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Laminated flooring cowboy job by builder
- Thread starter triplexxx2070
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Blimey what a crap job - done by someone who has never fitted laminate in his life before. Also, you do not remove skirting and Wickes will give you one of their little instruction leaflets if you care to ask. I can't see any underlay in the pictues, did he use any? I have done some laminate in my time, not difficult for a DIY expert provided one has some intelligence and seeks out some basic knowledge. TBH it needs to taken up and re- laid by someone who knows what they are doing - going around architrave bases is best done by cutting as close as possible then filling the remaining gaps with suitably coloured flexible filler of some kind. I found a good product about three years ago but can't now recall the name (soz). BTW unless you can find a proper water proof product, you do not lay laminate in a kitchen/utility room because a minor flood will cause it to buckle.
Actually if you do a proper job, you either remove the skirting or undercut the skirting, anything else looks rubbish, a compromise using quadrant strip around the edge, tacked to the skirting.
In an ideal world the skirting would be removed, but on older properties, you will risk pulling off quite a bit of plaster from the walls, as well as damaging the skirting nailed to wooden grounds. By all means do that but it will add significantly to labour costs. A suitably mitred quadrant primed painted to match and pinned will be fine for most domestic use.
Blup
Blup
To an extent I agree, but not using the quadrant sold for the job, it seems to be compacted cardboard and the slightest bit of moisture it explodes. Rather use the much cheaper plastic quadrant, sold for UPVC DG. Door frames are impossible to make a tidy job of with the quadrant.
Better, is to either remove the skirtings and undercut the door frame, to allow it to slot under, or under cut the skirting too if it cannot be removed. I took mine off and refixed on top, but mine are all screwed and plugged to the wall, and I was decorating anyway. All the screw heads were recessed, and filled, so I simply went down the skirting with a metal detector and a pencil to mark likely spots for screws.
D
Deleted member 174758
You can buy softwood and hardwood quadrant as well as the MDF stuff - but it generally isn't finished, so it will need to be stained and polished or primed and painted. It also needs to be pinned to the skirtings, NOT the flooring (obvious, when you think about it, but folk do get it wrong)
I've done it three ways - fitting new skirting is quock and is the easiest wzy to get a good finish - removing old skirting and refurbishing it then refitting it can make for a better looking job, but there is often a lot of make good work required and it is the slowest way (and with some mouldings may in fact be the most aesthically pleasing approach) - whilst quadrant is the "least work" option. Yet pays yer money...
If it's to be painted, you might as well use UPVC, it is much cheaper.