How do I calculate skirting board?

Measure right around the room, take off the doorways, add a little for corner cuts, then divide by the length it is sold in and round up to whole lengths.

Does skirting go on before or after the floor?

After. It has to sit on the finished floor so it can cover the expansion gap that a floating floor needs around the edge.

What skirting is best for a bathroom?

Tile or PVC. MDF swells permanently if water reaches it, and timber needs sealing on every face including the back.

Why should skirting not be fixed to the floor?

Because a floating floor has to move. Fixing the skirting to both the wall and the floor traps it, and the floor lifts in the middle instead.

Is tile skirting cut from my floor tiles?

Usually yes, which is common practice here. Remember to include it when working out how many tiles to order, because it comes out of the same boxes.

Skirting Calculator

What you measured in

Room length

Room width

Doorways

Skirting stops at a doorway, so it comes off the total.

Width of one doorway

Corners in the room

Every mitre cut wastes a little material.

Length sold in

Your answer

Lengths to buy

That is 19.2 m of skirting, and you need 17.3 m.

Right around the room: 18 m
Taken off for doorways: 0.9 m
Skirting needed: 17.1 m
Added for corner cuts: 0.2 m
Left over: 1.9 m

Buy at least one length spare. A miscut mitre on the last piece means another trip, and a second batch may not match in colour.

Skirting Calculator for Dubai and the UAE

This tool works out how much skirting a room needs. Skirting is sold by the running metre in fixed lengths, so the answer is both.

The number you need and the number you buy are not the same. If a job needs forty two metres and skirting comes in two point four metre lengths, you are buying whole lengths and throwing the ends away.

It also allows for corners, because every mitre cut wastes a little and a room with many corners wastes more.

Why whole lengths matter

Skirting is priced per metre but sold in fixed lengths. That gap is where the extra cost hides.

Imagine a wall that is five metres long and skirting that comes in two point four metre lengths. Two lengths give you four point eight, so you need a third length and use only twenty centimetres of it.

The remaining two point two metres is only useful if there is another wall short enough to take it.

So the efficient answer depends on how your wall lengths compare to the stock length. A room whose walls are close to multiples of the stock length wastes almost nothing. One that is slightly over wastes a great deal.

This is why the tool gives both numbers: what you actually need, and what you have to buy.

Corners and cuts

Every joint in skirting is a cut, and cuts cost material and time.

External corners
The two pieces are mitred so the front faces meet. Any error shows badly because it is at eye level in a corridor.
Internal corners
Traditionally scribed rather than mitred, because a scribed joint stays closed if the wall moves. Faster to mitre, better to scribe.
Joins along a wall
Where a wall is longer than one stock length, the two pieces are joined with an angled scarf cut rather than square, so the joint is less visible.
Doorways
Skirting stops at the architrave, so the door width comes off the total. That is why the tool asks.
Around obstacles
Pipes, radiator brackets and floor boxes all mean cuts and offcuts.

Skirting in a UAE home

What is actually used here, and how each behaves in this climate.

Tile skirting
A strip cut from the floor tile itself. Very common here, hard wearing, and it matches the floor exactly. Cut from your tile order, so allow for it there.
Marble or stone
Cut from the same stone as the floor. Handsome and expensive, and it uses slab area you have to order.
MDF
Cheap, smooth and easy to paint. It hates water, so a leak or a wet mop at the base will swell it permanently.
PVC
Waterproof, which suits bathrooms and areas that get washed down. Less convincing to look at than timber or tile.
Solid wood
Attractive and it moves with humidity here. It needs sealing on all faces including the back, or it will cup.
Aluminium
A modern shadow gap or flush detail. Precise, expensive, and unforgiving of walls that are not straight.

What skirting is actually for

It looks decorative and it is doing three practical jobs.

It covers the expansion gap. Any floating floor, meaning vinyl, laminate or engineered wood, must have a gap around the edge so it can move. The skirting hides it.

It protects the bottom of the wall. That is where mops, vacuum cleaners, shoes and furniture hit, and a painted wall at floor level marks quickly.

It hides the joint. The line where floor meets wall is never perfectly straight, and skirting covers a multitude of small inaccuracies in both.

That last one matters when choosing a style. A tall traditional skirting hides an uneven wall well. A slim modern one, or a shadow gap detail, hides nothing and needs the wall to be genuinely straight.

Fitting notes worth knowing

Skirting goes on after the floor, not before. It has to sit on top of the finished floor to cover the gap.

It should not be fixed to the floor, only to the wall. Fixing it to both defeats the point of the expansion gap.

In a wet area, leave a small gap at the bottom and seal it with silicone rather than pushing the skirting hard down onto a wet floor.

Paint or seal all faces of timber and MDF, including the back and the cut ends, before fitting. The back is where moisture gets in and the cut ends are the most absorbent part.

And prime the wall behind it if the wall is bare. Skirting fixed to unsealed plaster with adhesive does not hold as well as people expect.

Questions people ask

How do I calculate skirting board?: Measure right around the room, take off the doorways, add a little for corner cuts, then divide by the length it is sold in and round up to whole lengths.
How much extra skirting should I buy?: At least one full length spare. A miscut mitre on the last piece means another trip, and a second batch may not match in colour or profile.
Does skirting go on before or after the floor?: After. It has to sit on the finished floor so it can cover the expansion gap that a floating floor needs around the edge.
What skirting is best for a bathroom?: Tile or PVC. MDF swells permanently if water reaches it, and timber needs sealing on every face including the back.
Why should skirting not be fixed to the floor?: Because a floating floor has to move. Fixing the skirting to both the wall and the floor traps it, and the floor lifts in the middle instead.
Is tile skirting cut from my floor tiles?: Usually yes, which is common practice here. Remember to include it when working out how many tiles to order, because it comes out of the same boxes.

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