Order of (reno) business

[miga]

Experienced renovators, advice please. We want to have laid engineered or real wood flooring (TBD), with Amtico etc. an unfavoured alternative. Apparently this necessitates the removal and likely destruction of existing skirting boards. We've just had the walls plastered in advance of having them painted.

My worry is about how destructive the removal and replacement of existing skirting will be.

Original order of business was going to be plastering, painting, flooring.

The skirting makes me think this should now be: plastering, removal of skirting boards, painting, flooring, placement of new skirting boards, touch up and painting of skirting boards.

Does that sound right?

[Calsug]

We inadvertently did it the wrong way round and in your original order and it can work.

If the floor height will be raised by the new floor a lot of the damage from the skirting boarding being removed is likely to be covered up by the skirting being put on higher

It also depends if your skirting boards are old / original - you should factor in the need to replace them all as they will likely get some damage in the removal. Pre primed MDF ones are a cost effective and very easy to paint option and once painted you will never know they aren?t pine

I did the redecorating after our new floors were laid and the repair in our case was pretty minor/easy and I?m not what you would call a competent decorator!

another easy solution is to buy higher skirting which will likely cover up all the damage

Also in some parts if the skirting is too tricky to remove e.g joined to an original staircase skirting you can get the floorer to cut out the bottom of the skirting to slot it in - they don?t like doing that though as it?s time consuming. My advice get a very good floor layer in and explain you want minimal mess.

If though you have the option I would take skirting boards off first, plaster, paint then lay floor with the expectation you will need to touch up paint damage and scuffs from the floor laying

[miga]

Thanks very much calsug, very informative. The plasterers have already done their bit, but hopefully we can limit damage by getting the skirting boards off before the painting. Skirting boards are original and general advice has been that they'll be ruined if removed to accommodate new flooring, so we're prepared for that. Good to know MDF ones can look reasonable, I've seen ones the profile of which matches originals quite well.