Tiled Skirting / Wall Base Installation - Interior

The bottom ten centimetres or so of a wall get dirty and scuffed faster than anywhere else in the home. Paint there turns grey quickly, and a timber skirting board can swell over time from wet mopping. Ceramic or porcelain tiles do not absorb water. You can wipe them with a damp cloth, and they take knocks without scratching. That is why tiled skirting is worth it mainly where floors are washed often or where people walk in with shoes on:

• Hallways and entrances, where mud, rain and snow come in
• Kitchens, where the floor is cleaned often and sometimes has grease on it
• Bathrooms, WCs and utility rooms, if the walls are not fully tiled
• Plant rooms, garages and workshops, where a trolley or tools can hit the wall

Skirting cut from the same tile as the floor looks clean and quiet. If you want a contrast, you can use a different tile. Just bear in mind that any mismatch in the joints will be more visible.

In practice you will come across two solutions, and each has its place.

Skirting cut from floor tiles

Whole tiles are cut into strips of the height you want, usually roughly 6 to 10 cm. The colour and batch match the floor exactly, and the joints can line up with the floor joints. The downside is the cut edge. The neat factory edge always goes on top, and the cut edge goes down against the floor. With hard porcelain, a good tiler lightly sands the top edges so they are not sharp.

Ready-made skirting pieces

Some tile ranges include matching skirting pieces with a finished top edge, sometimes rounded or bevelled. They look tidier and save cutting. Order them together with the floor tiles, though, because later you may not find them in the same shade.

Top edge and corners

External corners are either mitred, with each piece cut at roughly 45 degrees so the two meet neatly, or finished with a tile trim profile. A mitre looks more refined. A trim resists chipping better. Internal corners are simply butted together.

Skirting is measured mainly in running metres and in the number of details, not in area. How demanding the job is depends mostly on:

• The number of corners, recesses and door frames: a straight wall goes quickly, but every mitre and cut-out takes time
• How flat the wall and floor are: if the floor dips or the wall bows, pieces have to be fitted one by one
• Tile hardness and thickness: porcelain cuts more slowly and needs a diamond blade
• The condition of the wall: removing old skirting boards, repairing plaster or stripping wallpaper adds preparation time
• Obstacles: radiator pipes, kitchen units, door frames and thresholds
• Fitting it later: when the skirting goes on after the floor is finished, care is needed not to damage the new tiles

The job is simplest when the skirting is fitted straight after the floor is laid, from the same tile batch, onto flat, dry plaster.

Skirting is work at floor level, with no electrics and no structural changes, so a handy DIYer can manage it. You need a tile cutter or an angle grinder with a diamond blade, flexible tile adhesive, grout, silicone sealant and patience at the corners. In a block of flats, follow the house rules and the hours for noisy work set by the building management or owners' association.

1. Remove old skirting boards, loose plaster and dust from the bottom of the wall.
2. Check that the paint is sound; scrape off flaking paint and wallpaper down to a firm surface.
3. Apply primer as recommended by the adhesive manufacturer and let it dry.
4. Choose the skirting height and cut the strips so the factory edge is on top.
5. Set out the pieces so the skirting joints line up with the floor joints.
6. Prepare the mitres for external corners and the cut-outs around door frames and pipes.
7. Spread flexible adhesive on the wall and on the back of each piece so no voids remain behind it.
8. Press the piece onto the wall and support it on spacers or wedges so a narrow gap of roughly 2 to 3 mm remains above the floor.
9. Wipe squeezed-out adhesive from the joints and the tile face straight away.
10. Once the adhesive has cured according to the manufacturer's instructions, grout the vertical joints between pieces.
11. Fill the gap between skirting and floor with silicone, not grout.
12. If needed, seal the top edge to the wall with a paintable acrylic sealant.

Why silicone at the floor? The floor and the wall move slightly differently with changes in temperature and load. Rigid grout in that spot will crack sooner or later, while flexible silicone can take the movement.

• Cut edge on top: even a good tile then looks cheap, and the edge chips easily
• Skirting set to a spirit level instead of to the floor: if the floor is not perfectly level, uneven gaps appear underneath; the skirting should follow the floor
• Dot-and-dab fixing: the piece sounds hollow and cracks or falls off at the first knock
• Fixing onto dusty paint or wallpaper: the adhesive holds the paint, but the paint does not hold the wall
• Grout in the joint at the floor: it cracks and comes away over time
• Misaligned joints: skirting joints that are offset from the floor joints stand out, especially in long hallways
• Forgotten details: skirting fitted before the kitchen units or door frames often has to be redone

In bathrooms and showers, skirting does not replace waterproofing. If the base of the wall needs protecting from water, the waterproofing membrane goes under the tiles and is taken up the wall before any tiling.

When you take over the work, walk slowly around the whole room and look at the skirting from the side and from above. Check that:

• The top edge is straight, continuous and free of sharp or chipped spots
• The skirting joints line up with the floor joints, at least where they are visible
• The pieces do not sound hollow when tapped
• External corners meet neatly or are finished with a trim without gaps
• The joint at the floor is filled evenly with silicone, without breaks
• Cut-outs around door frames, pipes and thresholds are clean and sealed
• There is no leftover adhesive, grout or silicone on the tiles or the wall
• The colour of the grout and silicone matches the rest of the floor