Timber Floors

Hello all,

We're going to be getting solid timber flooring through our hallway/kitchen/dining and family areas, with the rest of the house to be carpeted. The timber people have advised that the skirting boards will need to be removed then refitted and also that the kicker around the bottom of the kitchen cupboards will need to be raised 30mm.

My question is this - if the skirting boards are replaced 30mm higher, they will be out of line with the rest of the skirting boards! What do others recommend? Has anyone else encountered this? I believe an alternative is to not remove them at all and to put an additional skirting where the timber joins. Would this look ok or a bit odd?

Any thoughts please?

Thanks,

Pootle

This is a tricky one, and very much a personally choice in ascetics of your flooring.

I think we have covered this question else where on the forum.

IF……you have substantial cut off from the rooms with the raised skirting you can get away with it. Meaning door ways.

I always advise clients to raise the skirtings throughout the home so they are ALL at the same level.

This will mean you will have to UPGRADE your underlay for your carpeted areas to a better quality, making the carpet higher as well. If you know what I mean.

This will make all your flooring selections at the same hight. Not only that, by putting better underlay down you are increasing the life of your carpet. Which has to be a good thing….right?

Yep - it looks weird if you have the timber floors covering half the skirting boards, and I have seen the skirting chamfered down where it meets the other - lower stuff. but as mish says - it's all about where they join and if it looks obvious etc.

One of those - time to decide - go the whole hog and raise the lot or compromise.
Steve

I thought this is why you had to use the quad. As not many builders will raise the skirtings or leave them off and I ont know how the raise the kitcken kicker

Your question is???

Heres a hint…..while you are paying for your home….. THEY, the builders, SHOULD do as you ask!

Nicely and firmly of course. Quad can be used, but doesn’t look at neat as raising the skirts

Michelle
I agree that quad is not the best option but I dont have many. Do you think it would look ok if I have 67mm skirting boards.

I agree that if you do raise them it needs to be the whole house unless it is closed off by doorways etc but I have a lot of open plan and the skirting needs to be on one level.

What's a quad?

Thanks for everyones' advice. The builders won't adjust anything in the house for us! We'll probably do as Michelle suggested and make the carpets abit higher to line up. The kitchen may be more difficult and we may end up with adding a trim around the bottom. I'll have to ask the fitters what they recommend.

Pootle, quad is a small baton like piece off timber that gets fitted between the flooring and the skirtings to cover where the timber floor ends. Timber can not be fitted snugly as it expands and contracts and need room to do so.

Paint the quad the same colour as the skirting board. It then blends in and looks like it's part of the skirting board profile. This is what we have decided to do.

Luckily our skirting boards and kitchen kickboards will be the same colour.

Quad looks like crap. Avoid doing it in a new home cos you will hate the look of it. As mentioned above, if the rooms are seperated (by doorways etc) you could get away with having the skirts at slightly different heights.

I personally would have the builder remove the skirts and refit after the floor goes down.

Some project builders won't do this. IE ours.

Also, we were speaking with a flooring company yesterday and was told that the standard skirting as supplied by project builders isnt wide enough to provide enough of an expansion gap. He said the skirting throughout the entire home would have to be upgraded to a wider profile.

He showed us pictures of painted quad.. and you couldn't even tell it was quad, just looked like a fancy skirting profile.

First...the skirts and arcs should be one of the last things to go down. At least they are in my place.

And if you need wider skirts to cover the edge of the floor cos they can't get close to the wall...then something isn't quite right.

Yes, the project builder fits the skirting before handing over the keys.
Then our flooring will be laid down afterwards.



Maybe it's different for floating floor, I dunno, but for solid timber we were told a large expansion gap is required otherwise the floors will buckle over time.

Just going by what they told me.

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Why not have the floors done as it's being built? May be extra time and inconvenience but overall finish will be better.




You have no idea do you buddy?

I know of this bridge for sale cheap. You interested? It's a great deal. I told you so.

So Al, what sort of a gap do you need at the edges of the room for timber floorboards (before the skirting boards go down)?

One would assume less than the width of a skirting board >16mm

We've already asked our project builder if they can accomodate this. They said no. They won't take responsibility if the floor gets damaged by tradies trudging over it.

You think I'd be stupid enough not to ask!?

I've seen what you've previously written, seems fairly self explanitary to me.

So what sort of floor can builders not wreak havoc on while building?

Slab and dirt!!!!!

I will have no such issues, as I am putting timber floors all over the house (including upstairs) except in the wet areas. I am getting my builder not to install the skirtings - just to tack them on.