Wooden Floor Skirting Board Gap

It consists of cutting and removing a bottom piece of the existing skirting board so to obtain an exact gap to insert the new wooden floor under.

Wooden floor skirting board gap.

Normally a space of between 10 and 15mm it s not a huge amount of space but it s enough to help prevent problems with wood flooring when it expands and contracts. With older tongue and groove hardwood or even wide plank floors gaps inevitably develop between the boards mostly because the wood shrinks over time as it dries out and loses moisture content. Another exacerbating condition is water damage. The term expansion gap when used in conjunction with wood flooring refers to the space left around the edges of a room when a floor is fitted.

Water logged wood will first swell then shrink as it dries out. To achieve this by far the best way is to have the wood floor fitted beneath the skirting boards. This will probably mean that you end up with a gap on your plaster over the skirting but i think it would be easier to fill. The alternative being with the use of a moulding or beading to cover the required expansion gap that s left to allow the wood floor to expand.

How to fill in gaps in wooden floors. Beading for laminate flooring for example can add an elegant touch as they are used to fill the gaps between the floor and skirting boards which occurs when fitting new floors without. Removing skirting boards to achieve the crisp neat stylish and professional look isn t always. This alternative is mostly used when the skirting boards cannot be changed but the end result should match the one obtained with a new skirting.

Alternatively you could try to fit strips of wood in the gap or cover the gap with beading but given that you ve gone to so much effort to sand your floor and skirting it would be a bit of a shame. The problem is magnified when the boards were not tightly laid in the first place.