Some photos of kitchen area (we are leaving the tiles) and also some photos of before we ripped carpet up.

The timber window frames base, matches with the current timber skirting. Do not take that wonderful character away from your home.

Thank you!! That was the original plan, just worried they’ll get pretty damaged taking them off and on again

Be careful…

I think sometimes with the timber flooring they add a small edge over the flooring which looks horrid: far better to put the real skirting back that matches the rest of the house. Remove it very carefully!!

Make sure the floor installer knows the timber skirts are being reinstalled and that you want to use the skirts to cover the gaps between flooring and wall. Leave a piece of skirt so they can use it as a guide

You should still be able to get that profile, we managed to do that and certainly try to avoid any small beading to cover any gaps .

It’s really hard to get skirting off intact. It’s also hard to not damage the plaster wall. If you’re doing DIY it’s worth a try. If you’re paying for labour it may be more cost effective to allow for new skirting. And weigh up whether it’s cheaper to replace plasterboard or the hard wood skirting. One or the other is likely to need replacing.

There shouldn’t be any gaps between wall and new flooring, if floor is laid correctly. It is a concrete floor, and straight edges on walls. You have removed carpet and underlay, so there might be enough room to lay your news floors, without removing skirting…?? Depending on what type of timber you are laying. Real, engineered or LVP.

Update: we have started removing skirting because there won’t be enough space for us to lay floors and there also seems to be some damage/mould behind skirts? We aren’t sure what it is. But basically trying to do our best removing skirts carefully to salvage them and reuse. Although not sure how realistic this is.
We are also still deciding on floor material but either hybrid or laminate. I think in the states LVP is our (Australian) hybrid.

Hybrid flooring and Luxury Vinyl Planks (LVP) are different products in Australia. Worth checking the LVP out if you haven’t decided yet on flooring.

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My two cents worth - LVP is worth a look. The look has improved dramatically since they were introduced to the market. I’ve just purchased a full house worth apart from bedrooms. Looked at all the products. I love real floorboards with hardwood but way too expensive to have over a slab. I looked at Engineered Floorboards. Hybrid, and LVP. For wearability, waterproofness and longevity the LVP was a winner. It was also the best price. This is the plank I’ve chosen - shown on two different backgrounds.

Excellent Bigreader. My sister installed her LVP herself, she is a school teacher, and they looked fabulous.

Big Well done to your sister. I’ll tackle a lot of things but I won’t be doing the floors, don’t think my body would make it.