How to fix plastic floor plinths and what you need to do
The use of the floor plinth as the final touch of repair work, is unequivocally shown to perform both practical and decorative tasks. Depending on the operating characteristics of the room, the baseboard can be:
The last point is the most popular due to the successful combination of practicality and attractiveness of other options. But the main role in the dissemination of plastic decorative plinths remains for the relatively low cost and simple installation.
Installation methods
So, you have chosen the basic material, now you can tell how to attach the skirting board to the concrete wall. There are several ways. first things first.
Assembling plastic skirting boards with cable channels
What is good about these products. they are easy to join along the length and in the corners. To do this, there are additional elements that are matched by color and profile. The skirting boards are cut at a right angle before joining them.
You will need self-tapping screws and plastic dowels to mount products with cable ducts.
How to attach a plastic skirting board to a concrete wall is shown below.
Mounting on clips
This method of installation can be used for both plastic and wooden strips.
Each manufacturer has its own form of clips, but the principle of attachment is the same in all:
- The places where the clips are to be installed are marked on the walls. The distance between them is usually about half a meter. But there may be other requirements, which the instructions will tell you about.
- Then, as in the previous case, holes are drilled in the points of demarcation, dowels are inserted into them and screws are fixed by the clips.
Installation of wooden baseboards
Products made of wood and fiberboard often have to be fixed openly, by drilling or punching them through. In addition to dowels in this case sometimes use and finishing nails with a small, almost invisible cap.
The principle of installation is still the same: marking, placing dowels in the holes in the concrete wall, screwing.
Please note. If you decide to nail the baseboards, instead of plastic dowels, wooden plugs are inserted into the holes.
However, there are some differences to be aware of:
- To make an accurate mark, you must drill a baseboard and screw in screws so that the back of sticking out only their tips. Then attach the products to the wall and turn the self-tapping screws a little more to leave marks on it. These will be the marks for the future holes.
- Do the same with the nails, driving them through the skirting boards.
- If the products are veneered, it is necessary to make a neat countersinking for self-tapping screws to the size of their heads. Otherwise, when screwing it in, they can damage the top layer.
- If the skirting board must be joined along its length, it is better to saw the joining parts at an angle, not perpendicular to the outside. This way the joint will be less noticeable.
- First close all the corners around the perimeter of the room, then the straight sections. This will help to do the work more accurately and neatly.
- Use a wire cutter to trim products to join in corners. This is the most critical and complicated part of the job.
Tip. To learn with their own hands to do the outer and inner corners as accurately as possible, buy the most inexpensive product, and practice on it.
- If the screw caps stand out against the wooden skirting boards, they can be putty, picking up the putty in a tone of exterior coating. Or install special decorative plugs.
Mounting with Adhesive
Concrete is a very hard material. To drill it, you need a peorator with a pobeditovye drill bit. Not every home handyman has such a tool. And buying it to do a one-time job is too expensive. the price does not dispose of.
If your walls are flat, you can glue the skirting board to them. The use of liquid nails for this purpose. Apply a thick layer of glue to the back of the skirting board, filling in all the gaps. Then it is pressed firmly against the wall surface and fixed in this position until the glue sets.
This method has several disadvantages:
- The impossibility of hidden cable laying;
- The skirting board cannot be removed without damaging it, if necessary;
- Possibility of getting glue on walls that are already finished.
Choosing a skirting board
The method of fixing depends not only on the material of the walls or floor, but also on what the skirting board itself is made of. So first we choose it, and then we think about how to attach it.
The material
These functional and decorative elements can be different and are chosen mainly according to the flooring material.
- If the floors are wooden. from solid wood or parquet, it will be best to harmonize with the wooden baseboard. Also made of solid wood, veneered wood, or painted fiberboard.
Tip. If you are going to paint the skirting board, and you do not care about its original texture and color, choose polyurethane foam products. They are strong, lightweight, flexible and perfectly amenable to painting.
Profile
Depending on the manufacturing material, the skirting board can have different profiles.
- The cross-section of solid wood products is often a rectangular triangle with a “hypotenuse” in the form of a straight or shaped scythe. Depending on the size of the “cathets,” they can be attached either to the floor or to the wall. Their main disadvantage is the impossibility of hidden cable routing behind the skirting board.
- A cut right angle or a special notch in the back of the wood or wood-fibre board skirting board leaves a free space at the junction of the wall and the floor for laying wires.
- Plastic products have a special built-in cable-channel, which is closed with a decorative insert after the installation of the baseboard and cable laying. It creates an impression of a complete structure.
For your information. There are similar products with one or more channels, and without cable channels, and with large channels for the installation of water pipes. Determine in advance which variant you need exactly.
In addition, the back of the products may have special slots. They are designed for concealed fixing with clips. Do not forget that they are purchased separately, and you will need to determine the necessary amount.
Fastening peculiarities
Depending on the material of which the skirting board is made, one or several of the described ways of installation of these elements are used.
Installation of plastic skirting boards
Such elements can be mounted with adhesive, special clips or self-tapping screws. When installing on the adhesive, there is no dust, before fixing the plastic floor plinth. It is necessary to accurately measure them, take into account that they are glued once, and to make their dismantling will not work.
It is necessary to dose the adhesive correctly and try not to smear the flooring.
If you want to fix it securely. use self-tapping screws. Although it is a long process, it is the most reliable.
First, with a distance of 50-60 cm, holes are made in the skirting board, then it is attached to the wall and the places for dowels are marked. In the marked places make holes, in which dowels are inserted, and then attach the plank and fix it with self-tapping screws.
If the strips without cable-channel, the hats of self-tapping screws closed by special stoppers, which masters recommend gluing, but if there is a cable-channel, they are closed by a special strip.
Plastic skirting boards can also be attached to the floor with special clips.
This method of installation allows you to dismantle the baseboard, but when using it, the walls must be perfectly flat, and this is not always the case.
Installation of plastic baseboards with their own hands, step by step instructions:
- On the wall marked the mounting points;
- Make holes in the baseboard;
- Dowels are inserted and by means of self-tapping screws, special clips are fastened, the distance between which is 40-50 cm;
- Now it remains to attach the skirting board and with the help of light knocks with the fist, there is its fixation.
Wooden
Installation of a wooden baseboard to carry out more difficult than plastic, because there are no special corners. The corners are joined at the joint and to cut the skirting board correctly, you will need a plier. It is rare when the angle in a room is 90 degrees, so usually fitting slats is carried out on the spot, and do it manually.
Installation is carried out on self-tapping screws, with the distance between them 70-100 mm. After marking, self-tapping screws are screwed into the slat, so that they slightly appear on the other side, then the slat is placed against the wall, mark holes for dowels. Drill holes, insert dowels and fix the bar.
Mounting on the finish nails is carried out by the same technology, but instead of plastic dowels use wooden dowels. This method allows you to make invisible places of attachment, but it is not suitable for uneven and loose walls.
Fibreboard skirting board
Depending on whether or not you plan to remove the skirting boards after some time, you can choose how they will be installed. Wood-fibre board skirting boards are usually mounted with glue, but in this case, the walls must be perfectly even.
You can attach such elements and with self-tapping screws or clips, the technology of the work is the same as in the previous variants.
If you do not properly install, you can damage the plank, and its fastening, so the work must be done accurately and slowly.
With what and how best to attach plastic skirting boards
Installing baseboards in the room is carried out at the conclusion of all construction work. The whole repair is done, everything is glued, installed, and all that remains is to ennoble the floor and walls from below. It is the skirting boards can cover many of the shortcomings of the repair, unsympathetic cracks, errors in wallpapering. It is enough to have a hand, without much effort, to perform the installation and mounting of baseboards yourself, act according to instructions and get acquainted with the peculiarities of this process. First you need to determine the type of room. Which material is preferred: skirting boards made of plastic, laminated strips or wooden skirting boards. What part of the interior complement the baseboards, are there flaws in the repair, which can be hidden by fixing the baseboards. Determined with the material and type of work, it is worth to understand, to which plane should screw the baseboards, and how to do it. Naturally, the fastening is relative to the surface, which effortlessly allows you to place the fasteners.
If the room floor and walls made of concrete, skirting boards are screwed to the walls, and in a house with walls made of brick with a floor made of wood, install the skirting boards on the floor.
In the past, when baseboards were made of wood, they were installed using a simple method: screwing them down with screws. Now in the choice of baseboard material, a wide variety: wood, wood-fiber board, skirting boards made of plastic and PVC, etc.д. Let’s talk about how to attach plastic skirting boards.
Attach plastic baseboards can be several ways
At this time, there are 3 options that will help to attach plastic baseboards to the floor:
In order to mount baseboards, you need special construction tools. To attach the baseboard to the concrete wall with a screw, without using a special device, you need to use a drill with drills. You can measure the baseboards with a pencil, and cut or saw with a metal hacksaw or knife. Cut the baseboards at an angle of 45? It is easier to measure the required length with a tape measure, and using an awl, you can create holes for self-tapping screws and other fastening tools without touching the wires. Before installation, the perimeter of the room must be measured. This is necessary to calculate the required amount of working material, which will be needed in the process of installation and fastening.
Plastic skirting board
PVC foam is used for its production. Plastic décor can be used for any flooring. On the inside, there are fastening channels and niches for wires. In addition, often the plinth is equipped with grooves, in which you can insert a carpet or linoleum. Thanks to this, it is possible to achieve color and texture uniformity of decoration and flooring.
Important! Skirting boards are available in the form of strips that can be attached to the wall with an adhesive tape it is located on the back.
Plastic décor is now at the peak of popularity. The reason is that such a material does not need to perform additional processing, it immediately comes with a completely smooth surface. In addition, there is no need for special care material is very durable, looks aesthetic, perfectly tolerates household chemicals.
Gluing on a Skirting Board | The Carpenter’s Daughter
Materials to work with
Before fixing the baseboards to the plasterboard, you need to get hold of the following tools:
- Metal Hacksaw;
- With a tape measure;
- With a knife and awl;
- With a construction angle;
- A pencil;
- Peorator;
- With a drill with various nozzles and drills.
Modern interiors try to avoid all frames and trims. Traditional architectural heritage. The replacement for the baseboard was the shadow joint. A narrow graphic gap between the floor and wall, wall and ceiling:
There are many options for how to make this joint, such as using a standard aluminum profile:
Or you can use a variety of pre-made profiles:
I do not use ready-made profiles in my interiors: they are designed for the thickness of plasterboard, and because of this they have a small depth of seam, which I consider insufficient.
This is how the shadow seams look in my interior:
Shadow joints are used for joints between any planes and materials, including joints in one plane. If a skirting board is badly needed, it is also docked through a shadow joint.
Dowels and self-tapping screws
If you’re wondering how to screw the baseboard to the drywall, we can say that this operation is not inferior in its simplicity to the above method of attachment. Fix this part with dowels and self-tapping screws can be used in minutes, and the choice of hardware depends entirely on the material of the main wall.
Usually 12.5 cm thick gypsum plasterboard is used for aligning walls.
For high-quality installation of dowels, it is required by the pre-marked marks with a drill and drill bit on the concrete to make the necessary holes. They should be placed at a distance of no more than 50 cm from each other. Too frequent placement of self-tapping screws is also not required.
To attach the decorative detail to the partition or false wall, you should use self-tapping screws, which are selected depending on the material of the purlin.
It is imperative that the screw must be screwed into the vertically arranged bars of the crate, on which the drywall sheet is installed.
This part should be screwed in such a way that it can be easily dismantled later.
To do this, screw the base of the decorative element according to the pre-marked points and install the decorative part of the element.
If you install a wooden element of the decor, you should first make holes with two drills. First you should make a through hole, the diameter of which should be equal to the diameter of the screw. And then a drill, the thickness of which should be equal to the circumference of the head of the self-drilling screw, make a small depression in the place of the through hole. Drill so the baseboard material is necessary to ensure that the screw during installation was completely recessed.
How to install baseboards on drywall on dowel or self-tapping, is now clear, but there is another option for fixing, which can be used to reliably fix this element to the drywall wall.
Functionality of the skirting board
This seemingly inconspicuous detail in the interior is quite important for its overall design. It is difficult to imagine a respectable room without a skirting board in the floor covering. However, this element does not only have a decorative function, because before it was used for other purposes.
In addition to the fact that by framing the floor covering it acquires a neat, respectable appearance, the skirting board performs other important functions.
- Originally, when wooden floors were fitted, the skirting boards were primarily intended as a sort of thermal insulation. The fact that a gap is always left between the boards and the wall, which serves for the thermal expansion of the wood. But such gap, left over, often caused unobstructed cold air flow from the cellar. To avoid this, skirting boards were put along the walls.
- In modern apartments and private houses with concrete or other floors, the skirting board serves to protect the edges of flooring. laminate, linoleum or carpet. from damage and from dust, dirt or moisture getting under it or in the gap between the flooring and the wall.
- The presence in the back wall of the baseboard cable channels allows you to hide communications, such as television cable, telephone or Internet connection.
- Modern products have a very aesthetic appearance, which allows the use of the skirting board as a special decorative element of interior design.