# Removable Skirting Boards



## SeanG (18 Jan 2007)

I was looking though a door book and noticed a pic of how skirting boards used to be mounted on two battens - Ding!  

I shall be fitting skirting boards to our new extension soon and the gap between the battens looks perfect for running speaker cables though [-o< and it would be even more useful if I could remove the boards at will to allow for re-routing, adding, etc...... possibly even an end to cutting in when painting happens :twisted: 

If I make the boards from MDF they should be stable so could I get away with a magnetic fixing - or the clippy things (may not be the real name) used to hold bath panels on?

Anyone tried this before - or just feel like sharing an opinion?


All views welcome..................


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## Anonymous (19 Jan 2007)

I have always been a big fan of skirtings fixed the old way, on battons onto wood wedge fixings into a chiseeled groove in the mortar. Also dont forget a lot of older (deeper) skirtings were made in 2 halves joined with a T&G or a simple lap, to reduce cupping. If you did similar you could have the top fixed and the bottom half removable with a void behind??
You could possibly use clips like in kitchen plinth's as a removable fixing; or a simple reovable screw and brass cup? The people who build timber frame houses use a series of specialist technique's for running mains services and allowing access, a look at the TFG (timber framers guild) web site might turn something up. There are some diagrams for sure in one of Jack Sobon's books "Build a timber framed house" (I think thats the title) Might also be worth a look as to how they route cables when they build recording studio's they might have special methods as well??
Cheers Mr S


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## Shivers (19 Jan 2007)

SeanG":jvz8uu6r said:


> I was looking though a door book and noticed a pic of how skirting boards used to be mounted on two battens - Ding!
> 
> I shall be fitting skirting boards to our new extension soon and the gap between the battens looks perfect for running speaker cables though [-o< and it would be even more useful if I could remove the boards at will to allow for re-routing, adding, etc...... possibly even an end to cutting in when painting happens :twisted:
> 
> ...



Liking hifi A/v myself --ive beem toying with the ides of hidden cable channeling,

my idea was to have plastic pipe behind the skirting or polyurethaned on the back of the skirting with inlet/outlet grommets,cable could easily be feed through or removed at will,same idea with under floor too.


regards.


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## dedee (19 Jan 2007)

The skirting boards I fixed in our childrens bedrooms are screwed to the wall with an unglued tapered plug filling the hole. I made the plug from the same wood as the skirting but I do not think a contrasting wood would have looked out of place.



Andy


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## Anonymous (19 Jan 2007)

How do you cope with dodgy walls? By this I mean walls which wander all over the place rather than being straight. In the last room I did I could get the skirting pulled anywhere near the walls. Normally a sealant would fill the gap but this has the side effect of acting like a glue. 

I like the idea of removable skirting but haven't managed it yet.

Dave


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## dedee (19 Jan 2007)

Dave,
in my case pulling the old skirting off the wall brought down so much plaster I was able to replaster to get them reasonably flat.

Andy


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## StevieB (19 Jan 2007)

If you like plastic skirting (OK, im on my way out the door already :? ) then trunking in the form of skirting with prebuilt channels is readily available from the likes of screwfix and TLC direct etc. THis is fixed to the wall with a removable front panel/section for routing cables.

Steve.


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## woodshavings (19 Jan 2007)

I have just helped my son fit some skirting board that hides the cables for speakers, co ax cable, and a scart cable.
The skirting board was moulded mdf. I routed a slot about half the thickness of the skirting board. It was fixed to the wall using wall plugs and screws, the hole capped with a wooden plug.
I used decorators filler to fill any uneveness between the wall and skirting - this does not set and can be removed.
HTH

John


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## SeanG (20 Jan 2007)

Thanks for all the ideas so far - I'm already running off on new thought tracks.

I like the plinth clips idea, it would be pretty simple to fix short lengths of dowel between the battens and clip onto them, I want to match the new boards to the existing profile in the rest of the house (need to get some router cutters made as well  ) so the two part board is probably out for now. 

I'll also look at using MDF as the boards will be painted (again to match others) and then I won't have to worry about wood movement pulling the clips off. The new wall is quite straight and the batten will go on before the plasterboard so straigtness shouldn't be an issue (in one room at least) I agree it wouldn't work on dodgy walls.

Plastic conduit in the void would make fitting much easier as well, all the cable would be held in place and wouldn't get trapped under the boards.

Screws with caps are out purely again for matching the rest of the house and the caps would be fine on a natural finish but I'd never find them again after the paint goes on  


Sean


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## Shultzy (20 Jan 2007)

How about cutting the bottom 1" off the plasterboard to give more space?


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