Skirting finishes

[Thummy]

Help. I am an amature. We are having Tassie Oak skirting installed soon. We have no idea what product to use on these to preserve the natural timber look, wax, varnish or oil? Given these will be hit by the trust vacuum and mop. Also do you prepare skirting before they are applied to walls or after or both???? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Scott]

Hi Thumby, welcome to the forums.

Definitely prepare the skirts before you fit. The downside to this is the holes left behind from nailing to the wall. To avoid this I glued my skirts to the wall with no more nails. As far as a finish goes, depends if you want to stain or not. If so, stain the boards then sand lightly with 300-400 grit sandpaper or (my preference) 0000 steel wool. Then apply a thinned down polyurethane laquer, about 2-3 coats whilst sanding lightly with steel wool in-between. I used a satin laquer finish because a gloss stick out like a sore thumb.


Hope this helps!

[rogerjenkins]

Definately recommend either a Satin, or Semi-gloss, ( equal half mix of Satin, & Gloss ), Polyurathane Lacquer, as bumps and dents etc., from cleaning activities, kids, etc ,over the ensuring years won't show like when you use Gloss finish.
Best that you sand all skirts, stain, seal, etc, BEFORE attaching to walls. I have done several lots of skirts in houses over the years, both brand new, and older houses, for customers wanting a natural timber look on the skirts, door frames, window frames, etc. so have had a little bit of practical experience here, ( not much,- just a little bit!! )
In a new house where the walls should be "Plumb," nice and straight, you should be able to attach the skirts using any decent Construction Adhesive, ( Liquid Nails, etc. ),
in a Caulking Gun,- following the instructions on the tube, and plain common sense. ( it's amazing the number of people who cannot read,- or can't be bothered !! )
Older houses it pays to nail the skirts in place,- handy hint,- nail through a piece of cardboard, then any miss-hits won't damage the timber. use a nail set,( punch ), to neatly punch each nail just below the surface, and neatly fill each nail hole with suitably coloured Wood-putty, then when dry, carefully seal putty with whatever timber sealer you are using, with a narrow brush. Providing one takes a bit of time, and does a reasonably neat job, the filled nail holes should not be noticeable to the average person,- unless a fussy person goes along with a magnifiying glass,- just to be a," Pest. " Had one job once that was a, " Real pain, " compliments of the fussy owner,- till I handed the brush and the tin of Polyurathane to them, and said something along the line of, " You do it, since you are so fussy !!! "
Owner never bothered me after that,- can't imagine why,- can't possibly !!!!!
Roger

[Thummy]

Thanks so much for the help lads. A lot of people say only to nail while a few say only to use an adhesive. As a beginner I want to get it right. Happy to take the time a do a proper job. Has anyone used a "Magic Mitre"? Is there a similar product in Australia for purchase so I can get the perfect angles for mitred corners where the walls aren't plumb. This is a new house and already just with having cupboards fitted we have discovered there is no such thing as a straight wall.?

[rogerjenkins]

Gee mate,- What were the builders drinking, or sniffing when they built your house ??

Having said that,- there's a Brand New transportable here in town that was delivered in two sections, and, " married up, " on the site,- only problem being whoever did the block leveling, & compacting made a bit of a, "Boo-Boo," and didn't compact it properly, result the new transportable is S-L-O-W-L-Y parting along the join from top to bottom. The owners live elsewhere, and haven't seen their nice new Holiday House, since they saw it being delivered onto it's site and the utilities connected.
Boy !! - Are they in for a surprise when they eventually come back for a holiday !!!!!!

Roger

[cray-]

Plumb walls, in WA? Bwahahahahaha...

We moved into our new place in Perth last September and I did the skirting boards with my old man. Just the pre-primed MDF boards from the big shed, as we wanted them painted white.

I'm going to assume your house has been constructed in typical WA fashion, concrete slab, double brick exterior, fast brick interior walls and I'm not quite sure what the proper name for it is, but the liquid plaster that gets towelled onto the walls as opposed to gyprock sheets? This might explain to our Eastern States followers, why things aren't particularly square in WA.

The method suggested to us for fixing the skirting to the walls was:
-pre-drill a pilot hole into the boards every 800-1000mm (depending on board length).
-test fit the boards against the wall and drill another pilot hole through the boards into the brick
-remove the boards and drill a bigger hole in the brick so that you can insert your wooden dowels.
-the painted/finished boards can then be fixed with a dob of liquid nails every 300mm or so and a nail through the board, into the dowel.

Some people suggested doing the whole job with liquid nails but you'd need to have a nice straight walls and a flat floor for this to work. I found we had to flex the boards a bit to conform to the walls and floor. This left us with some gaps, but we patched them up with a bit of white silastic. There are some small gaps near the floor, but since the floor boards are dark, the board casts a shadow and you can't really see them.

It probably sounds a bit rougher than it actually is, I'm quite happy with the finished results. I think the alternative would be to skribe and plane all the boards which would be a lot more work and I wonder if it would not make the waves/kinks/etc more noticeable. Have fun!

[Thummy]

Thanks Cray for the reply. Yes it's true our house was constructed in the typical WA fashion of concrete slab, double brick exterior, fast brick interior walls. Really hard to have any wall perfectly straight. I did wonder about the adhesive on our walls, just knew there would be gaps using that method. We will do the drill, dowel and nail method. But I will definately stain & varnish before fitting to the walls as suggested.