White Skirting Board

What is a skirting board?

 

Skirting boards, otherwise known as baseboards or mopboards, are fitted to interior walls at the base where the wall meets the floor in any room to act both as a protective barrier and as an aesthetically pleasing design feature. According to the Collins English Dictionary, a skirting board is defined as ‘A narrow length of wood which goes along the bottom of a wall in a room and makes a border between the walls and the floor’.

 

What is a skirting board used for?

 

Skirting boards ensure a clean transition from wall to floor, covering up unsightly plaster that may not be smooth as it is across the walls in this harder to reach area. They can also be used to fill in the gap where the wall meets with the floor, creating a clean transition between the two. As well as providing a finished look, skirting boards provide a protective barrier against an area of the wall that is most susceptible to scuffs and bumps, protecting the more fragile plaster behind it from cracking.

 

How do I choose the right skirting board size for my home?

 

While the size and profile that you choose may differ between a modern and a traditional property, skirting boards are a common detail for any finished interior room. For modern homes and homes with smaller interior rooms, a thinner skirting board may be the right choice for you. For a period property or a home with larger rooms, you may choose a larger more elaborate profile for your space. Choosing your skirting board based on the size of your room and the scale of the skirting board in your room is always the best place to start.

 

What’s the best material for my skirting board?

 

At Alsford, we have a selection of MDF white primed, oak and redwood skirting board options available for purchase in both ornate and simple designs to suit both modern and traditional design aesthetics. Choosing the right material for your home is a personal choice, no material is the best, only the best choice for you. Whether you are matching what’s already in your home starting or afresh, you need to consider the profiles available in each material, the size of the rooms you are fitting the skirting board to and the materials being used in other decorative mouldings in your home. If you don't see the profile you're looking for on our website, we have a specialist department that is able to match most designs, simply enquire in store or contact us online.

 

Timber Skirting Board

 

Is skirting board the same as architrave?

 

While skirting boards and architrave are both decorative mouldings, they serve different functions within a room. A skirting board is fitted to the wall at the base where the wall and the floor meet, while architrave is fitted around an opening such as a doorway or a window. Both skirting board and architrave work together in a room to create a clean and finished appearance, leaving no gaps or cracks visible.

 

Do skirting boards and architraves need to be the same?

 

Skirting boards and architraves do not need to be identical, but we would recommend choosing complementary profiles to best suit your space. Choosing complementary skirting board and architraves will ensure a clean looking design in your room as these two mouldings meet where the architrave extends around a doorway to the floor. Think of the scale of the architrave and the skirting together in your space, typically the skirting would be thicker than the architrave where the profile is not identical.

 

How do I choose the right skirting board for my home?

 

Choosing the right skirting board for your home is a personal choice and there’s a lot to consider when deciding what will work for you and for your space. First, you need to consider any other mouldings that may already be in place and whether you are trying to match a pre-existing skirting in another room. If skirting is the first decorative moulding you're choosing for your home, consider the size of the room and the character of the house. Is your home a new build or a period property? Period properties typically have larger rooms and can get away with more elaborate and larger profiles, while newer homes often have smaller rooms which are better suited to a smaller, more simplistic profile. Once you have an idea of what you're looking for you can begin looking at the material that will best suit you. Not all profiles may be available in your chosen material and if you can't find exactly what you're looking for we can help. At Alsford, we have an entire team dedicated to special timber requests, ensuring that you get exactly what you want for your project.

 

What if I can’t find the right skirting board for my home?

 

If you have a specific skirting board profile that you are trying to match but you don't see it on our website, we have a specialist team of professionals who can work with you to produce your own designs or match a profile from an existing sample. If you bring a small piece of the original profile into one of our stores, or send us a drawing with the dimensions and the meterage you need, we can follow up with you and provide a quote to provide bespoke timber profiles.

Our expert team in our specials department will work with you to produce an exact match cutting tool that can be used over and over again to produce your specific profile once you've agreed on your design. Your skirting board profile can be machined from a variety of timber specimens, both common and exotic, so please contact us today to find out more about how we can help produce the perfect skirting board for you. All our timber specials are machined at our head office in Erith and then transferred directly to your local branch for delivery or collection to suit your needs.

 

 Skirting Board Installation

 

Get in touch

 

We hope you now feel more comfortable with what there is to know about skirting boards. If you have any more questions, contact our timber experts, we're always happy to help.