Should my skirting boards touch the floor?

[Hetty091]

I have a 1.5cm approx gap between my skirting boards and the floor. The very thin carpet goes under the skirting boards. It was like that when I moved in.

In my last house the skirting board touched the floor and the carpet went to the edge of the skirting board.

I want to decorate and buy a carpet.

They should touch the floor. I would be afraid of leaving a gap in case of mice getting in.

In my house both wooden floors and carpets go under the skirting boards.

Normally the skirting boards go down to the floor and the carpet butts up to them.

I imagine there was previously a wooden floor laid and they were fixed on top of the flooring, this is sometimes done for neatness but isn't the most usual.

I don't think there was ever a wooden floor because it is in bedrooms. It's not that sort of house. If I'm going to change the carpets, what should I do and in what order? I need to paint the walls, paint the skirting boards and replace the carpets. There is thin carpet and no underlay at the moment. I don't think a thicker carpet and underlay would fit under the skirting. Should I get the skirting removed and then put back on touching the floor? I think that will make a mess of the wall too.

@Hetty091 are your floor joists ok???

I dont know! Do i need to take the floor up?

Depends how the skirts have been fitted. Is it a new build? 90% probably glued on, pull them off yourself. Run a stanley knife along the top of them to stop ripping or minimise damage. There could be some damage if theyve been screwed on or fitted properly. But it's easy enough to repair.

Strip the room. Strip skirts. Repair damage. Mist coat walls. Fit new skirting. Finish walls. Finish skirting. Fir new carpet.

@Hetty091 i would get someone to check your joists

In my last house, there was a gap for the carpet to go under to make a clean finish.

Who would I get to do that?

Its 1986

@Hetty091 quite a modern house to have sunk so much.. what are the room doors like? do they go all the way down or are they short too?

Nightmare to clean

@Hetty091 a joiner would check for you and you dont have to replace the skirting if you dont want to either. remember the door jambs would need redoing and then you end up having to do the whole house so it gets really expensive.

Gap slowly got larger in our Victorian house and turned out the joists were rotten and the floor was dropping a a a result
Just saying

Ask a tradesman for advice? You probably have several options. Option 3 sounds the best

1. Have the skirting board lowered and worrying about the condition of the walls if/when they are damaged. Plenty of YouTube videos showing it being done.

2. Skirting board comes in different sizes You could buy taller replacement skirting so it touches the floor but comes up as high as the existing skirting.

3. Fit skirting board cladding - designed to fit over existing cladding.
   skirting board cladding

At the base of door frames, the gap could be filled with a filet of wood. Unnoticeable once painted.

I reckon with a normal medium underlay and carpet it would be fine. If there is a massive gap then maybe some beading round the bottom would work. I would:

Pull the carpet up (or at least cut a foot off around the edge of the room) paint the ceiling, paint walls, rub down and paint the woodwork and let it harden for at least a week before getting new carpet with decent underlay laid.

Thank you all so much. I am a novice at all things household. I think the best course of action might be to leave the skirtings where they are. The carpet is very mucky at the edges. I might choose something dust coloured.

I don't think the floor has dropped or anything. The doors go right to the floor.

Possibly it’s previously had a laminate floor fitted and the skirting boards were fitted so they rested on top-it’s the best finish rather than that horrible beading for the expansion gap. If they’ve pulled up the laminate, there will be a gap between skirts and original floor. You could remove them and replace or you could fit a thick underlay and the carpet on top will it up against the skirting as normal. We had to lay carpet under skirting as there was previously a thick laminate floor and we couldn’t be bothered to replace the skirts.