Hi just looking for info about replacing skirting in my house,The skirting has been there since the house was built and as all the rooms have been re plastered i dont want to rip out the skirting and damage the plastered walls.Is there anything i can use or get  to fit over the existing skirting and it can still look quite like normal skirting..
many thanks

Hi thanks for the advice....will attempt this when i have done other home improvements...
gary

Hi Gary

To add to what's already been said...

If you try to 'add' anything on top then the skirting is going to look very thick and out of proportion and you'll end up hating it.  

Depending on what the walls are made of will affect the ease with which you can remove them. All types of fixing will be traumatic to remove especially if the skirting has been there a long time. Things like the nails being rusted into the walls/bricks/concrete/whatever.

A less traumatic way to remove them but at a cost in terms of time and outlay is to use a Fein Multimaster. This allows you to cut directly into the skirting board and so you can slice it up into bits. If you can find the fixings (metal detector? stud detector/ or something like a Lumber Wizard) then you cut around these with the Fein.  You still will need to free up the join between plaster and skirting but again a blunter Fein blade will help here as well.  Then when you've got the skirting board off as much as possible, you will be left with little squarish bits of skirting fixed to the building.  Chisel carefully to break them away from the fixing and then angle grind off.  As I say...a lot of time.  

If you go down the crowbar route and try to lever them off the walls then, depending on the wall construction, you may end up levering into the wall with the crowbar - if you get my drift since the fixings will be stronger than the wall!

I have successfully used a hired door trimmer to remove the bottom inch of a tall skirting board so that I could slide some oak flooring underneath.  I guess that, with care, you might be able to use a door trimmer to slice the skirting into horizontal strips...but you do run the risk of knackering the blade up pretty quickly as a result of hitting fixings or the underlying wall material.

Have a look at this alternative.

Yep looks good to me…….. going to need a ;

Table saw
Router
Nail gun