Not snipped to make it easier to follow


NC wrote:
Are you taking the skirting off the wall first, lay the floor and
then replace the skirting?

Yes - although I will be ditching the current stuff and replacing
with new.

If that is the case then the job is easy - lay the floor lay the
cable on top of the floor and then refit the skirting making any
exit holes in it before you do.

This is my question - do I just drill a hole in the skirting, or make
little 'notches' in the top face / bottom section where it joins the
floor ?? Is skirting generally flush to the fall throughout its
length / height, or can you buy skirting that has grooves in it
already on the rear face that can be used for this purpose ??


There is no need to buy "special" skirting although you can buy it with a
bevel on the back to aid fitting in some conditions which will also help
here to make things a bit easier. Or if you wish, you could but the bevel
there yourself with just a hand plane.

It is very seldom that the render/plaster goes down to the floor (there is
usually something like a 12mm gap with something like a 12 -15mm thickness
of render & plaster) so you can fit your cable in into this gap and refit
the skirting with no problem. If there is no gap at this level, just chase
one out and it doesn't matter what it looks like as the skirting board wil
hide any mess.

This also generally applies to Paramount and stud partitions where the board
are kept up off the floor.

Now, to take the cable in and bring it out again, just cut small, vertical
grooves in the back of the skirting wherever you want them (if you are
burying the cable into the wall there is no need for this - just cut the
groove in the wall), or if you prefer - drill the holes.

Or you could even do this in the wall and let the cables enter and exit at
the top of the skirting filling in any excess gaps in the plaster with a bit
of polyfilla and then decorate as normal.

As you can see there are several ways to do this job and I would suggest
that you pick the way that "is right" for your situation and any mistakes
are easily sorted out with a touch of polyfilla. ;-)


If you are leaving the skirting intact then you will have a problem
as you will have to try and feed the cable into any gap between the
floor and skirting or try and notch the skirting but it will be
almost impossible to bring the cable out from behind it.

See above - no probs.

Hope this helps

Brian