Skirting board paint question

[stonkytonk11]

We have some chips in our skirting boards...they got painted about 4 years ago. My question is...can I just touch up these areas or do I need to paint the whole lot? We have a carpet so not sure if that would be possible? I'd also like to paint along the top of them as the little 'ledge' bit looks grubby no matter how often I clean them. Any advice welcome!

Personally I think you're better doing the whole lot otherwise the touched up bits will look whiter (if they're white?). I've just redone my stairs and it looks lovely and fresh. I just used masking tape on the carpet.

@Predictabilitypreferred I think you're probably right, if that was the case I'd maybe get a professional in to do it to save the carpet...

If you’re just going over with the same colour then there’s no need to paint properly right down to the carpet/skirting join, feather the paint by using a slightly drier brush. Its different if you’re changing colour though and much more difficult. Just make sure the masking tape properly covers the carpet (try and tuck it over the edge of the carpet by using a scraper)

I guess it comes down to how confident you are with cutting in, going along the top edge, you’ll want to get it pretty neat and any wobbles here will really jump out to the eye, although again, you’ll probably get away with not going completely upto the cutting in line.

Wash down first, then lightly sand. Remove any bumps, drips from the last coat.

Put masking tape above and below. Still try not to paint to the tape because it will leave a raised edge of paint when you peel the tape off. Do the majority of the area with a wider brush, then use a very small one to paint the top flat bit.

Once you have painted wait for 2 hours and then go back to see whether any drips have formed. If they have, use a slightly wet brush to paint them out.

Hope you don't mind me jumping on this. I need to repaint some skirting boards. They're very yellow (was white gloss) now, due to being painted over 20 years ago. I was going to sand and go over with paint after. Someone suggested using paint stripper first, but I don't want to go back to bare wood (have not got the time). Does paint stripper always go back to bare wood or will it just strip the top layer of paint off (probably has a few layers of old paint on anyway)?

Just put some masking tape along the carpet as close as possible to the skirting board

@WildNorthEast Ive gone over many skirting boards originally done with oil based gloss with water based eggshell. No need to strip to the wood (paint stripper can often be nasty stuff and it’s a messy thankless task), just sand down lightly, enough so there is a key, then use a coat of undercoat/primer (Leyland acrylic from screwfix is cheap and decent) and then whatever top coat. IMO there isn’t much need to use anything oil based for interior woodwork- water based is fine these days and won’t yellow over time.

@lonelycrab really appreciate that, thank you

Paint can change colour as it ages. I believe brilliant white often yellows.

You could try just touching up the chips if you’ve still got the original paint, then stand back and see how noticeable it is.

If it’s bad then try a test piece and repaint as suggested but not as far down as to contact carpet. The small stripe of original paint between the carpet and new paint may just look like shadow, or colour contrast, and will depend on the lighting levels.

If this doesn’t work call in the professionals.

I had great success matching a creamish emulsion paint to cover marks on walls that had been painted years earlier. I think I remember decanting some of the original paint, watering it down, adding a touch of white artists acrylic paint and just touching up and feathering out the edges.

If you really, really looked under daylight you could sort of tell. But it was good enough for me.

As others have already mentioned, you may be able to touch up just the chipped bits, depending on the colour.

If you decide to repaint the whole lot, it is absolutely possible to do a neat job, even with carpets in situ, just mask them off carefully - I've done it a few times. I usually double-up on a 5cm wide tape, so effectively you end up with a 10cm masked edge all along the skirting (hope the description makes sense). You can get away with a single run of a 5cm tape, but I find the double width is more practical and reassuring when painting. A budget stuff from DIY stores works just fine, you don't have to worry that much about potentially sticky tape residue on carpets (compared to woodwork, glass, etc.). You can get off-the-shelf 10cm wide masking tapes but they're more specialist.

Don't just plonk the tape on top of a carpet, especially if it has long-ish pile. Hold the pile down and wedge the tape as close as possible to the skirting. Preferably, slightly overlap the edge of the masking tape with the skirting and tuck it under the skirting with a spatula or something similar.