Hole in the wall/Missing Skirting

[WelshChris]

Hi,

I’ve recently moved into a 1930s council block. The previous owners have left lots of secret “treats” that were hidden by their furniture. One of which was missing skirting board in parts of the bedroom.

I’ve attached some pictures of the worst of it. This part of the room has a couple of holes in the wall (one of which has a wire running through it, presumably to a socket on the other side of the wall, the other looks like it had a pipe or something running through as it’s a perfect cylinder). This had been wallpapered over, and from some of the crumbling brickwork underneath it’s made me think that stripping the wallpaper in this room wouldn’t be a fantastic idea. The bedroom is carpeted (the carpet is in pretty decent condition and I’d like to not replace) with the skirting laid over it.

I’d like to tidy this up and fit skirting where missing but I’m very much a DIY newbie so would welcome any advice.

My thoughts were:

1) Polyfilla the holes, and where some of the stone/plaster has crumbled whilst trying to avoid the carpet. This would be to cover up the holes and provide the skirting something to be attached to?

2) Cut skirting to fit the gap. I’d like to lift as little of the remaining skirting as I’m slightly worried what I’ll find. I’ll cut a bit of the existing skirting out to mitre the corner.

3) Anything visible above the skirting I’d sand and prime then paint over (hopefully that would be reasonable seamless to the eye with the remaining paper?)

Does any of this sound daft or not a good approach? Should I replace all the skirting ideally? Grateful for any suggestions or a sense of if this is ambitious for a DIY starter to tackle (trying to avoid trades if possible to build my experience/confidence and because I’m skint after buying the flat, but if that would be best approach happy i’ll concede!)

Thanks
Christopher

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Stuff some rockwool or something in those holes so you don't need a bucket of filler.
The random wire through a hole in the wall- find out where it comes from and where it goes to (don't assume anything). The time to do any rewiring is now, before you get the place full of furniture.
Give the walls a good tapping- this to see if the plaster is actually attached to the walls or just held on with the wallpaper.
Skirtings- whatever profile the existing is you may struggle to match it with off the shelf stuff (don't use MDF skirting by the way). Better to scribe an internal corner than mitre. And No More Nails or equivalent is the modern way to do skirting- might be best if the plaster is dicey.