Skirting and architraves, Sydney
Skirting and architraves fitted across Sydney
Skirting boards and architraves in the profile you pick, or matched to what is already in the house. Scribed to floors that are rarely flat, coped at the internal corners, then filled and caulked ready for paint.
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Trim work
Six kinds of trim job, and what each one asks for
Skirting boards
New or replacement runs, scribed to a floor that is rarely flat and fixed into the studs, so the top line stays straight even where the floor does not.
Architraves
The frame around a door or window opening, set out with the same margin the whole way round and mitred so the joints stay shut when the house moves.
See doors and windowsMatching an old profile
A federation or deco profile nobody stocks any more can often be matched or run to a sample. Keep one offcut before the old trim goes in the skip and the job gets much easier.
A whole house in one profile
Every room done in the same profile, with the runs set out so the joins land where nobody stands and looks.
Water and pest damage
Swollen skirting in a bathroom or a laundry, or trim eaten from behind. What is behind it gets looked at before new trim covers it back up.
Filled, caulked and painted
Nail holes punched and filled, the top edge caulked to the wall, then primed and painted. That is the part that makes trim look built in rather than stuck on.
See painting servicesHow trim goes on, and where the craft is
First
Let the lengths stand in the room
Skirting and architrave come out of a dry warehouse into a house with its own humidity. Fixed the day it lands, it keeps moving afterwards, and a joint that was tight in February opens in July. A few days standing in the room it will live in takes most of that out of it.
Set out
Decide where the joins land
A wall longer than a length of board has to have a join somewhere. It goes over a stud, cut at an angle rather than square so the two pieces overlap, and as far out of the sightline from the door as the lengths allow. A square butt joint in the middle of the wall you face from the doorway is the one you will notice for years.
Internal corners
Coped, not mitred
The joint that survives is a coped one: the first length runs into the corner, the second is cut to the exact profile of the first and sits over the top of it. A mitre in an internal corner looks identical on the day and opens as soon as the house moves or the corner turns out not to be a right angle. Very few of them are.
External corners
Mitred, glued and pinned
Outside corners are mitred, because there is nothing behind them to hide a gap. The angle is taken off the wall itself rather than assumed to be ninety degrees, since a plastered or rendered corner is usually a degree or two out, then the joint is glued and pinned so it stays shut.
Along the floor
Scribed to what is actually there
Floors fall, especially in older Sydney houses. A skirting cut square leaves a wedge of shadow under it that gets wider as it goes. Scribing copies the shape of the floor onto the bottom of the board so it sits down on the floor and the top line still runs dead straight.
Fixing
Into the timber, then punched
Glue and fixings into the studs and the bottom plate, not into plasterboard on its own, and every nail punched below the surface so filler can go over the head rather than around it.
Last
Filled, caulked, ready for paint
Nail holes and joints filled and sanded back, then a bead of flexible sealant along the top edge where the trim meets the wall. That single line is the difference between trim that looks fitted and trim that looks applied.
New work, an old house, and a repair
The same trim goes on in three quite different ways, and the house decides which one you are paying for.
A new build, an extension or a room that has just been lined. The walls are straight, the corners are close to square and the runs are long.
Where the time goes. Setting out. With nothing to match and nothing to work around, the job is deciding the profile, the heights and where the joins fall, then getting clean, repeatable cuts through room after room.
The thing to settle early. The floor. Tiles, timber, carpet and vinyl all finish at different heights, and that decides whether the skirting goes on before or after the floor, and whether it needs a scotia at the bottom.
Local conditions
What a Sydney house adds to the trim
Floors that fall
Older timber floors in a terrace or a semi settle towards one end of the room. Every length is scribed to the floor rather than cut square, or the shadow line under the skirting tells the whole story from the doorway.
Profiles nobody stocks
Victorian, federation and deco profiles are largely out of production. A short offcut kept from the old run is what makes a match possible, so it is worth saving one before the skip turns up.
Humid summers and MDF
Cut ends of MDF drink moisture. In a bathroom, a laundry or a room that never gets aired it swells along the bottom edge first, which is why wet areas take a moisture resistant board or a timber profile instead.
What the floor finish decides
Tiles, timber, carpet and vinyl all sit at different heights, so the skirting either goes on after the floor or before it with a scotia to cover the gap. Getting that order wrong costs a second visit.
Lath and plaster walls
Pre war walls are not plasterboard. Studs sit where the builder put them rather than at a neat spacing, and fixings are found rather than assumed, which is slower and is why an old house quotes differently.
Apartments and hard floors
A floating floor over acoustic underlay needs a free gap at the wall to work, and the skirting is what covers that gap. Fix the trim hard down onto the boards and you bridge it, and the neighbour below hears it.
Skirting and architrave detail
The jobs booked either side of the trim
Trim meets two other trades, and both are cheaper on the same visit than on a second one.
Straight afterwards
Filling, caulking and paint
Trim is not finished when it is fixed. Holes punched and filled, joints sanded back, a bead of sealant along the top edge and then primer and two coats. That is the sequence that turns separate lengths of board into one line running round the room, and it is the part most people picture when they picture new skirting.
- Nail holes punched, filled and sanded
- A caulk line where the trim meets the wall
- Primed and painted, or left clean for your painter
Often on the same day
New doors mean new architraves
Architraves come off when a door or its frame is replaced, and they rarely go back on happily: the nail holes are gone, the profile has a paint line on it and the opening has moved. If doors are being changed anyway, doing the trim in the same visit means one lot of making good and one lot of paint instead of two.
- Architraves refitted or replaced around a new frame
- The same profile carried right through the room
- One visit for the making good and the paint
Questions people ask before booking trim work
The ones that come up before skirting or architraves go on.
Get a quote for skirting and architraves
Tell us how many rooms and how many doorways, and whether you want the profile matched to what is there or something new. A photo taken straight on to the existing trim, with a tape held against it, is the fastest way to price it.