Self-installation of skirting boards: is the devil so terrible as he is painted?

Finishing work in the room is the final stage of construction, and the installation of skirting boards is the finish line of the finishing stage. Wallpaper has already been pasted, the flooring has been laid, the glass of the windows shine, the doors smell like paint, but the final “touch” will still be to give an aesthetic appearance to the floor and walls in their lower part. An ordinary skirting board will be able to hide the unsightly gaps between the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the living room, hide from the eyes the flaws of the wallpaper sticker at the bottom of the wall, and simply please the owner with an unusual decor.

It will not be difficult for the owners of "skillful hands of artisans" to complete the finishing work independently. Those for whom installing a skirting board with their own hands will be a new stage in obtaining repair and finishing skills should first familiarize themselves with the sequence of this process.

Installation of skirting boards - completion of repair

Skirting boards are installed at the very end of the finishing work.

To get started, you need to decide which type of interior part is preferable for this room. Moreover, today in the distribution network you can buy a ready-made "product" that requires only installation. The “world” of skirting boards is diverse: you can find products from the following materials: MDF; plastic; veneer and array; laminated planks.

If the floor of the room is covered with parquet or cork, and if the laminate is laid, the preferred accessory will be a plank of solid wood (pine, spruce) and veneer. Cherry, oak, and ash products look “noble”. The plastic version is perfect for linoleum, carpet, tile.

Preparation and installation of wooden skirting boards

Obviously, the installation of a wooden baseboard requires some preparation:

A wooden product must be pre-treated with abrasive material.
Then it is primed and stained.
Skirting requires a painstaking leisurely fit along the entire length, especially in the corners. The strength of the joints is achieved by trimming them strictly at an angle of 45 °.

Here's how to properly align the skirting board:

All trims immediately do not need to be cut. Edging is best done during the fastening process: it is easier to dock the next one with a fixed element, and then already cut along the length. Fix the baseboard to the floor or to the wall firmly and tightly. Commonly used are self-tapping screws or grooved nails. To hide the traces of fasteners, the heads of the nails are puttied. Or you can simply stick the baseboard onto a dry, clean, even wall.

Note! The same type of product in different batches may vary in color and pattern. Therefore, it is better to purchase the entire batch immediately and with a margin, given the inevitable waste arising from the finishing process.

Plinth made of plastic: we install in accordance with all the rules

A plastic analogue of a wooden product is devoid of the problems of the necessary fitting of joints and washed down. In this case, the installation of accessories will help to hide uneven ends: plugs, corners, joints. A special groove on the front side into which the coating tape is inserted ensures a strong connection and evens out the color gamut, creating a single background. When installing a plastic baseboard, you should pay attention to such features:

The wall to which the baseboard is attached must be flat, then the fastening will be strong.
The baseboard itself can be attached to it either with "liquid nails" or with a clip for flush mounting.
Hidden parts of metal fastening clips are fixed on the walls with dowel-screws at a distance of 40-50 cm from each other.
In the place of fixation, opposite the hidden part, a plinth is installed. Slightly pressing the clip fastener, its back side falls into the groove and latches. At the same time, the integral structure of the skirting board is not violated; if necessary, it can always be dismantled and replaced with a new one.

The correct installation of plastic skirting boards allows not only to hide the necessary thermal seam, but also makes the finishing accessory an important part of the overall interior of the room.

Installing plastic skirting boards - you need the right model

Another plus of plastic - under such a baseboard you can hide all the cables in the house

Please note: the skirting board is not selected for furniture upholstery or wallpaper on the walls, but for the floor covering. Therefore, parquet and wooden floor are absolutely not combined with plastic. Despite the fact that “unnatural” material is worse than natural wood in quality, it costs much less and, undoubtedly, is a finishing accessory of “economy class”.

And also new models appear on the building materials market. Curved skirting boards are very relevant: their installation is possible due to the property to acquire the necessary form of bending of columns, walls.

Flexible skirting boards with unique characteristics tightly and reliably cover obstacles of complex shape with a minimum bend radius of 20 cm. They look elegant and quickly acquire a given shape and harden.

There are many ways, guides, tips and tricks for mounting technologies for various types of skirting boards. In the framework of this article we tried to summarize the simplest and most affordable.

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2 comments

Sofia
6 years ago

Here, I absolutely support the idea that such a simple matter can be easily dealt with without a special wizard. We did so at home. If you are going to install skirting boards for the first time in your life, I advise you to purchase immediately a couple of meters more, so to speak, with a margin. Thus, a damaged piece will not slow down the work. We fastened the baseboard to the liquid nails. We watched a couple of videos on the Internet how to do it and tried it ourselves. We did it perfectly. You just need to be more careful and not in a hurry.
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Karina
7 years ago

Although the laminate is laid in our apartment, we still chose a plastic baseboard. Indeed, in fact, this is also not a natural floor covering. The plinth is made with the texture of wood and is very beautifully combined with the laminate. A plinth made of natural wood would certainly look better, but at that time there was no one to advise us which is better to choose.
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