No plaster behind skirting!!??

[swsmale]

Hi
Having a room decorated before new wood floor fitted. Am removing skirting so the floor slides under. However the guys who built the house only saw fit to plaster to the skirting - there is block behind the removed skirting. There is no plaster there, so there is a step in wall level down to the floor. Question is, what do I do (prior to decorating) to allow me to refit new skirting after the floor is fitted? Do I bung a load of plaster on the 'gap' left by the lack of plaster (if so what type), do I hope gripfill 'fills' the void or is there another way? If I leave it, I suspect the new skirting will tend not to sit plumb and won't be able to be screwed / nailed in.
Help
Thanks
SS

 

[mac391]

2 questions....

1, is your subfloor wood plank, chipboard or concrete ?

2, How was the skirting originally fixed ?

 

[swsmale]

1. Concrete
2. Nailed - with pretty heafty nails. I'm replacing with 18mm mdf. Originalwas 20mm pine

 

[mac391]

Ok, the reason your plaster is short of the concrete floor is so not to bridge the dampcourse, which sits just above the concrete. You will see it if you look. This is standard building practice and the guys who built the house saw fit to do it right lol !!
Wooden floors can be plasterd to the bottom because the dampcourse is underneath the joists.
So don't fill the gap with any plaster, you will start the beginnings of "rising damp".. use plastic packers to fill the gap, then plug & screw the skirting.
You can use 4, 5, 6 or 7" skirting but the taller the skirting the easier the job to get a decent fix. Rememer the new floor will lift the height approx 20mm.. or however thick the floor is.

Talking of which,, how are you installing the new floor, floating or glueing ?

Good luck..

 

[swsmale]

Thanks
Having removed a bit more and taken a closer look, it seems they have plastered the base coat of render to the floor and then the skim coat has been done with skirtings in palce - so only the skim coat is missing behind the boards (approx 3mm deep). Do I need to pack this and screw or will gripfill do the job? Where do I get packers from if I need them?

floating floor by the way.
Shaun

 

[swsmale]

Thanks
Having removed a bit more and taken a closer look, it seems they have plastered the base coat of render to the floor and then the skim coat has been done with skirtings in palce - so only the skim coat is missing behind the boards (approx 3mm deep). Do I need to pack this and screw or will gripfill do the job? Where do I get packers from if I need them?

floating floor by the way.
Shaun

 

[Lower]

Use taller skirting to get above the skim layer and pack the back of the skirting with offcuts of wood to get the correct spacing.

 

[mattysupra]

if only 3mm then gripfill will do the job.