Skirting boards - material

[crispy_wafer]

Looked through some old threads and conventional wisdom seemed split between MDF, and timber.  We'll be painted rather than wood on show.  I'm leaning towards timber, pine or tulipwood, Pine being cheaper than Tulipwood.

 

Any wider thoughts on material choice?  And longevity of MDF?  Dont know if I should reconsider.

 

If I choose timber, is it worth having them primed?  Or is it not worth the hassle!  - Backstory, I received some primed window boards and had to start again as the finish was like orange peel.

 

Any decent online suppliers that you've used, I've bookmarked a few that I have come across.

[Crofter]

I wanted solid oak. Then I priced it up (not just skirtings- architraves, liners, and stops too) and had a change of heart. Considered veneered, but it wasn't all that much cheaper and seemed far more vulnerable. 

In the end I just went with MDF, and painted it. Very happy. Not only did I save a lot of money, but fitting was an absolute doddle. If you make a mistake, you just cover it with filler, sand it smooth, and paint. Can't do that with solid wood! 

 

I already had bamboo flooring, exposed timber beams, and plain white walls. The colour of the skirts was a nice extra touch to what could have been quite a bland interior.

[Nestor]

I used https://www.howdens.com/joinery/skirting-boards.

Consistent quality product, primed and a fair price.

Easy to fill and sand, I fit with SticksLike or similar and use ovals pinned through.

Tried Gripfill but not worked here.

I scribed the internal corners, took a bit of MDF to master but worth a try.

Robin Clevett here : 

 

Edited yesterday at 10:04 by Nestor

[SimonD]

Solid wood for me all the way. For us, I've bought par redwood and machined with a router as I don't really like the standard profiles. Everyone I know who has had MDF has regretted it, especially if you have hard floors that get mopped.

[crispy_wafer]

Just now, SimonD said:

Solid wood for me all the way. For us, I've bought par redwood and machined with a router as I don't really like the standard profiles. Everyone I know who has had MDF has regretted it, especially if you have hard floors that get mopped.

Hmm...  I will be having the floors tiled, so mopping will be happening!  Nice personal touch creating your skirting.  Inspired me to seek out a video, and I'm now looking at table saws on ebay - lol.

[Nickfromwales]

MDF is for mass developments, absolute crap and the external corners just get battered and fray.

 

I costed a project and the client went with oak everywhere. Looked at the cost of prep / prime / undercoat / topcoat / re-coating every few years for life etc, and the clients just said "maintenance free, please", so that was that.

 

Not a huge difference if you look into it holistically, eg the cost of this landed less ongoing ball-ache of keeping it looking nice, and hardwood looks hundreds of times better. A wipe with some oil every now and then, for high traffic areas, and that's about it.

[Russdl]

58 minutes ago, crispy_wafer said:

Hmm...  I will be having the floors tiled, so mopping will be happening!

Where we have tiled floors we used the same tile as the skirting. Looks good and hard as nails (obviously depends on the size of your tiles for this option to be considered). 
 

[crispy_wafer]

4 minutes ago, Russdl said:

Where we have tiled floors we used the same tile as the skirting. Looks good and hard as nails (obviously depends on the size of your tiles for this option to be considered). 
 

interesting, I’ve seen this on my holidays in the apartments.  how have you interfaced with door architraves?

 

 We’ve having a modular rustic tile fitted on the floor, I’ll check the catalogue and see what options they have listed to see if it could pass muster!

[-rick-]

Also, depending on tiles used the top cut edge might not look great. Looks good if done well though.

Edited yesterday at 11:43 by -rick-

[Crofter]

39 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

MDF is for mass developments, absolute crap and the external corners just get battered and fray.

 

I costed a project and the client went with oak everywhere. Looked at the cost of prep / prime / undercoat / topcoat / re-coating every few years for life etc, and the clients just said "maintenance free, please", so that was that.

 

Not a huge difference if you look into it holistically, eg the cost of this landed less ongoing ball-ache of keeping it looking nice, and hardwood looks hundreds of times better. A wipe with some oil every now and then, for high traffic areas, and that's about it.

Interesting. Our MDF has stood up pretty well. Eight years so far as a busy holiday let occupied about 200 nights a year. 

We don't go mad with the floor mopping though, because the floor is bamboo.

And in the bathroom, I have replaced one small section of MDF with tile because it was suffering from damp.

[MikeGrahamT21]

MDF every time, far more stable than natural timber.

 

Once used Pine skirting, never again! Had to nail it every 600 just to keep it on the wall while the adhesive set.

 

Mine has been in years, painted, looks the same as the day i did it

[Nickfromwales]

22 minutes ago, Crofter said:

Interesting. Our MDF has stood up pretty well. Eight years so far as a busy holiday let occupied about 200 nights a year. 

We don't go mad with the floor mopping though, because the floor is bamboo.

And in the bathroom, I have replaced one small section of MDF with tile because it was suffering from damp.

I've replaced too much of it over the years, and external corners defo don't hold up as well as real timber, where hoovers bump into them etc. I guess it's down to how you look after / treat it, much as with anything.

 

MDF needs to be sealed well at the bottom, and ideally painted at the lower and bit of the rear to prevent any effects from mopping / bathroom water spills etc. Bottom ends of architraves seem particularly susceptible. 

 

And yes, pine is a PITA and knotting solution etc is a real PITA. Pine needs a lot of prepwork to get the painted surface looking flawless.

[crispy_wafer]

More costly, but is tulipwood a viable material?

[-rick-]

32 minutes ago, crispy_wafer said:

More costly, but is tulipwood a viable material?

 

Soft as pine, less knots? At least that's my initial reaction. Sapele is hard as oak, easy to machine and few knots. Cheaper than Tulipwood. But, BIG BUT, comes from old growth forests in Africa and it's now listed as vulnerable so at the very least need to be careful tracing sustainably managed supply and even then are you contributing to an overall market that is problematic.

 

Edit: open pores though so more work than tulipwood if you want to hide the grain.

Edited yesterday at 13:14 by -rick-

[Iceverge]

MDF here.

 

It's been fine apart from any edges that have gotten wet. It is just mush really when it comes to taking screws or impact. 

 

I don't think it'll last the journey. The dust is horrible when cutting too. I'd much prefer to work with pine. 

 

Is there any cement board options? Maybe hardiplank etc? 

 

I think you can uPVC too but I've never seen it. 

[Russell griffiths]

If you can get tulip wood in the length you need then go for that, more stable than pine, less knots easier to paint. 
I think you can get it finger jointed into longer lengths. 
 

I did a whole house in it and it’s nice to work with. 

[Russdl]

2 hours ago, crispy_wafer said:

how have you interfaced with door architraves?

Just butted up to the architraves. 
 

 

2 hours ago, -rick- said:

Also, depending on tiles used the top cut edge might not look great.

Yep, good point. Our tiles are cut in half length ways and the factory edge faces up for exactly that reason. 
 

We have MDF in all the carpeted rooms, no problems whatsoever, no damage on external corners. No knots to prime. If done properly I see absolutely no issue with MDF (apart from the dust 😷)
 

 

[ProDave]

I used Oak veneered arcs and skirtings from Howdens, finished with Osmo oil.  Matches nicely to the real Oak door frames.

 

Annoyingly because we had chosen 2040mm tall doors, one length of Howdens Oak veneered arc was just too short to do two door uprights, so to avoid huge wastage, I used corner blocks to join arc to skirting.

 

 

 

Floors do get mopped from time to time, no sign of issues with the veneered MDF skirting.  Just be sensible and take a little care.

[saveasteading]

If I recall, mdf has a grain, so the ends will be more absorbant. The @ProDave block solves that for the architraves.

The Georgian detail that suits mdf?

[torre]

I like the idea of a shadow gap, but getting the detailing right looks tricky!

[Iceverge]

12 hours ago, torre said:

I like the idea of a shadow gap, but getting the detailing right looks tricky!

 

I know a house with that. It looked sharp when new ( although it really exacerbates anything less than a perfectly level floor).

 

However it with the passage of time, kids and vacuuming etc the bottom of the wall has become a bit scruffy. 

[Nickfromwales]

12 hours ago, torre said:

I like the idea of a shadow gap, but getting the detailing right looks tricky!

Saw a previous client doing this, with all the time / cost / grief / attention to detail and requisite micro-managing et-al, and tbh when it was done, I thought it looked shite tbf.

 

So much faff for what I thought to make so little difference, plus as above there's a reason we use skirting boards vs have painted surfaces next to floors and doorways.

 

Each to their own.

[Nickfromwales]

20 hours ago, ProDave said:

I used Oak veneered arcs and skirtings from Howdens, finished with Osmo oil.  Matches nicely to the real Oak door frames.

 

Annoyingly because we had chosen 2040mm tall doors, one length of Howdens Oak veneered arc was just too short to do two door uprights, so to avoid huge wastage, I used corner blocks to join arc to skirting.

 

 

 

Floors do get mopped from time to time, no sign of issues with the veneered MDF skirting.  Just be sensible and take a little care.

I really like the blocks.

 

Makes it look more 'expensive' imho. Done this a load of times, and when I show the client they say "yes please".

[-rick-]

28 minutes ago, Iceverge said:

However it with the passage of time, kids and vacuuming etc the bottom of the wall has become a bit scruffy. 

 

While I've not got a project yet I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I want to do and the idea of shadow gap really appealed but was definitely put off by the maintenance/fragility aspect. I think a good middle ground is to have wood skirting but end the plasterboard above it and have a shadowgap between the plasterboard and skirting.

 

Skirting takes the bashes/wear and tear but you still have a flat-ish profile wall.

 

Thinking about construction, seems relatively simple to do with careful planning, but time consuming. So either a significant cost if paying someone or significant time investment if DIY.

 

Bit like this (though I would have the wood proud of the plasterboard by a couple of mm)

 

[Nickfromwales]

22 minutes ago, -rick- said:

 

While I've not got a project yet I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I want to do and the idea of shadow gap really appealed but was definitely put off by the maintenance/fragility aspect. I think a good middle ground is to have wood skirting but end the plasterboard above it and have a shadowgap between the plasterboard and skirting.

 

Skirting takes the bashes/wear and tear but you still have a flat-ish profile wall.

 

Thinking about construction, seems relatively simple to do with careful planning, but time consuming. So either a significant cost if paying someone or significant time investment if DIY.

 

Bit like this (though I would have the wood proud of the plasterboard by a couple of mm)

 

Was on one in Gravenhill where they did exactly this.

 

You have to be incredibly careful not to pull the corner bead off the plasterboard all the way through the project, and find a way so that a cloth or duster doesn't have any way to be able to snag on the cut metal end of the bead, as a few times the guys on site were hopping around and swearing loudly when they innadvertantly popped another one; then the filling and sanding etc begins all over again.

 

I'd recommend asking the plasterer to fit the skim beads with some solvent free Gripfill at the ends, to prevent this from happening, as when these pop off at the ends they are a complete pig to get to sit back and stay put.