Skirting boards on stairs

Ron75 · 08-09-2019 7:04pm #1

Hi, I'm looking for recommendations on how to make the best out of the current state of a corner of our new attic stairs before we will start painting.

The builders left it like that and I'm looking for a more aesthetic finish, but can't get my head around on how to do it... other than using lots of wood filler.

I will try to add some photos to give a better picture of how it currently looks like.

Many thanks in advance,
Ron

keithdub · 08-09-2019 7:12pm

Any pictures?

Ron75 · 08-09-2019 8:46pm

keithdub wrote: »

Any pictures?

I tried a few times, but always got error messages. Hope there will be a picture in this response

KaneToad · 08-09-2019 8:47pm

Ron75 wrote: »

I tried a few times, but always got error messages. Hope there will be a picture in this response

Suspense is killing me!

Ron75 · 08-09-2019 9:06pm

keithdub wrote: »

Any pictures?

Hope this time works

Stigura · 08-09-2019 9:12pm

Wow! " Builders " did That?! :eek:

mloc123 · 08-09-2019 9:12pm

A professional did that?

Ron75 · 08-09-2019 9:13pm

Builders advised the plasterboard didn't get all the way down leaving a hole that's now being covered by the block at the bottom

listermint · 08-09-2019 9:14pm

I'd sand everything smoothly.

Use decorator's caulk to even out all angles and corners. Sand again.

Prime it .

Then paint it white , then repaint the lower part of the wall again to clean line.

Done.

Ron75 · 08-09-2019 9:21pm

mloc123 wrote: »

A professional did that?

They called themselves carpenters... I was able to cover most issues with the skirting boards in the new room, but running out of options with this one.

mloc123 · 08-09-2019 9:24pm

Ron75 wrote: »

Builders advised the plasterboard didn't get all the way down leaving a hole that's now being covered by the block at the bottom

Even still. That us some rough woodworking. Even if the strip of mdf came out flush with the stairs upright it would be better.

As mentioned already. Sand it, caulk the 'gap' between the strip of wood and stairs and put a heavy coat of primer on.

Ron75 · 08-09-2019 9:24pm

listermint wrote: »

I'd sand everything smoothly.

Use decorator's caulk to even out all angles and corners. Sand again.

Prime it .

Then paint it white , then repaint the lower part of the wall again to clean line.

Done.

Thanks, I'll look into that one. Sounds better than using woodfiller all the way. ðŸ‘

cheif kaiser · 09-09-2019 2:42am

Personally, I'd cut that block out for a start, you can always fill behind it later.

I'd cut the remaining MDF back so as to fit a piece of bullnose mouding trim along the front, Id then put another piece of trim higher up on top of the remaining MDF and transition both up to your skirting at the top.

So it ends up something like this....

olestoepoke · 09-09-2019 6:19am

A good carpenter will have no problem at all bringing the skirting all the way down. Tricky yes with all the angles but a 2nd year apprentice carpenter could do this. The post telling you to caulk and paint it is nonsense. listen to chief kaiser. The builder/carpenters that did that are either not legit or were just too lazy to bring the skirting all the way down, simple as that.

olestoepoke · 09-09-2019 6:35am

Ron75 wrote: »

Builders advised the plasterboard didn't get all the way down leaving a hole that's now being covered by the block at the bottom

Builders advised? Sorry but that's funny. "Hi, I'd like to advise you that we didn't do our job properly". But It's perfectly fine as we are advising you. I am a carpenter with 25 years experience and I advise you that from the pics that the builders/carpenters were either incompetent or just lazy. If that were my house I'd be very concerned. If one of the showcases of the job i.e the winding stairs to the attic is finished like that I'd be wondering what type of corners they cut behind the walls, as in what you can't see. Looking at those pics is a red flag for me, It's butchery and I'd wager it's not the first corner they cut on the job.

dodzy · 09-09-2019 8:10am

Remove it and take another picture to see exactly what you’re looking at. If the PB runs below the wall string, there is a slicker option. Need to see what those pieces are hiding first.

listermint · 09-09-2019 12:34pm

Adding more complexity into this is not a good idea. You want this to fade away into unoticable. I wouldnt cut it out at this point. It can be cleaned up to fade away into the background.

olestoepoke · 09-09-2019 12:43pm

listermint wrote: »

Adding more complexity into this is not a good idea. You want this to fade away into unoticable. I wouldnt cut it out at this point. It can be cleaned up to fade away into the background.

This post is clueless. Ignore

listermint · 09-09-2019 2:20pm

olestoepoke wrote: »

This post is clueless. Ignore

Ignore this post and kaisars.

Whilst kaisars is a great job and an example of good carpentry. It looks wrong . There's too much going on and you've got skirting heights all over the shop for the sole purpose of making sure the top line matches all the way down. It's not appealing to the eye.

There's many ways to skin a cat.

Clueless

listermint · 09-09-2019 2:20pm

olestoepoke wrote: »

This post is clueless. Ignore

Ignore this post and kaisars.

Whilst kaisars is a great job and an example of good carpentry. It looks wrong . There's too much going on and you've got skirting heights all over the shop for the sole purpose of making sure the top line matches all the way down. It's not appealing to the eye. It's an example of what a carpenter wants to see but not the customer.

There's many ways to skin a cat.

Clueless

olestoepoke · 09-09-2019 3:17pm

listermint wrote: »

Ignore this post and kaisars.

Whilst kaisars is a great job and an example of good carpentry. It looks wrong . There's too much going on and you've got skirting heights all over the shop for the sole purpose of making sure the top line matches all the way down. It's not appealing to the eye. It's an example of what a carpenter wants to see but not the customer.

There's many ways to skin a cat.

Clueless

So good you said it twice

olestoepoke · 09-09-2019 3:26pm

This looks like they made a mistake and are trying to cover it up. The stringer should touch the wall, they have a filler piece in there and that abortion on top to disguise this. Theres a right way to do things and a wrong way and painting it and hoping that "It'll fade away into the background" lol, doesn't change the fact that it's done wrong. As I've said I am a carpenter with many years experience and this is butchery. If the stringer went all the way to the wall then that flat piece on top wouldn't be needed and you would maybe accept the skirting stopping as is. Your painter would caulk and paint where the stringer meets the wall on both sides and you wouldn't be on boards. I personally prefer to run my skirting all the way down to meet the skirting below so that it all looks like one unit and is astetically pleasing.

listermint · 09-09-2019 5:21pm

olestoepoke wrote: »

This looks like they made a mistake and are trying to cover it up. The stringer should touch the wall, they have a filler piece in there and that abortion on top to disguise this. Theres a right way to do things and a wrong way and painting it and hoping that "It'll fade away into the background" lol, doesn't change the fact that it's done wrong. As I've said I am a carpenter with many years experience and this is butchery. If the stringer went all the way to the wall then that flat piece on top wouldn't be needed and you would maybe accept the skirting stopping as is. Your painter would caulk and paint where the stringer meets the wall on both sides and you wouldn't be on boards. I personally prefer to run my skirting all the way down to meet the skirting below so that it all looks like one unit and is astetically pleasing.

I don't think a single person argued that the stringer should meet the wall.

But here's the gas. You've no idea what's behind or under that wall or the make up of the same. So talking about what way it was done from some photos on the internet is a bit mute.

Did you read again where no one said the stringer shouldn't meet the wall.....

As I said there's a carpenters finish and I know a load of carpenters that love to follow the lines. That's fine. But doing so can also not look right .

Various ways to approach a finish. This one wasnt it. I wouldn't be sticking in additional skirting on top of it.

antiskeptic · 09-09-2019 6:31pm

Yer only man: TGV panelling

Piece of bull nose window board laid a couple of inches onto top floor level (skirting notched to allow it to run under skirting and overhanging the stringer by an inch. Batten under nose, tgv from stair threads up to batten.

Reasonably easy to accomplish for a DIYer whilst achieving a neat job.

olestoepoke · 09-09-2019 6:38pm

listermint wrote: »

I don't think a single person argued that the stringer should meet the wall.

But here's the gas. You've no idea what's behind or under that wall or the make up of the same. So talking about what way it was done from some photos on the internet is a bit mute.

Did you read again where no one said the stringer shouldn't meet the wall.....

As I said there's a carpenters finish and I know a load of carpenters that love to follow the lines. That's fine. But doing so can also not look right .

Various ways to approach a finish. This one wasnt it. I wouldn't be sticking in additional skirting on top of it.

I pointed out the reason for the cover up i.e the stringer not meeting the wall they were short in their measurement. What am I missing with your reference to "no one said the stringer shouldn't meet the wall" don't follow why you said that sorry. Back to the issue at hand, It's a cover up of a mistake. If they are willing to leave such bad work behind them where you can see I'd bet there were more corners cut where you can't see. Ignoring it and caulking and painting it and hoping it "fades into the background" lol, is terrible advice and demonstrates your lack of experience. There are two options to fix this. Run the skirting all the way down, this will look fine and will be different to the picture Kaiser showed, as in a lot neater. The second fix is to remove the flat piece of trim and insert a proper filler piece flush with the stringer which may require repairing the wall behind, then sand it down fill it, caulk it and paint it.

awec · 09-09-2019 10:27pm

To be honest it looks like they've messed up their measurements. Stairs aren't wide enough so they've had to offset them from the wall.

cheif kaiser · 10-09-2019 1:35am

listermint wrote: »

Ignore this post and kaisars.

Whilst kaisars is a great job and an example of good carpentry. It looks wrong . There's too much going on and you've got skirting heights all over the shop for the sole purpose of making sure the top line matches all the way down. It's not appealing to the eye. It's an example of what a carpenter wants to see but not the customer.

There's many ways to skin a cat.

Clueless

The image I posted has indeed too many angles, however,the OP has 2 simple angles to deal with so obviously, it will not look exactly as the image.

I suggested 2 pieces of beading/trim, to A) Cover the gap at the edge where the MDF does not quite meet and therefore looks awful and

To run the 2 pieces of beading up into the beading which surround the skirting, thus giving somewhat of a match.

To finish this in any decent way, it needs some trim added and not chunks of Caulk and Filler, which IMHO, will just add to the mess!

Caulk is for filling slight cracks and Filler is for filling holes. Neither of which apply here and both of which I hate unless used for their correct purposes.

Skirting boards on stairs

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