Skirting

The rate has slowed down, but this is still post number 350. Sadly more a reflection of slow progress, rather than blogging prowess.

The skirting board for the lounge has now been acclimatising "in situ" for two or three weeks, so it really is time it was attached to the walls. A late start due to procrastination with a cup of tea and Saturday's newspaper meant that it was never going to be finished today ! Things have been made more difficult because the plastering is really short of the floor in this room :

This means that the lower edge of the skirting has nothing to attach to, other than glueing it to the floor. I chose instead to use some spacer blocks cut from spare floorboards :

I used long screws through the skirting and the spacers into rawplugs in the wall. The spacers are stuck to the wall with grip-fill. I also used a continuous line of grip-fill on the upper edge of the skirting to try and prevent a gap opening up. This always seems to be a problem with skirting boards, even if you use flexible filler before decorating. Come the summer, the cracks start to show.

Jan suggested that the boards should be painted before attaching them. I have done the primer/undercoat. The topcoat will have to be done post fitting once the screw holes and and angle joints are subjected to the "filler" treatment.

Here's a fitted board on the other side of the fireplace:

In total I cut four and fitted three, which is not a great result from a (short) day's work. Jan is going to try and help me improve the overall efficiency of the operation. Offering each board up 4 times before actually attaching it has to be something that can be improved upon.....