Skirting Boards

[everylittle]

Anyone know why we have 'skirting boards' in our rooms. Is it a decorative thing or do they actually serve a purpose?

[raysparx]

decoration plus the fact it stops the bottom of the wall being damaged, Ray

[KARL]

Your suspicion is correct that, at least in many properties, they are not strictly necessary. I believe it is more a traditional thing because I have seen lots of houses, mostly abroad, plus office premises where there was no skirting board in sight. raysparx points to one thing though, plaster walls - especially the old type - are susceptible to damage from cleaning efforts (brushes, vacuum cleaners, water, etc) and in such cases skirting boards are more or less necessary. In the old days the wall plaster stopped short of the floor and the gap was hidden by the board (chicken and egg as to which led to which ?) but modern plaster together with modern cleaning methods/habits make skirting boards mostly decorative.

[horselady]

If we didn't have skirting boards in our house we wouldn't have a decent wall left the way I crash the vacuum cleaner about!

[spudqueen]

It stops damp creeping up your walls. If your walls were plastered to the floor then damp could easily get in. Any plastering outside the house should stop at the bottom brick level. The skirting boards should also be slightly offset from the wall to let air get it.

[Clanad]

Some insight into the answers already provided is that, here in the U.S., those boards are called "mop boards" and were installed to protect the lower wall from, not only water damage, but also from the staining caused by the wet mopping of the floors...

[KARL]

Fear of damp creeping everywhere is very much a British preoccupation, as is chronic fear of electricity (see other threads) and a number of ritualistic measures are taken which are seen as utterly unnecessary outside the country. Like so many, my house had all manner of draughty systems to "keep the place dry" and as a consequence it could not be heated properly, nor had an attempt ever been made to go against national tradition (see "Switching off" heating thread). As anyone who observes a glass bottle taken out of the fridge, the result of a rise in temperature always caused increased moisture in/on everything that was cold from before. Observation of condensation water running off walls in an open close when a sudden warming takes place after a particularly cold snap proves the point. Seal and heat a house and the heavens won't fall in. Now, in my 130 year old house all the draughts are gone everywhere, comprehensive insulation is installed and in many locations where new plaster exists it goes right to the floor - a decent damp-proof course is the key where floors/walls are solid concrete or stone. We have absolutely no damp problems, but there are distinct signs that everything has dried out and shrinkage has taken place so there are cracks in the expected locations, none of them problematic.

[odjob]

I gave a longish answer yesterday, but I omitted to say that where the plaster isn't brought down to the floor (usually when the floor is planked - individual planks flex their ends
as reaction to weight on them), the void left underneath is draughty because if done properly, walls have air-bricks to
ventilate that void. So the gap in the plaster on the walls lets
a demonic draught into the room, hence need for skirting board to stop it. The other reasons given are correct too.