Removing skirting to fit laminate

[WeeM]

Has anyone had their skirting boards removed to fit laminate? Does it make a mess of your walls? I really don't want beading and it's a new house so don't want to wreck the walls either!
I'm considering Karndean as they said that can just be fitted up against the skirting but it's pricey stuff!

Oh that's good to know! They charge £2.50 a metre to remove it which will start to add up right enough!

We removed and replaced too.

You really need to remove it for a good finish.

We paid for it to be removed, it was original skirting too but didn't cause much damage to the plaster.

It needed to be replaced with new skirting in some places as it snapped when it came off.

I'm pretty sure that new build skirting will be v easy to take off.

Our joiner said this to us when warning us that in old housing like ours it wasn't so simple.

They did say new build stuff would be easy to take off but I wasn't sure if that was just salesman chat! Just don't want to end up with chips out my plaster when its immaculate at the moment! But that's reassuring to know.

Just bear in mind that should you grow to hate that laminate flooring you have to remove the bloody skirting board from at least one or two walls to relay any more laminate. You can slide it under one side of the room but not the other.

Plus you can't lay anything less deep as you will have a gap between the new flooring and the higher skirting boards. You can't drop the skirting down without revealing where the original skirting was.

My laminate has been down 6 years and I hate the colour now but changing it would be too much effort.

its worth removing the skirting if the laminate/engineered wood is very good quality and won't need replacing for a long time

i couldnt remove the skirting in my livingroom as it was glued on and would have fucked the walls and a nightmare to get back on so the laminate was laid and a thin beading was placed round the edges to cover it and its been fine

Beading makes laminate look really cheap. Definitely worth taking the skirting off even if you have to do a bit of filling on your walls.

I'm so worried about it looking cheap-that's what I'm worried about. Especially because the stuff I'm looking at isn't cheap-I'm wanting it down long term.

Didn't mean to say worried twice...sounded a bit melodramatic!

Bear in mind as it's a new build you will probably get some cracks in the plaster once it drys out and the house begins to settle

It's new but not brand new-5 years old now so hoping that will be ok

It's worth doing it properly when you're spending so much on Karndean. You'll be glad you did.

We live in an older house with shaped skirting boards glued to the wall which couldn't be removed without damaging the walls & boards so we decided to get beading. The builder used quite a fine piece of wood & it is painted white to match the skirting & you don't really notice it as it blends in.