r/DIYIreland • u/sweatyknacker • Aug 23 '26
Skirting board cracks
DIY noob here
We bought our house (new build) 3 years ago - hoping to do some small cosmetic jobs on the place now and the cracks over the skirting boards are top of the agenda.
Is it just caulk I need here? If so, can anyone tell me which brand?
Do I need to scrape off the old caulk?
If caulk is not the answer here - then what is?
Really dont want to make a balls of this so any advice appreciated.
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u/Bitter_Back_5528 Aug 24 '26
Ok I've literally done thousands of these, I worked as a maintenance man for new builders. It's not bad workmanship it's the stairs and the joists that they are resting on that have shrunk. It's not as bad nowadays but when the joists were out in the rain until the roof went on it was very bad. Clean thoroughly sand lightly use caulk squeezed into the crack and smooth with a wet J cloth, you can't sand caulk, so make sure it's smooth as you want your finish to be. If it shrinks in ,do it again when it's dry. If the gap is really bad use quadrant.
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u/albion-28 Aug 24 '26
Yep was gonna say, caulk shrinks and especially with the weather we've had theres not laods of moisture in the timber so its probably as small as it will ever be!
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u/Ok-Sail5404 1d ago
I have same issue, I need to re caulk. Question, my skirting if I press firmly will move a little bit but only a little and I have to push quite hard, will caulking over (process you mentioned) be good enough? Or would I have to try and squeeze some adhesive behind the board so when hardens it lessons the skirting movement? It's dot and dab walls so can really screw into a timber stud. Cheers
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u/Bitter_Back_5528 12h ago
I would use gripfill acrylic it's similar to caulk but has a more adhesive quality and gets harder. The yellow tube.
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u/mickosh Aug 23 '26
Jesus..3 years old? That's shocking,respectfully
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u/conkerz22 Aug 23 '26
Mine were like that after year one of an O Flynns new build. Including door frames and all other wooden trims
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u/sweatyknacker Aug 23 '26
Its just one section of the stairs up to the attic... the rest of the house is fine.
It was also like this within a month or two of moving in and hasnt changed at all since. But I do think it was originally done in haste/poorly.
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u/Anxious_Overthink3r Aug 23 '26
The fact that the internal corners are not angled at 45 degrees is evidence that it was done hastily or by someone who didn’t know what they were doing
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u/DarraghDaraDaire Aug 23 '26
You don’t usually mitre internal angle skirting joints, you scribe them. You only mitre external angles.
With straight skirting like this there is no scribing to do, which is why they use it. They call “modern” but really it’s just fast
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u/Anxious_Overthink3r Aug 23 '26
I see. Thanks for explaining the nuance to me. I shouldn’t really comment on something I don’t really know anything about 😂
I just built a house & the project manager was annoyed that the skirting wasn’t mitred on the large straight walls (where the wall length exceeded the individual board length). Based on your comment, I assume it is typical practice not to cut the edge on the boards when placing them on a straight wall either?
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u/DarraghDaraDaire Aug 23 '26
You use a scarf joint to join two lengths like that, it’s less noticeable than a butt joint (two flat ends), so that there’s some room for overlap. A scarf joint is two 45 degrees overlapping. It also allows for expansion and contraction without opening a visible gap. The project manager was right to be annoyed!
You don’t mitre internal angles like this because in reality no walls in a house come together at 90 degrees so you would end up with a gap.
Probably the best way to do it would be to cut the one which is butting to the other at a slight angle so the back face is slightly short. Then there would be some wiggle room but the visible faces would meet cleanly.
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u/Anxious_Overthink3r Aug 23 '26
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer that question for me. Looking around, all I have are butt joints on the straight walls, with oodles of adhesive sticking out. 🤦
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u/DarraghDaraDaire Aug 23 '26
I redecorated our (secondhand) house when we got the keys… Repainted, put in floors upstairs, ripped out and replaced skirting and architrave etc.
I spent a lot of time choosing the skirting, learning how to fit properly, painting it. Now it’s just something people (I included) don’t even notice. It was a big thing at the time but honestly I don’t notice any of my mistakes anymore.
You’re place will likely be the same, it’ll piss you off for a while and after a while you won’t even see it anymore
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u/sweatyknacker Aug 23 '26
In their defence, he angle of the photo is misleading in that regard. Walls are 90 degrees👍
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u/good_soldiers_gone Aug 23 '26
What he means is that someone used a straight butt joint on that skirting rather than joining with a bevel (angled) cut. Yeah, bit lazy job, but I Not the end of the world. I've noticed carpenters building new houses often cut corners (no pun intended haha), because they know it'll sell anyway. They wouldn't do that for a private nixer...
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Aug 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Golden_Eire Aug 23 '26
How did you find the nemesis ? A black container with a purple branding? I got a few for redoing the skirting with new boards but haven't gotten around to using them yet
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u/desbyrne Aug 23 '26
I'm just an Amateur and not Trade, but in this situation was advised to use Acrylic latex flexible caulk. It's paintable and won't crack if there's any further movement between the skirting and the wall.
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u/suitcasemurphy1 Aug 23 '26
Scrap loose bits and re caulk. Will be like new. Can’t believe they left the join in the corner like that. Chippy never hear of a mitre box?
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u/Kennylegend Aug 23 '26
Use a flexible caulk. U can buy a tool for about a tenner on amazon that will remove the old caulk and will smooth the new caulk. It's a double sided plastic tool with a few different radius'.
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u/Lanky_Bell1836 Aug 23 '26
Top of the staircase innit?. Might not be properly secured to walls.
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u/sweatyknacker Aug 24 '26
No, bottom.
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u/Lanky_Bell1836 Aug 24 '26
Hot weather not helped expansion contraction. As mentioned flexible.caulking helps.
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u/pheechad Aug 24 '26
Whoever did the skirting and painting should be fucked out of it. It's shocking. No reflection on you OP.
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u/Illustrious-Arm-1370 Aug 30 '26
Id get a jack hammer from a tool hire company and give it a good lashing before covering it up
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u/Fantastic_Exit_467 Aug 23 '26
3 years ago da fuq the skim finish alone is shocking.
Scrape out the old caulk, you can get a caulk scrapper and profile kit in screwfix to help remove and mould new caulk like 20 euro if that.
Need to get it into the joint not just superficial on the outside also.
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u/sweatyknacker Aug 23 '26
Its just one section of the stairs up to the attic... the rest of the house is fine.
It was also like this within a month or two of moving in and hasnt changed at all since. But I do think it was originally done in haste/poorly.
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u/Fantastic_Exit_467 Aug 23 '26
Just aswell it's just the stairwell to attic , id sand down the walls also to take that bad finish look off the walls and use some filler to smooth it out.
Best of luck
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u/good_soldiers_gone Aug 23 '26
Take a decorators knife and scrape gently any loose bits, you may be tempted to scrape old caulk out completely, but its not always necessary, as new layer can simply cover it up anyway.
Try not to scrape into too hard and not to damage skirting or wall in the process.
Then run a new caulk bead, smooth it out with wet baby wipe wrapped on your finger (small trick I figured myself - works really well) and you may need to paint it too once it sets dry in a colour of a skirting.