Why do we have skirting boards?

[wilsarnie]

?

[muddie]

to cover the gap between the wall and the floor!

[heathfield]

To stop sweeping brushes causing damage to the plaster.

[wilsarnie]

muddie does that mean that the walls are 'floating'?!

[boro1986]

They are really just cosmetic

[rhona_j]

With heathfield on this one.

Have you ever seen a room without one? The bottom of the wall tends to be filthy and scratched, from either sweeping, mopping or hoovering.

I can also, as muddie says, tidy of the junction of the wall and floor surfaces.

[topman9thnov]

you should never plaster to the floor, to prevent rising damp,so the skirting board is a decorative way of hiding the gap.

[Athley]

They keep the floor company when we go out.

[Clanad]

Here in the U.S., they're called mop boards and were originally designed to keep the wet mop used for cleaning the floors from staining the usually wooden walls. This became even more important with the advent of plaster and dry wall useage. Today, as suggested, they are more decorative than anything else...

[odjob]

Depends how old your house is. In older houses, plastering wasn't done right down to the floor because the best floors were made with wooden planks. These were not laid directly on the earth below for fear of damp and rot, which meant that the wooden floors were 'suspended' with a gap below them for air to circulate and clear away dampness from stale air; hence air-bricks in the walls below floor-level. The gap left at the bottom of the plastering was to anticipate the up-and-down flexing of the ends of the planks as weight was put onthem inside the room which would crumble plastering they met. Protection of the plastering from cleaning of the floor was another reason. Modern houses usually have solid floors which don't flex, and walls can be plastered right down to the level of the floor; skirting boards are then decorative, but they do protect plastering against damage against knocks from feet and furniture.

[topman9thnov]

odjob, you never plaster down to the floor, especialy if its a solid floor.