Skirting Board Mess After Carpet Fitting. Help please.(Photos)

[Sentry70]

Hello, had a carpet fitted today, all looked well when they left, fluff everywhere but that's to be expected. Also expected a few dinks and scratches on the skirtings, but instead found they'd used some kind of glue, which had spread up the skirting and then carpet fibres had stuck to it and it's set hard. No worries I thought, a magic eraser will sort that. Well no, it hasn't. I can't get the fibres off no matter what I try. It looks awful and I can't just paint over it as the finish will be awful. What to do now? I'll pursue it with the fitter, but realistically what can he do? I'm guessing it'll have to be sanded back and repainted, but that will take time and I'm not keen on getting dust/paint on the new carpet. Any ideas?

Sorry, it doesn't look so bad in the photos, but in reality it's in patches over all 4 skirting boards and looks worse in real life.

Chase it with the fitter (and next time you get a carpet fitted clarify that they aren't to use glue).

You could try:

• nail varnish remover or
• wait a couple of days for it to really harden and use a scraper

Anything more than that and it would make a mess of your new carpet (which will be hard to replace because they glued it down rather than fitting it properly)

Thanks for the response. I never expected them to use glue, in all the carpets I've had fitted it's never been used before! I don't understand why they would glue it, as there were gripper rods used as well?

Is it seagrass flooring - or similar? If so , it has to be stuck down as it behaves so differently to wool/synthetic carpet . The glue on the skirts is sloppy workmanship . Call the supplier tomorrow and ask them when they will come back to sort it out .

Nope, not seagrass, it's 100% synthetic, so gripper rods would have done the job. I'm so annoyed as it's a new skirting board and was freshly painted a month ago so I didn't have to paint it and risk spoiling the new carpet.

New skirtings?? Who painted them? The second picture has sloppy paintwork over existing paint.....complete with drips

What do you expect the fitter to do? He used carpet adhesive,it won't come off. Skirtings need replacing

Why do the skirting need replacing? They're fine apart from the mess on the surface. They're certainly not meant to be disposable.

They will require a lot of sanding.... not just from the carpet fitters mess but from the botch job before!

They can be easily removed to be sanded back, or replaced...... they are cheap enough

The second pic is the old skirting, I had one replaced which is the new one I'm talking about. I know they're not expensive, but it's a job that I haven't got time to do for various reasons. I was just hoping someone might have an idea of how to get the glue off. I'm sorry Winter if I've annoyed you,it certainly wasn't my intention. I know the paint work isn't perfect, but it was acceptable to me. The fluff stuck all over and the raised patches of glue aren't. We've all got our different standards and that's ok, but if you pay someone to do a job, you don't expect to have to spend time and money rectifying that.

Yep that's awful. You'll have to go back to the carpet fitter and complain. And glue to fit carpets? Never heard of such a thing!

No, neither had I A580 which is why I didn't think of telling them not to use it. Still, you live and learn I suppose!