Best way to fix skirting?

[Tennentslager]

Replacing skirting in a 1960s house...when the old came off, so did the plaster...in deep chunks at some places.

Should I mix up some browning plaster and make good, probably need a couple of coats in some areas or is foam too much of a bodge?

I.e. would a muli tool finish the foam neatly enough and would the new skirting stick to it with adhesive?

I'm favouring option one...?

Edited August 15, 2017 by Tennentslager
Typo

[Barney12]

I'd go for option 1. Just as quick by the time you've faffed about trimming the foam. 

[Nickfromwales]

Option 1. 

Let the browning / other dry completely before fitting the new skirting. A good cheat is to fit one an inch bigger then the old, so your top edge is onto fresh original plaster. Easier to make good after I find, but dependant on how good / bad the original fit was. 

[daiking]

Done a bit of both in same situation.

 

Trimming foam with the scraper blade on a multi tool is easy where I've foamed and as Nick said 119mm instead of original 68mm skirting hides a multitude of sins.

 

I found foam quicker and easier and less messy than mixing up some wet stuff.

 

Only managed to glue mdf skirt. Wood needed screwing. Although the 7.5mm concrete screws were probably bit ott.

Edited August 15, 2017 by daiking

[Crofter]

Have had a bit of a trawl through the forum to see what people are using to stick their skirting boards on with. Gripfill was going to be my go to option but found a few negative comments about it skinning over too fast.

Jeremy suggested this stuff: https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-11663102-solvent-free-grab-adhesive-white-310ml-12-pack/61428

 

Any other contenders? Roughly how much should I need to do c.50m of skirt/arc?

[Gone West]

I used this stuff bought in boxes of 12. It worked well on my HDF skirting.

 

http://www.axminster.co.uk/titebond-heavy-duty-construction-adhesive-ax22584

[Ferdinand]

I am trying this Instant Nails adhesive from Toolstation at ..er .. £1 a tube, which seems ridiculously cheap.

 

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/Adhesives+%26+Sealants/d180/Grab+Adhesive/sd3199/Instant+Nails+Solvent+Free+Grab+Adhesive+310ml/p51064

 

A couple of the reviews recommend it for skirting, and it generaly reviews well at 4* or 5*.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Onoff]

You might want some decorators caulk after to go along the top of the skirting where it meets the wall if they (the walls) are not too good. Using it previous I gunned it in, took off the excess with a paint scraper / old credit card then finished off with a wet paint brush.

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

You might want some decorators caulk after to go along the top of the skirting where it meets the wall if they (the walls) are not too good. Using it previous I gunned it in, took off the excess with a paint scraper / old credit card then finished off with a wet paint brush.

 

Should be OK on that ... has been skimmed. But I have some caulk already.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Ferdinand

[daiking]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

I am trying this Instant Nails adhesive from Toolstation at ..er .. £1 a tube, which seems ridiculously cheap.

 

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/Adhesives+%26+Sealants/d180/Grab+Adhesive/sd3199/Instant+Nails+Solvent+Free+Grab+Adhesive+310ml/p51064

 

A couple of the reviews recommend it for skirting, and it generaly reviews well at 4* or 5*.

 

IIRC, very easy to squeeze which is useful if you have weak wrists.

[Onoff]

16 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

Should be OK on that ... has been skimmed. But I have some already.

 

The "plastered" walls I fitted skirting to were circa 1863!

 

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

I am trying this Instant Nails adhesive from Toolstation at ..er .. £1 a tube, which seems ridiculously cheap.

 

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/Adhesives+%26+Sealants/d180/Grab+Adhesive/sd3199/Instant+Nails+Solvent+Free+Grab+Adhesive+310ml/p51064

 

A couple of the reviews recommend it for skirting, and it generaly reviews well at 4* or 5*.

Under no circumstances should you attempt to use this as a finish or caulk . 

Its horrendous post-cure and dried rock hard and brittle. I caulked a bedroom once with the solvent free grip fill / adhesive and it all dried like a prune, shrank back, split and left two jagged edges which needed scraping off and redoing. Total mess and really hard work. 

Also, do not use it on anything new non-porous as it'll stay uncured / wet for weeks. 

Choose once, fit easy, last long.

[TerryE]

As Crofter says, the Screwfix no-nonsense adhesive is cheap and effective.  Just be careful that the boarding doesn't move within the 1st 10 mins or so after fixing otherwise you will create a shear plane between the adhesive and the plaster.  

 

A good trick if  you've got a radial arm chop saw is to cut a bunch of ~25° wedges from a bit of CLS, say 88 × 200 on the rectangular sides.  If your walls are at all wavy, then  you can use a single temporary screw to screw these to the floor on the 200 long side about 2 cm from the skirting surface (so the sloping side is facing up and the 88mm side near the skirting)  and tap in a couple of 2cm folding wedges to push the skirting back hard onto the wall until the  adhesive cures.  We have a box of 20 or so these that only took a few mins to cut and we use them whenever we are fixing skirting over a wooden floor. 

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by TerryE
Clarify positioning the wedges

[TerryE]

4 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Under no circumstances should you attempt to use this as a finish or caulk . 

 

Or to rephrase this, use adhesive to stick and decorators filler to caulk once fixed.  They've got very different material properties.  If you are filling "gappy" cracks then it's easier to do the fill in 2 passes, the first to do the bulk fill and the second to get a decent level. 

[Ferdinand]

11 minutes ago, TerryE said:

 

Or to rephrase this, use adhesive to stick and decorators filler to caulk once fixed.  They've got very different material properties.  If you are filling "gappy" cracks then it's easier to do the fill in 2 passes, the first to do the bulk fill and the second to get a decent level. 

 

Yep. That is the plan - this is adhesive with which the MDF skirting boards will be attached, and we have decorators caulk separately.

 

The whole house has been skimmed so fit should be fairly good.

Does anyone have any knowledge of serious issues with this adhesive as an adhesive?

 

The skirting is pre-primed MDF; the wall is spray painted plaster (aqueous based paint).

Cheers

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Nickfromwales]

4 hours ago, TerryE said:

If you are filling "gappy" cracks then it's easier to do the fill in 2 passes, the first to do the bulk fill and the second to get a decent level

+1

Leave the first pass go off overnight as it shrinks back a lot as it dries, when applied thickly.  

 

[TerryE]

No, the adhesive fixes better to a porous surface, so you just have to be careful about it moving or pulling off the wall in the first few mins because it might not re-adhere well If your walls are very straight than you can just press it intimate with your toe and show grab fine, but if they are slightly vary then use the wedge trick on wooden floors.  If you doing skirting on stone floors then you might need the odd lost head nail. just to keep then in place until the adhesive grabs.   Also work from any outer corners, mitre and mitre bond them first.  For inner corners don't mitre but but a negative profile to a square cut piece.  Cut the negative profile but using a 2cm slice of skirting on the back side and you find that you can cut this fine with a jib saw and fine blade.  Work round the room swastika fashion clockwise or anti clockwise (or both away from any outer mitred corner.  Cut the profile on one side first and them cut the other to fit the run.  The next negative profile will cover this.

[Jeremy Harris]

As mentioned earlier, I used loads of the Screwfix No Nonsense, solvent free stuff, and found it brilliant.  Not only that, but it has a long shelf life.  I've just pulled out half a dozen tubes from the loft to finish off the skirting around my study (the last room to be finished) and although a year out of date they were all fine.  In contrast, I had a couple of unused tubes of solvent based gripfix that were of the same vintage and they had set rock solid in the tube so got binned.

 

The only flaw with the Screwfix Non Nonsense stuff is that it doesn't bond to non-porous surfaces.  I tried to bond a bit of OSB to the inside of our metal shed and it failed miserable.  The good news was that it all flaked off, or could be sanded off, when dry and Sikaflex stuck the OSB up a treat (it was only to give me somewhere to fix hooks etc for tools).

Edited November 14, 2017 by JSHarris

[Ferdinand]

59 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

As mentioned earlier, I used loads of the Screwfix No Nonsense, solvent free stuff, and found it brilliant.  Not only that, but it has a long shelf life.  I've just pulled out half a dozen tubes from the loft to finish off the skirting around my study (the last room to be finished) and although a year out of date they were all fine.  In contrast, I had a couple of unused tubes of solvent based gripfix that were of the same vintage and they had set rock solid in the tube so got binned.

 

The only flaw with the Screwfix Non Nonsense stuff is that it doesn't bond to non-porous surfaces.  I tried to bond a bit of OSB to the inside of our metal shed and it failed miserable.  The good news was that it all flaked off, or could be sanded off, when dry and Sikaflex stuck the OSB up a treat (it was only to give me somewhere to fix hooks etc for tools).

 

Roughly how much of the Screwfix adhesive (decided to change rather than risk other for the sake if a few ££) would you estimate I should get in @JSHarris. 

 

I have about 70m of 94mm skirtinG to fit.

 

Cheers

 

F

 

 

[Oz07]

Just buy a box 10/12

[Jeremy Harris]

15 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

Roughly how much of the Screwfix adhesive (decided to change rather than risk other for the sake if a few ££) would you estimate I should get in @JSHarris. 

 

I have about 70m of 94mm skirtinG to fit.

 

Cheers

 

F

 

 

 

It depends a lot on how uneven the wall is and on how heavy handed you are with it, but in general I reckon that one tube fixed around 6 m of 120mm high oak skirting.  I may have got away with less, but I wanted the skirting  well sealed at the bottom edge.

 

As above, I just bought the stuff in boxes...........

Edited November 14, 2017 by JSHarris

[TerryE]

I reckon on 1-2 tubes for a 4×4m room.  It depends how flat the walls are.  Skimmed boarded, that is.  If brickwork or blockwork and the plastering a bit wibbly then maybe double that.  

 

BTW, its easier to put the adhesive onto the skirting before you finally offer it up.  Put the wedges in before you do the last offer up, then you wont be running around like a headless chicken.   If you are sticking to block or brickwork and can't use the wedge trick then pre drill any fixing points in the MDF, then through drill into the blockwork through these holes using a decent SDS masonry bit and insert the pluug and screw through the hole.  This is fast and avoids all of the "hunt the hole" hassle.  

[TheMitchells]

On 14/11/2017 at 13:53, TerryE said:

A good trick if  you've got a radial arm chop saw is to cut a bunch of ~25° wedges from a bit of CLS, say 88 × 200 on the rectangular sides.  If your walls are at all wavy, then  you can use a single temporary screw to screw these to the floor on the 200 long side about 2 cm from the skirting surface (so the sloping side is facing up and the 88mm side near the skirting)  and tap in a couple of 2cm folding wedges to push the skirting back hard onto the wall until the  adhesive cures.  We have a box of 20 or so these that only took a few mins to cut and we use them whenever we are fixing skirting over a wooden floor. 

 

Can you provide a photograph please as I am struggling to work out what you mean - apologies.

[TheMitchells]

We have been using Jeremy's recommended Screwfix no nonsense silicone free adhesive to fix the skirting and that worked great but we have some largish gaps behind due to the uneven walls.  So we need to use something to fill the gap which I can smooth and paint to finish it all off. 

Was looking at Screwfix No Nonsense General Purpose silicon sealant in white at £28 for a pack of 12  but is this the right stuff?  Which is best to avoid shrinkage and cracking?  Have 60m worth of skirting to fill. 

Is that different from decorators caulk?  Screwfix do a few and they seem cheaper than sealant.  No Nonsense decorators caulk for £1.39.  Should I use that instead?

[PeterW]

Decorators caulk is what you need here - or they do a light weight filler in a tube that is 99p I think. 

 

If you have a Home Bargains near you they’ve got Everbuild Decorators Caulk for 99p as well and it’s decent stuff.