Trim & Moulding near you

Every second-fix fixing in a British house is made into a wall that may have wiring buried in it, and the national wiring standard, BS 7671, sets out where that wiring is supposed to be. Electrical Safety First states that additional protection by a residual current device is required for low voltage cables concealed in a wall at a depth of less than 50 millimetres from the surface, and that such a cable must be protected in accordance with regulation 522.6.202 unless it has an earthed metallic covering, is in earthed conduit or trunking, or has mechanical protection sufficient to stop penetration by nails and screws.

The zones themselves are geometric and easy to picture. The IET's overview of the requirement describes a permitted zone within 150 millimetres of the top of the wall or partition and within 150 millimetres of an angle formed by two adjoining walls, plus a zone running horizontally or vertically to any point, accessory or switchgear on the surface of the wall. There is a catch that matters for trim work: where the location of an accessory can be determined from the reverse side, a zone formed on one side of a wall or partition 100 millimetres thick or less extends to the reverse side as well. The socket in your neighbour's room can therefore define a no-go strip in yours.

For a homeowner and a fitter the practical consequences are unglamorous but effective. Treat the strip immediately below and above every socket, switch and fused spur as live, treat the band near the top of the wall and near internal corners the same way, use a detector rather than trusting the layout, and prefer a grab adhesive with a small number of carefully placed mechanical fixings to a nail gun run along a wall at speed. Note too that the RCD requirement protects a person against a shock; it does not stop a nail going through a cable and leaving a fault that shows up months later.

Good trim work is sequenced backwards from the finish. Where the trim will be painted, it is far quicker and cleaner to prime and put the first coat on the lengths while they are on trestles, with the backs and the cut ends sealed, than to try to reach every face once they are fixed against a wall. Only then are they fitted, filled and caulked, and the final coat goes on afterwards so that fixing heads, filled joints and the caulk line all disappear under one continuous film.

Filling and caulking are different materials doing different jobs, and confusing them is the commonest reason trim looks wrong six months later. Filler goes into holes and into joints in the timber itself, and is sanded flush. Flexible caulk goes into the moving joint between timber and plaster, where a rigid filler would crack as soon as the building moved. A gap wide enough that caulk sags in it is not a caulking problem: it means the trim needs packing or scribing to the wall instead.

The other half of the sequence is the wall. Fitting architrave and panel moulding against a wall that has not been made good means either painting the wall twice or cutting in against a fresh edge with no margin for error. Agree with the decorator which comes first, who is responsible for making good after fixings, and whether the wall colour runs behind the moulding or stops at it, because on applied panel moulding that single decision changes how the whole scheme is painted.

Replacement is the right answer when the profile is wrong for the room, the timber is rotten or water-damaged, or the existing trim has been painted so many times that the detail has disappeared under the layers. It is also the only honest route when the room is being reproportioned - a taller skirting and a matching architrave change a room more than any colour will.

Stripping and repainting wins more often than people expect. Original Victorian and Edwardian mouldings are usually deeper and better made than anything a merchant stocks, and a profile that has been softened by a century of gloss can be recovered rather than skipped. The reason to hesitate is the method: taking old paint back in a pre-1980s house raises the lead question, and the right approach is chemical stripping, wet abrasive work or on-tool extraction rather than dry sanding, which is set out in the wallpaper removal guide on this site. Where the existing trim is sound and the profile is right, the cheapest good outcome is usually careful preparation and two coats rather than a skip.

Listed building protection covers interiors, and original architrave, dado rails, picture rails, panelling and window boards are exactly the kind of detail it exists to preserve. The consent regime under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 is explained in the interior design guide on this site; the instruction here is narrower. Speak to the local planning authority's conservation officer before any original moulding is removed, and if any of it does come out, keep a full length. It is the only pattern from which a cutter can later be ground to match, and once the last section is gone the room cannot be reproduced accurately.

A leasehold flat brings a contractual constraint instead of a statutory one. Many leases require the landlord's consent for alterations to the demised premises, and while decorating is normally outside that, work that involves removing or replacing internal joinery can be argued either way. Reading the relevant clause takes minutes and is a great deal easier than unpicking a dispute after the trim has gone in.

Metres are the easy part of the calculation and rarely the expensive one. What actually moves a trim price is the number of openings and corners, because each door means two sides of architrave and a head with two mitres; whether the profile is stocked or has to be matched to something already in the house; whether walls and openings are square enough for the trim to be fixed or have to be packed and scribed; how much old trim has to come off and be disposed of, and what damage that does to the plaster behind it; whether panel moulding is being set out to a design, which is layout work rather than fixing work; and whether the price includes decorating or stops at fitting and filling. A pre-1980s house where old paint has to be removed carefully adds time that has nothing to do with joinery.

Getting comparable prices is what LokalMatch is for, and that is all it does. Explain the rooms, the mouldings you want and what is there now, add your postcode, and carpenters and decorators covering your area will contact you. There is nothing to pay for posting the job; the trades pay for the enquiries that come through. LokalMatch does not fit or paint anything, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend the people who reply, so establishing who is decorating after the fitting is done is worth settling before you accept a quote.