Nails, Screws Or Adhesive To Fit Skirting Boards?

When it comes to fitting skirting boards, you'll use many tools during the process. You'll also require something to keep the skirting board in place - nails, screws or adhesive. But which method is best?

We recommend that you draft in the professionals to install your new skirtings. However, we've produced this post to help out the avid DIYer should you be installing them yourself.

Using Adhesive To Adhere The Skirting To The Wall

If you've got nice straight walls, fixing skirting boards with adhesive is going to be the easiest choice. You'll achieve a clean and professional finish this way.

Once you've cut the board to size, you need to apply the adhesive to the back. We recommend using a zig-zag pattern.

This ensures that the coverage is even once it's adhered to the wall. The trick is to use just enough - too little and it may not stick, too much and it may not sit flush.

When applying the skirting to the wall, you should press on it firmly (all the way along the length) to ensure full adhesion is achieved.

Once the adhesive has cured, the skirting should be well and truly stuck to the wall!

If your walls are old and are not 100% straight, you may want to use another method alongside the adhesive to make sure the skirting stays in place.

What's The Best Adhesive For Skirting Boards?

Seeing as we've mentioned adhesive as a good option to fix skirting to the wall, it seems fit for us to recommend one to you!

The best grab adhesive for skirting boards is Demsun A30 Adhesive. We're so confident in saying this that we offer it to all of our customers.

It's super strong making it perfect for use with our products.

Using Nails (Or Pins) To Fix The Skirting To The Wall

For a secure fit, nails are a good option - especially when used in conjunction with adhesive.

If you choose to use nails, we'd recommend adhering the skirting to the wall with adhesive first and then pinning the skirting with the nails.

Before putting the skirting on the wall, it makes sense to mark where the pins will go with a pencil. This makes it easier to pin the skirting straight away once it's against the wall.

Ensure the nails are long enough to go through the skirting and into the wall. Use a hammer to knock the nails into the marked positions.

You may find that you can't get the nail head to sit flush with a hammer, particularly if you're nailing through the decorative area. In this instance, use a pin punch to knock the nail head flush or slightly into the skirting board.

If you knock them into the skirting, be sure to use a touch of filler to mask the pinhole. This will leave you with a smooth and professional finish!

Nails are a good way to secure the skirting. However, if the walls are very tough you may need to consider:

Using Screws To Secure The Skirting To The Wall

The most secure method for fixing the skirting to the wall is using screws. However, you'll need a few more tools if you plan on fixing them this way.

Firstly, you'll need to identify where you can fix the screws and mark this on the skirting.

Once marked, we recommend drilling pilot holes using a 'Countersink Pilot Hole Drill Bit'. This leaves a small guide hole for the screw to travel down and also adds a countersink for the head of the screw to sink into.

Before screwing to the wall, we'd also recommend that you sit the skirting against the wall and drill slightly into the wall through the holes in the skirting. This will make screwing the skirting to the wall easier.

You could also use adhesive to help hold the skirting board in place.

Once you've screwed them to the wall, you can use filler to hide the screw holes and give the impression that they're not even there!

Summary

We hope that this blog post has helped cover all the ways in which you can fix your skirting boards to your walls.

There are benefits to each method but all will work provided you take the time to carry the work out properly.

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Lee Watkinson

Digital Marketing Director at Skirting World with 10 years of experience in Home Interiors & Manufacturing.