Skirting board and 8 important rules for choosing it
Not everyone knows how the floor skirting differs from the ceiling and what criteria to rely on when you ask yourself “how to put the skirting in the bathroom, children's room or kitchen”.
Plinth laying is the final stage of repair. Nevertheless, the type of skirting board is worth considering at the initial stage. Floor decorative panel will decorate the room and mask the cracks, hide the wiring, visually change the dimensions in the right direction, give the interior a concise finish. To use the skirting board in an apartment or house with maximum efficiency, we will understand its variations, features and selection rules.
The content of the article
Types of baseboards
Hundreds of types of floor skirting will be seen by a buyer in a store of finishing materials. Each is characterized by special advantages and disadvantages. Do you like warmth? In the cold winter, the underfloor heating and skirting board will save.
Is it important to close the gaps between the parquet and the wall? The baseboard floor boat will easily cope with this. Cracks up to 55 millimeters will be safely hidden under the decorative panel.
Are there many ledges, corners and columns in the room? Choose a skirting board rectangular. He will emphasize the individuality of the room and put emphasis in the “right corners”.
Skirting loft - a modern alternative designed for the same style in interior design.
Do not chase fashion, but prefer neat beauty, aesthetic appeal and environmentally friendly products? Pay attention to the product line of the manufacturer "Sadko". Skirting Sadko has long been recognized as a leading supplier of finishing materials.
For every taste, need and wallet - the skirting board market is full of options.
But before choosing plank material, study:
8 key rules for choosing a skirting board
- Do not delay the choice of skirting board for later.It is a mistake to think that you can choose a skirting board at the final stage of repair. Think in advance the color of the floor, skirting boards, walls, furnishings.
- Skirting tone to tone platbands. Try to purchase a skirting board from the manufacturer of interior doors so that their color matches.
- Proper metering is important. Carefully measure the room, taking into account the protrusions and doorways. Otherwise, the skirting board may not be enough.
- Skirting height. We choose the height, based on the dimensions of the room and the height of the ceilings. The higher they are, the greater the height of the skirting boards.
- Smooth walls. If the walls are flawed, purchase a plastic panel or level the walls. In a wooden plank uneven walls create tension, and the panel will break.
- Skirting Dock. A joint for a floor or ceiling skirting board is an item that needs to be thought out in advance. Depending on the type of angle, docking methods vary. Consider this point in advance to understand whether you will be joining at internal angles, external or non-standard. Depending on the task, appropriate docking tools and technologies will be required.
- Pets. If there are pets in the house, it is better to purchase a panel of cheap materials. Periodically changing a scratched wooden baseboard is problematic.
- The presence of electrical wires. In a room with household appliances, you always want to hide the wiring. A plastic baseboard with a cable channel is a universal solution in this case.
Skirting board and its variations
Today, the skirting board is represented by hundreds of variations. Let's consider the basic ones.
Wooden
The wooden panel looks respectable and solid, but costs more than the others and is unsuitable for reuse. In the process of the next repair, it will not be possible to remove the bar and reinstall it after painting the walls. Among the advantages - environmental friendliness of materials and easy cleaning.
To protect against insects, moisture and temperature extremes, the wooden panel is treated with appropriate protective preparations. To install a wooden plinth, self-tapping screws with flat caps, screws or dowels are required. Liquid nails and glue are contraindicated. As mentioned above, it is important to mount a wooden plinth only on flat walls.
PVC products
Installing a PVC skirting board is a practical solution. PVC panels surpass wood in parameters. The baseboard weighs little, does not require preliminary and subsequent preparation for installation, is durable, harmless and unpretentious in maintenance.
Among the shortcomings are the unnaturalness of the material and its combustibility. But the flaws are not so significant. High-quality plastic in the normal state is chemically neutral and does not emit harmful substances. The degree of flammability of the plastic also varies. Some species do not spread combustion, others with minimal smoke, etc. If you set a goal, then a non-combustible floor skirting is sure to be on sale.
Veneered
With a wooden base and a veneered top layer, the skirting board has a hundred shades that replicate valuable wood species. An insanely beautiful and affordable element of decoration is the main advantage of a veneered baseboard. In addition, the product is environmentally friendly.
Like a wood panel, veneered skirting cannot be called flexible and resistant to dampness.
MDF skirting boards
The product is made from wood fibers. The face of the strip is covered with special paper, which is subsequently impregnated with dye. Dye is a wood mimic that acquires the desired shades of wood. To consolidate the effect, the panel is treated with a melamine compound.
The MDF panel is easy to attach, but quite fragile. If the skirting board is handled with care, it will delight the interior with its anti-static, environmental friendliness and flexibility. This skirting board is good for installation on walls with slight curvatures. In addition, on the basis of an MDF skirting board, a laminated skirting board is created, which, in texture and color, is matched to the laminate.
Polyurethane
Lightweight, but durable, safe for health and inexpensive - polyurethane skirtings stand out from the rest of the species with numerous advantages. Polyurethane skirting is not affected by external factors. With proper care, the panels are able to maintain their original appearance for 20-30 years!
The material does not absorb odors and is easy to clean. Forget about a set of expensive tools. To install the polyurethane panel, you only need a sharp knife. And at the end of installation, it can be painted in the desired color with acrylic or water-based paint.
Specific options: metal, cork and ceramic
With an enviable frequency on the market, specific finishes are found in the form of cork skirting, ceramic or metal panels. Such decoration is more expensive than the others, but perfectly fits into the interior, striving to observe one style.
A metallic, eye-catching skirting board is often used for carpeting, minimalist polyurethane floors or hi-tech.
Ceramic and porcelain tile skirting boards are also gaining popularity because of their strength, tear resistance, and durability. Ceramic tiling to match the floor or countertops makes the room elegant and the style is complete. This was noticed a long time ago, but it was difficult to get a level bar with a tile cutter. Today there is no such problem, and a ceramic skirting board is offered complete with a floor plate.
Cork skirting board is a harmless, natural, refractory material. Best suited to natural cork floors. Along with a host of benefits, cork skirting, like cork flooring, is easy to damage or scratch. This finish is fraught with a lot of consequences and is not suitable for each type of room.
Skirting board sizes
The classic length of the plinth is 2.5 meters. This option was not chosen by chance. This size is good for installation and convenient for transportation. The width range is 1.4 - 2.4 cm, and the heights are from 4 to 15 cm.
Consider the dimensions of the room before you purchase the baseboard. Do not overload the compact room with large parts. And vice versa - a roomy room with high ceilings will require wide and high skirting boards. To “stretch” a room, buy a tone-on-tone skirting board against walls or flooring. If the room has columns or curved walls, a flexible baseboard is suitable.
In order not to be disappointed later, we recommend that at the initial stages we make a couple of sketches of the future room with different skirting options. So visually easier to understand the final result and determine the size of the skirting panel.
