May 1, 20215 yr Hi All, Any advice would be appreciated at the moment! I am currently peeling off as much paint off the walls as I can before I prep to line. But The skirting boards, which had some gaps before, seem to have been filled in very badly, dried rock hard and never been sanded or anything, so they are basically gloopy dried blobs of filler. As I will be papering the walls, I am concerned about the lining paper meeting the polyfilla and it is all lumpy. How do I best remove the filler? Or should I just paper over this and hope for the best? I am just worried that if I do the latter, the paper will just be pierced by the filler underneath then I brush it down. Photo below - any advice appreciated. The filler doesn't look so bad in this photo but there are other walls with filler which are!
May 1, 20215 yr Sandpaper on a block of wood or one of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/aluminium-hand-sander-240-x-84mm/12688
May 1, 20215 yr Author 15 minutes ago, joe90 said: Sandpaper on a block of wood or one of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/aluminium-hand-sander-240-x-84mm/12688 thanks! I will check it out! Do you have any advice on sanding the actual skirting board? I am finding it tricky as it has the curves and grooves in it
May 1, 20215 yr Flexible sanding blocks are good: https://www.screwfix.com/p/sanding-sponge-75-x-125mm-80-120-grit/781jg
May 2, 20215 yr Might be worth thinking about replacing the skirting board if it is too bad, chipping out the lower plaster and using something like easy fill to replace it - depends on the level of crispness you are up for.
May 2, 20215 yr Skirting was traditionally affixed with bfo iron clasp nails. If you "rip" the skirting off you can end up taking bits of the wall with it and areas of plaster. I have a few times managed to identify where the clout nails are and drilled them out using a 14mm Starrett hole saw with the pilot drill removed. You just sort of jam the teeth over the nail head and drill. Just be careful ref hidden pipes/cables. Another alternative is over skirting. https://mdfskirtingworld.co.uk/skirting-boards/scotia-mdf-skirting-board-cover/ Tbh you can make this up from taller, ordinary skirting and a batten panel pinned to it. Guaranteed you'll have a gap to the wall in places. Use flexible decorating caulk in a mastic gun. I used to brush it in with a wet paintbrush then square off with an old credit card.
May 2, 20215 yr Author 3 hours ago, Onoff said: Skirting was traditionally affixed with bfo iron clasp nails. If you "rip" the skirting off you can end up taking bits of the wall with it and areas of plaster. I have a few times managed to identify where the clout nails are and drilled them out using a 14mm Starrett hole saw with the pilot drill removed. You just sort of jam the teeth over the nail head and drill. Just be careful ref hidden pipes/cables. Another alternative is over skirting. https://mdfskirtingworld.co.uk/skirting-boards/scotia-mdf-skirting-board-cover/ Tbh you can make this up from taller, ordinary skirting and a batten panel pinned to it. Guaranteed you'll have a gap to the wall in places. Use flexible decorating caulk in a mastic gun. I used to brush it in with a wet paintbrush then square off with an old credit card. Thanks for this. I did actually consider the skirting covers too! who knew these existed ha ha! The people at the orange shope definately didn't and looked at me like I was speaking a different language when I asked if they had any - retorting with there was no such thing. I asked a joiner to see if they would install as I don't have the tools to cut it to fit in the corners. I think this would be my last case scenario as I am trying to retain as much original woodwork as possible - but yes, it probably is easier and cheaper to to get it replaced with a cover with all the time and effort spent trying to save the original woodwork. We also thought about ripping them out, but like you said, it may cause more damage and then I would have to get it plastered up. So we ruled that out, and that is when I discovered skirting covers ha ha That is a good idea re: using taller. ordinary skirting - I'd still need a joiner to cut though I think to pop over the original ones?
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