Tile Skirting: Leave a 6mm Gap and Seal, Never Grout

Tile skirting is a strip of tile fixed along the bottom of a wall in place of a timber skirting board, usually cut from the same tile as the floor so the two read as one surface. Done well it is the neatest finish a tiled room can have: it cannot rot or swell when the floor is mopped, it hides the cut edge of the floor tiles, and it looks deliberate rather than patched. Done badly it is the first thing to crack, because the bottom of a wall is exactly where a tiled floor needs room to move.

This page covers when tile skirting makes sense, how high to cut it, how to deal with corners and the top edge, and the one detail most DIY jobs and plenty of trade ones get wrong: the joint between skirting and floor.

When tile skirting is the right choice

Timber or MDF skirting is fine in a living room. It struggles anywhere water reaches the floor regularly. In a bathroom, wet room, cloakroom, utility room or kitchen, the bottom edge of an MDF board sits in every splash and every wet mop, and once the paint film breaks the board swells and the joints open. A tiled skirting does not care.

It is worth considering in these rooms:

Bathrooms and en suites, especially where the walls are only part tiled and the floor tiles would otherwise meet painted plaster.
Wet rooms, where the floor is part of the shower and timber at floor level makes no sense at all.
Kitchens and utility rooms with a tiled floor, where the plinths are tiled or kicked and mopped daily.
Hallways and porches with porcelain or encaustic-effect floors, where wet boots and dogs meet the wall. Our page on how to tile a hallway floor covers the floor itself.
Conservatories and garden rooms with a tiled floor, where the temperature swings are large and a timber skirting tends to open up at the joints.

Where it is a poor choice: rooms with very uneven walls, because a straight tile strip on a wavy wall shows every hollow, and rooms where you may want to change the floor later, because tile skirting comes off with a chisel and takes plaster with it.

How high should tile skirting be?

There is no rule, but there are sensible proportions. Most tiled skirtings in houses are cut somewhere between about 75mm and 100mm high, which is in line with a modest timber skirting. Go much lower and it looks like an afterthought; go much higher in a small room and it starts to look like a dado.

The practical way to choose is to work back from the floor tile, because you are almost always cutting skirting strips from spare floor tiles:

A 600 x 600mm tile cuts cleanly into six or seven strips of 80 to 100mm, with a small offcut.
A 600 x 300mm tile cut along its length gives 600mm strips, which means fewer joints on a long wall.
A 1200mm plank tile cut lengthways gives very long strips with few joints, but it is harder to keep the cut edge straight with a manual cutter, so a wet saw or a rail saw helps.

Order for it. If you plan tile skirting, add the wall perimeter to your quantities before you buy, because skirting from a different batch can be a visibly different shade. Our tile quantity page shows how to work out waste.

Cut edges, bullnose and the top of the skirting

The top edge of a tile skirting is on show along every wall, so how it is finished decides whether the job looks professional.

Factory edge up

The simplest trick is to cut each strip so the factory edge of the tile is at the top and the cut edge sits down at the floor, where the sealant joint covers it. On glazed ceramic this matters a lot, because a cut edge shows the body of the tile in a different colour. On full-bodied porcelain, where the colour runs right through, the cut edge is less obvious but still slightly rougher than the factory edge.

Bullnose and rounded edges

Some tile ranges include matching skirting pieces with a rounded top, usually called bullnose, and terracotta and quarry tiles have traditionally been made with bullnose skirting to match. A rounded top sheds dust and knocks better than a square edge. Where a range has no skirting piece, a porcelain cut edge can be eased with a diamond hand pad so it is not sharp.

Metal trims

A slim metal trim along the top edge is another option where the skirting finishes against plaster. It suits a modern room, and it protects the edge. Our page on tile trim covers the profiles and finishes.

Cove skirting for hygiene

Commercial kitchens, clinics and some wet rooms use a coved junction instead, so there is no internal corner for dirt to collect in. Schlüter makes a stainless steel cove profile for exactly this, the DILEX-HKU, in 10mm and 36mm radius versions. Its anchoring leg sits in the adhesive bed and the floor and wall tiles butt up to it. In a house it is usually overkill, but it is worth knowing about for a wet room you want to be easy to clean.

The joint between skirting and floor

This is the detail that decides whether tile skirting lasts. A tiled floor expands and contracts with temperature and moisture, and the building around it moves too. If the floor tiles are tight to the wall, or the skirting is grouted solidly down onto the floor, that movement has nowhere to go and the stress shows up as cracked grout along the bottom of the wall, a hollow-sounding row of tiles, or skirting pieces that pop off.

Section diagram: floor tile stopping at least 6mm short of the wall, skirting tile fixed to the wall above it, flexible sealant between them — Where the perimeter movement joint sits under a tiled skirting. Diagram by Bromley Tilers | Diagram by Bromley Tilers

Topps Tiles’ guidance on movement joints sets out the principle: a perimeter joint at least 6mm wide should be left wherever the floor meets walls and other fixed elements, it should go down at least as far as any decoupling or separation layer, it can sit hidden under the skirting, and the tile used as a skirting “must always be placed lightly over the tile flooring” so it does not lock the floor in place.

In practice that means three things:

Stop the floor tiles short of the wall. Leave a gap of at least 6mm all round, kept clear of adhesive. The skirting will hide it.
Fix the skirting to the wall, not the floor. The skirting tile is bedded on the wall with adhesive and held a couple of millimetres above the floor tiles on spacers or packers while it sets.
Seal, do not grout, the bottom joint. Once the spacers are out, the gap between skirting and floor is filled with a flexible sanitary silicone or a sealant matched to the grout colour. Grout the vertical joints between skirting pieces as normal.

The same applies with underfloor heating, where movement is larger and the perimeter joint is not optional. Our page on tiling over underfloor heating covers the rest of that build-up.

Corners, doors and pipes

Internal corners

Butt the two strips together and seal the vertical joint with flexible sealant rather than grout, since an internal corner is another place two surfaces move against each other.

External corners

The neatest finish is a mitre, cut at 45 degrees on a wet saw so the glaze meets in a sharp line. A mitre on thin ceramic chips easily, so on those tiles a small external corner trim is the safer choice. Our page on tiling around corners goes through both.

Door frames and architraves

Stop the skirting tight against the architrave, or set the architrave down onto the skirting if you are fitting new ones. A cut tile end against timber is best sealed, not grouted.

Pipes

Radiator and heating pipes that come up through the floor beside the wall usually need a notch or a hole cut in the skirting piece. Drill the hole slightly oversize so the pipe can move with heat, then seal around it. Our page on cutting holes in tiles shows how.

Fitting tile skirting step by step

Finish the floor first, leaving the perimeter gap, and let the adhesive and grout cure.
Check the wall. Fill hollows so the strip can sit flat; tile skirting will not hide a bowed wall the way a timber board flexes to it.
Cut all the strips with the factory edge up, and dry lay them along each wall to place joints sensibly. Lining skirting joints up with the floor grout lines looks best.
Bed each strip with a flexible cementitious adhesive appropriate to the wall surface, back-buttering the strip for full contact.
Pack it up 2 to 3mm above the floor tiles with spacers, so it does not rest on the floor.
Grout the vertical joints between pieces once the adhesive has set.
Remove the packers and seal the bottom joint and internal corners with flexible sealant. When that sealant goes mouldy years later, it is a quick job to cut out and replace, as our page on replacing mouldy silicone explains.

Frequently asked questions

Can you use floor tiles as skirting?

Yes, and it is the usual way to do it. Cut strips from spare floor tiles so the colour and finish match exactly, and buy them from the same batch as the floor.

Should tile skirting be grouted to the floor?

No. The joint where the skirting meets the floor tiles should be a flexible sealant joint, with a perimeter gap of at least 6mm behind it at the wall. Grouting it solid stops the floor moving and is a common cause of cracked joints along the walls.

Do you tile the skirting before or after the floor?

After. Lay and grout the floor first, leaving the perimeter gap, then fix the skirting to the wall so it sits just above the floor tiles and covers the gap.

Is tile skirting a good idea in a bathroom?

It is one of the best places for it. It does not swell or rot when it gets wet, it wipes clean and it hides the edge of the floor tiles. The main thing is to keep the bottom joint flexible and well sealed.

How high should a tiled skirting be?

Most are between about 75mm and 100mm, which is similar to a modest timber skirting. The best height is usually whatever gives a clean number of strips from the floor tile with little waste.

Can you put tile skirting on plasterboard?

Yes, plasterboard takes a skirting strip well, as long as the board is sound and fixed and you use an adhesive suited to it. Our page on tiling onto plasterboard covers priming and weight limits.

If you would rather have the floor, the perimeter joint and the skirting done as one job, Bromley Tilers fits tiled floors and skirting across Bromley and south east London.

020 8058 5574

contact@bromleytilers.co.uk