Skirting Boards?

[hemisphere]

Can anyone suggest what type/style, size of skirting boards I should use in the bathroom of our 17th century Cornish farmhouse? I would prefer not to use any as we have none in the house at present. However, we are laying new wide floor boards on top of the original floor which sadly is in a very poor condition. We have to leave a gap for any expansion between floorboards and wall and will need to cover this gap with a skirting board. The house is of a Cornish granite construction and the room is quite large but with a canopied ceiling. There is an original wooden screen for one wall, typical for this type and age of property. The skirting boards I have been looking at seems too ornate to use in this style of building. Any suggestions?

 

[Penners]

If the house is listed, use those suggested by your CO.

If it's not, use ones that you like.

 

[chuckey]

If you nail down your "new" floor boards, they will actually shrink, at least every Victorian floor I've ever seen exhibits open joints to prove this. I remember my dad telling me on a new build they actually put in an extra half width floor board (3"?) after two years. If the boards are not nailed down they will warp and their edges might lift (or their centres) ,depends on their grain direction. If you are really worried about them expanding, why not undercut the plaster (mainly across the width of the boards), so there is a gap but you can't see it.
Frank

 

[Penners]

To moderate shrinkage, try to store the boards, properly "sticked" (that is, with little strips of wood between them to allow the air to circulate around each board), in the room where they will be laid for several weeks before you finally lay them.

Like this, except on a smaller scale of course:

 

[hemisphere]

Thanks for your replies. Yes the house is listed but it is a grade 2 designation because of some interesting chamfered lintels and mullions outside. The boards are thick and have been nailed down. They are pine and have been grown locally, kiln dried and have been resting in the house, (as near as we could get to the bathroom before they were cut,) for at least a month! My real request is what type of skirting would look best in the room. Although the farmhouse is over 350 years old there is nothing grand or ornate about any of the rooms it is simply a Cornish cottage. I feel it would be best to have a very plain skirting much like you would find in a modern house, that you would not even notice, rather than something more ornate and Georgian looking that would look out of place. However I could be wrong and the more ornate type of skirting board would be correct for the age of the house. Any ideas welcome.

 

[MdB]

If it is Grade 2 listed then my understanding is that the entire house is listed. Any changes inside will require approval of the CO and they would very much want to discuss what sort of flooring and skirting is to be fitted. However, as is sounds like you are looking for something that is appropriate to the building, I am sure that the CO and yourself would come up with something agreeable.

 

[chuckey]

My Wensleydale cottage (pre 1805), had no skirting boards in two bedrooms. Other rooms had old (Victorian/Georgian) moulded 6" X 5/8" (!) skirting boards as well as 1950's skirting boards and one bedroom had un-painted planks as skirting boards, these I think were put in by a plumber cos' he clipped his pipes to them..
Frank

 

[Penners]

If it is Grade 2 listed then my understanding is that the entire house is listed. Any changes inside will require approval of the CO

Absolutely right. A property may be listed due to certain specific features, but it's not just those features that are listed. The whole property, curtilege and all, is listed. You need your CO's agreement to any internal or external changes. If these are minor, you'll probably find that the consent will be a verbal go-ahead (although you might feel that, for your own protection, you'd prefer to ask for a quick letter to confirm this). For more extensive works you'd probably have to make a Listed Building Consent application (which is free of charge).

I suggest you make a quick call to your CO, explain informally to him/her what you propose to do and ask if that's OK. Your CO may have a view on the most sympathetic design of skirting board to use which, in view of your uncertainty, could help you to make up your mind.

 

[Michelle]

Can anyone suggest what type/style, size of skirting boards I should use in the bathroom of our 17th century Cornish farmhouse? I would prefer not to use any as we have none in the house at present. However, we are laying new wide floor boards on top of the original floor which sadly is in a very poor condition. We have to leave a gap for any expansion between floorboards and wall and will need to cover this gap with a skirting board. The house is of a Cornish granite construction and the room is quite large but with a canopied ceiling. There is an original wooden screen for one wall, typical for this type and age of property. The skirting boards I have been looking at seems too ornate to use in this style of building. Any suggestions?

Your house sounds very interesting. You say you'd prefer not to use skirting boards as there are none in the house at present, so I'm wondering about your original floor and whether that could be repaired. This would save you the tasks of laying another floor on top and adding the skirting boards you're not keen on, as well as being kind to the house by preserving the original floor and making it good for continued use. Perhaps this is something you could discuss with your CO. What are the boards made of in your 17th century house? Pine? Oak or elm, perhaps? Photos would be great, if you feel like sharing. The wooden screen sounds lovely too.

 

[hemisphere]

Thanks for all the posts. Here is some background info on our house.

Our cottage was grade 2 listed in 1988 and we have owned it since 1994 and a very sorry state it was in then! A chain was holding the roof on, a collection of mismatched plastic, modern casement and C20th sash windows sat alongside an original horizontal sliding sash. Layers of heavy concrete had been used to patch the internal walls which were then covered floor to ceiling, (oh yes and the ceiling too) with 1960's dark fake wood panelling. The beams above this were literally hanging from the upstairs floor boards which sadly were in a terrible state. Holes and large gaps and wood worm had left these crumbling away.

We have always approached any restoration to the house in a sympathetic manner. We don't want the house to look twee and chintzy or chocolate box either, but to be true to what type of building it is. We have replaced external plastic doors with traditional wooden ones. Windows with traditional 16 pane wooden sashes. Replaced the roof with wet laid slate, leaving all original woodwork intact along side the new timber. Restored internal walls with lime plaster and lime based paints and have finally arrived at the bathroom. The original boards are unable to be restored in fact previous owners have laid replacement boards over these. We are doing the same. It is important to leave as much of the original fabric of the building intact which is why our original 350 year old boards can be viewed as the ceiling of our kitchen below! Where ever possible we have used timber grown in Cornwall. The boards for the bathroom are wide and pine, Cornish oak being too expensive for us unfortunately.

We have consistently talked with planners/ CO on the restoration. Where required we have been granted listed building consent for works and through that process been told that like for like replacement does not need consent and have also been told internal decorative works don't need this either.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

If you don't have any precedent for skirtings in other rooms that you can copy then you are in the nice position of being able to design something from scratch. The whole idea of an inside bathroom is a modern confection that your house probably never had originally, so you have free reign to come up with something functional but sympathetically styled. Faced with a similar situation we opted for a 1930's flavour bathroom, because that's when mains water arrived in the village and many local houses developed bathroom at that time.

Anyway, back to skirting boards. In a local 1700ish cottage that I've been working on we used cement skirtings run in-situ on the plasterwork downstairs, of simple rectangular section. Upstairs we fitted simple softwood skitings about 75x20mm, with a wide chamfer on the top corner, about 25x8mm These look simple and unassuming, but are clearly not 'off the peg from a DIY store'. They were simple to run up from ex 1" redwood. Similarly simple architraves and door linings were made too.

 

[hemisphere]

Thank you for understanding exactly what I was asking. What you have done is similar to our thoughts on skirting boards! It is good to approach each room with the purpose for which it was originally intended, in our case a bedroom. The earliest it would have become a bathroom would have been the early C20th. We have gone for a basic Edwardian suite as its white, traditional and plain and opted for avery simple ogee skirting. I still feel it changes the feel of the room with it's wonky walls (yes that is a technical term), but perhaps thats because of all the other improvements we have made eg getting rid of the the mottled cream tiles and the brown grout, the carpet on the side of the stained bath etc!