Filling gap between skirting board and tiles - caulk or filler?

Bugatti · 03-05-2021 03:51PM #1

See the attached image of a gap between my skirting board and tiled floor. I'm repainting the skirting, but before I do I want to fill in the gap along the floor that I mentioned. What would be the best thing to do that with, caulk or a filler?

romaderwdcsax · 03-05-2021 04:09PM

Bugatti wrote: »

See the attached image of a gap between my skirting board and tiled floor. I'm repainting the skirting, but before I do I want to fill in the gap along the floor that I mentioned. What would be the best thing to do that with, caulk or a filler?

A good quality caulk.
Run masking tape under the skirting, caulk the gap, wipe excess caulk off straight away with a damp sponge. Leave dry for 24 hrs, then cut tape with a sharp stanly knife, should have a perfect job then

colm_c · 03-05-2021 11:37PM

I would leave it tbh.

It will never look right, and dirt will stick to caulk.

It will look a mess after a few months.

03-05-2021 11:43PM

Personally, I'd leave it, but if you are gonna do it, if it's annoying you, use caulk.

Point the caulk at a 45 degree angle and do about 3ft at a time. Once you've done your 3ft section, get a moist/wet baby wipe (from the packet, don't let it dry) and rub it gently along the caulk/skirting/floor. This'll lift any excess caulk off. Discard the baby wipe (or lay out 2-3 baby wipes to throw it on top of) and then start on your next 3ft section, rinse repeat.

You'll use a lot of baby wipes but you'll get a great finish. Make sure your wipes are a proper brand like Huggies or such, though. Cheapo ones tend to shed fluff all over the place.

Don't attempt to clean, dust, etc. for about a day or two as anything that lodges in the wet caulk will be there permanently (unless you cut it out and re-do).

Varik · 04-05-2021 12:02AM

You'd be better leaving it rather than using caulk.

There's a bunch of different brands of sandable, paintable fillers.

Put masking tape preferably water proof stuff as it'll be a come away without the coming apart on tile.
Use an old credit card or similar as a trowel. When dry Sand if needed, then paint the full skirting.

policarp · 04-05-2021 01:13AM

Don't us silicone.

John_Mc · 05-05-2021 11:11AM

Don't bother - caulk will expand/contract with the temperatures. We had gaps like that and the painter applied caulk in November and by Spring it looked terrible

Sleepy · 07-05-2021 02:16PM

You want to make sure you're using a flexible decorators caulk. I've done it in a few rooms where we had the skirting replaced a few years back and it's all still looking fine.

dodzy · 08-05-2021 09:16AM

Looks fine, leave it.

Cerco · 08-05-2021 01:44PM

I would think that the proper way to fix this is to re-install the skirting, particularly if there are other similar gaps. Otherwise I would leave it.

Filling gap between skirting board and tiles - caulk or filler?

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