Alternative to floor beading - moulding on skirting?

[danlightbulb]

Sure you're all familiar with the quarter round beading that you use to cover the expansion gap after laying laminate floor. I know removing skirting would have been the best option however the walls aren't straight in this house and we were concerned about creating a lot of damage to the walls if we tried to pull off the existing quite large skirting boards.

So I am wondering if an alternative to the quarter round small beading is to use a larger moulding, perhaps 8-10mm thick and say 50mm high, effectively a skirting on the face of the existing skirting, painted in white the same as the skirting is.

My hope is that this wouldn't look like beading, but rather a unique double layer skirting.

I.e something like this:

Cheshire Mouldings Pine Barrel - 34 x 12 x 2400mm | Wickes.co.uk

Cheshire Mouldings Pine Barrel - 34 x 12 x 2400mm

www.wickes.co.uk

Or plain face: https://www.wickes.co.uk/Cheshire-Mouldings-Pine-Stripwood---10-x-36-x-900mm/p/273219

 

[danlightbulb]

I already said the risk taking off the skirting is too great. The walls aren't straight, the skirting gap to wall has been generously filled in numerous places, and the walls are fairly long requiring joins in several places.

 

[danlightbulb]

Nailed or screwed - no idea but I think likely both in some places as the skirting has needed to be pulled to the wall in some places where the wall isn't straight.

The plaster skim has been applied when the skirting was in place so in some places there is no easy edge to drive a tool or wedges behind, would have to dig in to the plaster to get behind for some leverage.

The plugs are exactly at skirting height so if a new skirting was taller I'd have to cut around plugs or move them up (wire extensions required).

In the bay window there must be a curve on the wall behind the radiator as the skirting to wall is backfilled in places upto 10mm deep (most of the room isn't like this). Also radiator would need to come off to get replacement skirting behind unless i joint it in the centre.

We're doing things room by room except the floor because we want the same floor in all the rooms. So at the moment we're leaving the carpets down, switching work to another room, getting that painted and finished, and so on. Then at the end of the painting work we'll purchase and lay all the floors at the same time. This is because if we don't do this, we risk a flooring line being discontinued, or we have to buy it all now and store it. If we're pulling skirting off at that point, it means undoing some of the work we've done painting to get it habitable now.

Here's the room right now, all painting of walls and woodwork complete ready to get the window curtains/blinds and move back in.

The larger skirting gaps that have been filled are upto 10mm wide.

The only wall where beading would be obvious is the left side one. The right side will have the bed, the wall behind the picture will be wardrobes, and the bay window has the radiator.

I wonder if caulking would be worth considering. We could undercut the skirting on the left and bay window sides, and use coloured caulking on the right and back sides where mostly furniture will be. If Im millimeter perfect on the cutting of the floor, it will look a straight caulking line. Alternative something soft as a gap filler like cork strip?

 

[danlightbulb]

Did you end up doing double skirting? I've been considering the same thing, and suspiciously cannot find pictures online

I just used beading painted white. It looks ok, looks fairly integral with the existing skirting and most of it is behind furniture so can't really be seen.