DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

I have a 30's build house and as a result the skirting boards were fixed directly to the brick work, when i removed them (they were rotten as hell) it has left a gap about 20mm deep and 175mm high around the room.

The room has recently been skimmed and my plastering skill is questionable at best, would it be best to try and get some taller skirting (i ve been struggling with anything over 167mm high), pad the gap out some timber or try to get the wall plastered right to the ground (which will be a real ball ache)?

Hi. Generally walls aren’t plastered right down to the floor anyway. The bottom few inches is left rough and then covered with skirting. There is also usually a gap between the floor and the bottom edge of the skirting into which the carpet gets stuffed!

A small gap at the bottom (5mm usually) plus the 167mm skirting comes awfully close to the 175mm you have to cover. Sounds to me like you might get away with padding out the 20mm deep gap (that’s a lot!) and running a small bead of caulk around the small gap that remains on the top edge.

The local joinery shop could run up some higher skirting for you if you want. It’s probably one of the most common requests we get!