gap between floor and skirting

[peter_sm]

I removed the old bullnose skirting from all of the walls in our house, and replaced them with slightly wider skirtings. The new bullnose skirting was about 20mm wider, so it easily covered the marks where the old skirting was removed from the wall where there were heaps of old coats of paint.

[Make it work]

About 3 years ago we ripped out all carpets from our 30's Cali Bungalow only to find gaps as big as 15mm. I seroiusly thought of filling the gaps but I decided to make a 30mm srtip that matched the chamfered skirting and it looks great. I also left a tiny gap, enough to slide a newspaper between the new strip and the floor for making painting easier and that was a winner.

Removing the skirting WILL be a nightmare and will only make the job harder than it has to be. If you don't like the quad consider a cove scotia which is a reverse of a quad (curves inward not outward).

If you do fill, I suggest that you do not use a cheap acrylic water based gap filler but use a polyurethane. Once cured, cut it flush with a knife but put paper on the floor before caulking to stop it from sticking to the flooring. Polyurethane that is NOT exposed to direct sunlight for extended periods will never dry out and fall out in great chunks like some acrylic gap fillers.