How do I replace or repair skirting boards?

Self-renovator Sian gives you a step-by-step guide to restoring the finishing touch between your walls and floor

Traditionally fitted at the base of wet plastered walls to cover the messy wall/floor joint, timber skirtings remain in domestic properties for a number of reasons. Even on modern plasterboarded walls they provide a crisp demarcation between horizontal and vertical surfaces, protect plaster against knocks and scrapes, and frame a room. Repairing or replacing missing skirtings is fairly straightforward. Read on for my tips on getting it right.

DIY skirting repair in modern homes is relatively easy, with the most-used simple profiles like pencil-round (bullnose), chamfered or torus usually easy to find. Most DIY stores or local timber merchants stock standard 3” (7.62cm) or 5” (12.7cm) heights in pine and pre-primed MDF. If you’re fitting lots of skirting, prime and undercoat the full lengths on trestles first: less bending involved! Don’t forget to knot block all the wood knots before priming, or your skirtings will look like they have measles when the knot oil seeps through the waterbased top coats.

Fitting skirting is a job easily tackled by a competent DIYER, just make sure you have a good wood saw and a mitre box for smaller jobs, or invest in a reasonable standard chop saw. It’s always easiest to fit replacement skirts to the original fixing points/blocks/battens. Otherwise adhesive fix onto lovely flat surfaces, or level, block and then screw fix onto more undulating walls. If the walls have been damp, treat the reverse side of a timber board with preservative or use UPVC in persistently damp areas.

When removing existing skirting, carefully use a bolster chisel and crowbar to prise the timber away from the wall. Protect plaster from the rocking crowbar with a small flat piece of timber. Gently ease the length away from the wall in a few places, rather than just one, to stop the length splitting and breaking. Reusing period boards takes effort, but is better for the environment and helps preserve the soul of your home by connecting with its past.

You don’t have to choose a standard profile. I’ve often specified classic Georgian Ogee or Ladies’ Slipper – a similar price to standard but a more considered choice. In rooms with high ceilings, it’s better to choose a taller skirting, maybe 7” (17.78cm) or even 9” (22.86cm), and in very grand properties, the baseboards are often higher flat pieces with a decorative mould on top. Good timber retailers often stock 7” but a higher spec has to be ordered. Take in a picture or piece of damaged skirt for help in assessing what you need.

During my own renovation, I realised the Edwardian skirts were no longer available ‘off the shelf’. Timber retailers buy skirting from moulding manufacturers, and there are several of the latter around the UK holding hundreds of pattern moulds from which they can make any size, height and profile you need.

Practising mitre cuts will ensure a more professional finish, or use a profile gauge to take a mould of existing lengths already fitted into corners, then draw the profile onto your new piece of wood, using a coping saw to cut it out. This takes skill, but is required for non-standard angles.

Newly bought pine skirting can be painted, or stained and varnished country-style. Solid oak skirts are also available, but expect high prices per metre. Very on-trend is woodwork or skirting painted the same dark colour as the walls, a classic Georgian look.

Some other little tricks to consider are: using plinth blocks at the end of skirting runs where they meet door architraves, making sure timber floors are laid before fitting skirts for a professional look, and checking full lengths aren’t bowed or warped before you buy.