What it is called, by market
One concept, four markets. Where a name means something else locally, the card says so rather than leaving you to find out on site.
United Statesyours
Same word, different thingbaseboard
also base trim, base molding
"Baseboard" alone means this trim, but "baseboard heater" is a heating appliance in the same position — a different thing entirely.
Canada
Same word, different thingbaseboard
Same collision as the United States: a baseboard heater is an appliance, not trim.
United Kingdom
Same thingskirting board
also skirting
Australia
Same thingskirting board
also skirting
Calculators for this
Each works in either measurement system, and the terminology on the page follows whichever market you have selected.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a baseboard heater a baseboard?
- No, and it is the most consequential collision in this pair. In North America, "baseboard" alone means the trim at the foot of a wall, but a "baseboard heater" is an electric or hydronic heating element in a low enclosure running along that same position — an appliance, sized in output and in length, with clearances and a circuit behind it. The two share a word and a location and nothing else. A British or Australian reader meeting "baseboard" in an American specification should establish which is meant before pricing anything: one is a length of moulded trim, the other is a heating system with an electrical load and a design temperature behind it.
- How is skirting measured and ordered?
- By the running length around the room's perimeter, less the door openings, plus an allowance for cutting and for mitres. The allowance matters more than it looks: skirting is supplied in fixed lengths, so a wall slightly longer than the stock length needs two pieces and a joint, and the offcut from each length is usually too short to be useful elsewhere. That makes the practical quantity a function of the room's dimensions against the supplier's lengths rather than the perimeter alone. External corners consume more than internal ones because both pieces are mitred, and a room with several returns can need noticeably more material than its perimeter suggests.
- Why are internal corners coped rather than mitred?
- Because rooms are not square, and a mitre shows it. A mitred internal corner relies on the two walls meeting at exactly ninety degrees; when they do not — and in practice they rarely do — the mitre opens as a visible wedge that gets worse as the timber moves. A coped joint instead runs the first piece into the corner square, then scribes the second to the profile of the first, so the second piece sits against the face of the first and the joint closes regardless of the corner's actual angle. It also tolerates seasonal movement better, because shrinkage slides the profile along the face rather than opening a gap.