I have ten feet or so of new skirting board to put up by my front door where we have just had the walls plastered [1]. Back when I was a kid I did a carpentry course so I know how to cut and mitre the corners together on the board one thing I'm not sure on though is fixing the board to the wall??
Is it just hammer and nail and hope you don't crack the plaster whilst putting it up? Or are other methods used now? Like mastic or some form of adhesive?
Basically I don't want to mess up my nicely new plastered walls by whacking nails in there
[1. I have just had my front door moved forward several feet so it is no longer a recessed porch but flush with the front of the house where we have had to have the exposed brickwork plastered]
Best Answer
Run a strip of masking tape on the wall where the molding will cover it up, but where your nails will hit it.
I hammer nails into old plaster all the time by putting a piece of masking tape on the wall and hammering into it. It holds the plaster together while the nail hits it and can easily be ripped off (gently) after I'm done hitting it. In your application, you can just leave it hidden behind the boards!
Use masking tape because as, for example, duct or painters tape dry they grab onto the wall harder. I have pulled large chunks of plaster out by trying to remove old duct tape. I have successfully pulled fresh duct tape off of plaster walls, but I don't recommend trying.