's semi, to be able to polish the timber floor boards beneath. 
The only problem is in some area's there is gaps between the skirting boards and the floor boards, in some instances we can see light coming through from the outside 
Is there anyway i can fix this problem with some sort of filler? keeping in mind the floor boards will move. 
In some ares the gaps are up to 0.5cm wide, If i were to use gap filler will i be able to paint and sand it back? 
Any help is appreciated

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## thesupervisor

i would run some small quad around the edges

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## Damo182

sorry whats a small Quad?

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## Bobby Brown

> sorry whats a small Quad?

  its a small piece of timber, imagine a round pole sliced into quarters lengthways. 90 degree corner with a rounded edge - just ask at your local timber yard.

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## glock40sw

G'day.
Do it right.
Take the skirting off. Seal under the wall sheeting and then re-install the skirting.
It is more work, but looks so much better than Quad run around the floor.
Quad looks cheap.

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## Damo182

the skirting doesnt seem to be in the best condition, however it is hard to tell as there is about 40 coats of paint on it. 
Whats the best way to remove it with out damaging it? 
Also i need to cut a portion of the skirting, so i can install a wardrobe flush with the wall. How do i cut the skirting without cutting the floorboards at the same time?

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## Trav

Pulling off skirting boards is a pain in the backside. Even if you cut along the top you are likely to get some paint tearing when you pull them off. 5mm is a fair bit, but if it were me, I'd buy a few tubes of gap filler and use that. If it is consistently 5mm or more, I'd use quad (but use some gappo behind it to cut the drafts etc). 
If the gap is big, you might need two goes with the gappo to fill it.  
Trav

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## AV Elec

> How do i cut the skirting without cutting the floorboards at the same time?

  I used a Dremel and a very sharp chisel.

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## Skew ChiDAMN!!

With that many coats of paint, I'd look at scoring along the top of the skirting with a sharp knife, just to ensure that when it _is_ removed it doesn't take off big chunks of plaster with it. 
To remove the skirting, I'd use a small jimmy bar.  Place it in one of the gaps at floor level, hopefully near where the skirting is nailed, and lift the skirting vertically by about 1/4".  This'll break the "seal" to the wall and should leave enough gap between the top of the skirting and the wall so you can carefully insert the jimmy there - with a small scrap of masonite or something behind the jimmy so it doesn't mark the wall - and pull the skirting off cleanly. 
Work along an entire length, lifting it all first, before you go back and try to seperate it. 
Sounds complicated, but is really fairly simple and only a matter of minutes to do.   :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  
As for cutting the skirting without damaging the floor-boards, well...  once it's off the wall...   :Biggrin:   If I _have_ to do it in situ I use a sharp knife to scribe the vertical line deeply, to both act as a guide and to leave a nice, crisp edge, then use a good, sharp, chisel to do the cutting.  (Unless they're MDF, in which case I'd stick with just the knife.  But I don't think so... not in a 1920's place.  :Wink 1: )

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## les88

Back in the old days,.... quad was fitted to the bottom of the skirting even thou  the skirting was a good fit the the floor. 
les

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## Jacksin

With respect, it sounds like Damo 182 is relatively inexperienced and could open a pandoras box trying to remove old skirtings to scribe them to the floor. 
5mm is a fair gap plus what he will lose when the floor is surfaced, so I would follow Trav's suggestion of gappo and quad. 
Cutting skirting in place? Try a stiff backed tenon saw.

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## silentC

Had this problem in a house once. I used 'Caulk in Colours' which comes in a range of colours. Easy to use and water wash up. I had some 4-5mm gaps in places and it came up OK. Much easier than trying to scribe (and personally I think that it looks better than having a wave in the bottom of the skirting, especially if it's ornate). I'd avoid the quad, but that's a personal thing. I hate the stuff with a passion  :Smilie:  
You can cut the skirting in-situ with a tenon saw as suggested above. Scribe a line to follow with a stanley knife for a neater cut.

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## Ashore

> Back in the old days,.... quad was fitted to the bottom of the skirting even thou the skirting was a good fit the the floor. 
> les

  Removing the skirting is opening a huge can of worms , it is a far better job but you will still have to hand plane the bottom of the skirting to match the floor to do a propper job , and if you damage any of the skirting can you get replacement with the same profile and if so at what cost it would proberly be easier to replace the skirting through the whole house though this takes away some of the pleasing aspect of a 1920's home. 
Go with the quad just a couple of things seal and paint the round surface and the ends first before fitting and use this as a good excuse to buy an air compressor and brad gun as well as a compound, or sliding compound saw.  :Rolleyes:

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## Skew ChiDAMN!!

> Go with the quad just a couple of things seal and paint the round surface and the ends first before fitting and use this as a good excuse to buy an air compressor and brad gun as well as a compound, or sliding compound saw.

  There's a lot to be said for this approach...   :Think:   :Biggrin:

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## silentC

Have you seen the price of quad lately?  :Tongue:

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## peter_sm

I removed the old bullnose skirting from all of the walls in our house, and replaced them with slightly wider skirtings. The new bullnose skirting was about 20mm wider, so it easily covered the marks where the old skirting was removed from the wall where there were heaps of old coats of paint.

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## Make it work

About 3 years ago we ripped out all carpets from our 30's Cali Bungalow only to find gaps as big as 15mm. I seroiusly thought of filling the gaps but I decided to make a 30mm srtip that matched the chamfered skirting and it looks great. I also left a tiny gap, enough to slide a newspaper between the new strip and the floor for making painting easier and that was a winner.  
Removing the skirting WILL be a nightmare and will only make the job harder than it has to be. If you don't like the quad consider a cove scotia which is a reverse of a quad (curves inward not outward). 
If you do fill, I suggest that you do not use a cheap acrylic water based gap filler but use a polyurethane. Once cured, cut it flush with a knife but put paper on the floor before caulking to stop it from sticking to the flooring. Polyurethane that is NOT exposed to direct sunlight for extended periods will never dry out and fall out in great chunks like some acrylic gap fillers.

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