Comprehensive Guide to Floor Mouldings and Skirting Boards
Transition flooring accessories: Learn the differences
What Is a Floor Moulding?
Floor moulding, also known as baseboard or skirting is usually wood or plastic board covering the joint between the interior walls and the floors, as well as the gap between different floors or the end of stairs. The most basic version is simply a plank which is glued, nailed or screwed to the wall. It is used to prevent knocks or abrasion or simply for decoration. The main goal, though, is to hide small imperfections and complement the style of a room. It’s important to note that mouldings are usually created to fit a specific design choice and because of this they differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. The most commonly used type of moulding is made out of solid wood. This doesn’t mean, however, that such a board is suitable for a laminate, for example.
The Types of Skirting Boards
There are lots of variations when it comes to mouldings. Here, we are going to take a look at some of the most popular choices and see what is used where and what purpose they serve in their respective roles.
Quarter Round (Shoe Base) and Wall Base
Both of those serve the exact same purpose - they cover the expansion gap between the floor and the walls. They can be used alone or in conjunction and simply nailed down. Often painted and stained to match the colour of the floor those mouldings are very easy to install.
Baby Threshold
Threshold or baby threshold is used when a hardwood or laminate floor is put next to a softer flooring type with different height, like carpet. Thresholds will highlight the transition between a soft and hard surface and slightly overlap the hard one. It is installed by glueing or nailing it to the subfloor closely to both flooring types without any gaps in-between.
Overlap Reducer
It is pretty similar in purpose and way of installing to the threshold but instead of accentuating on the transition between surfaces it tries to make it less visible. It is also most often used to transfer from a floating floor to something like tile or carpet. The moulding has a small protruding piece which overlaps the floating surface but doesn’t completely fill the gap between the floors. The idea here is to have a small space between the two flooring types which, while covered by the reducer, allows the floating installation to move freely.
Flush Reducer
Flush reducers can be glued or nailed to the subfloor and cannot be used with floating installations. The flush reducer needs a fixed floor to work with because it doesn’t leave an expansion gap like the overlap reducer. Other than that it too is meant for a smooth, less noticeable transitions between different flooring types.
T-bar or T-shaped moulding is the best choice when you want to connect two hard surfaces of the same height. Its top part overlaps both floors and of one of them isn’t high enough to support it, the skirting will eventually break. This makes it obvious why both floors need to be hard. The moulding is usually adhered and less often nailed to the subfloor.
End Cap
Also known as square nose reducer this one is used when a hard floor is meeting a feature or obstacle of a sort like, for example, a fireplace or a wall. Unlike a quarter round or wall base, it can actually fill the expansion gap and secure the floor in place. While similar to a threshold in many ways, it has, as the name suggests, a square shape.
Flush Stair Nose and Overlap Stair Nose
The Flush Stair Nose, also known as Bull Nose, is glued or nailed down right next to the actual floorboard without leaving a gap or overlapping. This gives the impression of a seamless transition between the two elements.
On the other hand, the Overlap Stair Nose… overlaps the floorboards with its protruding part leaves a small, invisible gap bellow and allows any floated floors to move freely. Their use is only limited to the very top of the staircase, the point where the floated floor transitions to the stairs because you cannot really float individual floorboards on each stair - those have to be fixed in place.