Skirting Board Dimensions Guide

Buying skirting board can get complicated, especially when trying to communicate and visualise each dimension of the board.

To help, we have put together a guide to ease the process.

Dimensions Explanation

All skirting boards have three dimensions which will need to be specified; length, depth and height. We also provide the size of the shaped part of the board - the ‘profile height’ - on each of our mouldings.

If you are trying to match up one of our designs to a skirting board you currently have, then knowing the height of the shaped moulding will help you to judge whether our profile will match yours.

Skirting Board Dimensions

• Length: this is how far or how long the skirting board will be running along your wall.
• Height: this is how high the skirting will come up your wall and is measured from the floor to the top of the board.
• Depth: this is how thick the board will be and is measured from the wall outwards.
• Profile height: this is how high the profile is on the board. This is measured from the top of the skirting boards to the bottom of the shaped moulding.

Skirting Board Sizes - Inches or Millimetres?

You will see on many websites that the skirting board height, width and length are displayed in millimetres. Whilst many people are comfortable measuring this way you may wonder why the heights in particular are often not round numbers. This is because these are traditional heights that have been sold over time in the industry and you may be surprised to learn that they are still roughly equivalent to inches.

Our products list the heights in both millimetres and inches so you don't have to search for the calculator app on your phone!

Below we've laid it out much more clearly so that you can see at a glance how tall a skirting will be in inches.

• 69mm = just under 3 inch skirting board
• 96mm = just under 4 inch skirting board
• 121mm = just under 5 inch skirting board
• 146mm = just under 6 inch skirting board
• 171mm = just under 7 inch skirting board
• 196mm = just under 8 inch skirting board
• 221mm = just under 9 inch skirting board
• 246mm = just under 10 inch skirting board
• 271mm = just under 11 inch skirting board
• 296mm = just under 12 inch skirting board

Profile Heights on skirting and architrave

The shaped part of a skirting board is commonly known as it's profile and is where skirting companies try to give customers a wide variety of choice to suit their taste.

Whilst there are common profiles such as Bullnose, Torus, and Ogee which don't differ a lot, others which whilst sharing the same name, can vary quite a lot because they are open to interpretation. These often have place names or are meant to evoke a particular era of design history.

Some of these are quite simple and small and others are more detailed and quite large.

One thing they all have in common is that each profile is a fixed height. This may be something small and defined like our Rogiere Profile which is 13mm to the much more detailed Large Victorian at 93mm.

Check out our full range here.

How high should my skirting be?

Whilst the large profiles tend to start at 146mm due to the size of the design, smaller profiles can be shaped onto any available height.

The thing to bear in mind is the balance between the profile and flat part of the board.

Perhaps you want to accentuate the profile so you go with a smaller flat, or you like a tall skirting board with just hint of detailing along the top. As long as you consider the fact that the profile height doesn't change in proportion to the height of board you choose then it is down to your taste to come up with the combination that works for you.

Make use of samples

One of the best ways to help you decide what height or profile size you would like is to order a sample.

Samples generally tend to come at a standard height and because the same profile is machined onto both skirting and architrave the same sample should help you make your decision for both.

To get the most out of your sample try these things below

• Raise or lower your sample against the wall to help visualise the balance between the profile and the height
• Place your sample next to any awkward fixtures or fittings as this may influence your choice of height or help you anticipate installation issues
• Try out paint tester pots on your sample if you're not definite about the colour you want. Maybe even try accentuating part of the profile's detail with a different colour
• Visualise the profile as an architrave by turning it 90° or 180° for the legs and head of the doorway

We do provide samples that you can choose from our product pages and although other websites may charge you for these we are happy to provide up to four for free before we charge postage costs.