Product Knowledge
Pre-Finished White Foil or Paintable Primer? Choosing a Skirting Finish
Two factory finish options, one clear decision. What each one moves off the site programme, and what it leaves with the decorator.
Skirting arrives late in a fit-out. The finish chosen at specification stage decides whether the board arrives as a finished element or as something still waiting for a decorator. The PS skirting range offers two factory options, and they move the work to different places.
What the two options actually are
The first is a factory pre-finished pure white smooth foil. It comes off the pallet at its final appearance, so there is no full painting stage on site for these boards.
The second is a paintable primer coat. The board is supplied ready to receive paint rather than already finished, which means the final colour is decided on site and applied by whoever is doing the decoration. Both finishes are listed for the range, and the range lists these heights — 80mm, 100mm, 120mm and 150mm — and these lengths, 2.4m, 2.8m and 2.9m. Confirm the pairing you need at quotation, because the sheet sets out finishes and sizes as separate fields.
The decision is about where the labour sits, not which looks better
A foil board takes the full painting stage off the site programme for those boards. That matters most where the schedule is compressed, or where bringing a decorator back for the skirting alone would be awkward: a finished board is fixed and left alone.
A primer board takes the colour decision back. That suits projects where the skirting has to match joinery, a specific paint specification or a client colour that is not white. It also suits work where the decorator is already on site for the whole room, so the skirting is simply one more surface in a job they are doing anyway. Where a decorator is not already on site, expect the primer option to add a stage to the programme.
Neither option is the better board. They put the same decision in two different places: a factory line, or a decorator's visit.
What to check before choosing the foil
A pre-finished board has no second chance. If it is damaged on site, marked during installation or cut badly, the repair is a touch-up against a factory surface rather than a repaint of a whole length. That makes handling and cutting discipline part of the finish decision, not a separate subject.
It also means the colour is fixed at the point of order. Where two rooms in the same project are supplied at different times, specify the same foil on both orders if they are to match.
What to check before choosing the primer
A primer board makes the finished appearance dependent on the paint applied over it, which means the specification has to name the topcoat rather than leaving it to whatever the decorator brings. A primer is a prepared surface, not a finished one.
It also adds a stage to the programme where that stage is not already there. The boards cannot be treated as complete when they are fixed, so the room is not finished until the paint is.
Where the two meet in one project
Mixing the two specifications within one project is worth allowing for: foil in the rooms that need to be handed over early, primer where the joinery is being painted to a specific colour. The important thing is that the choice is recorded per room rather than left as a general note, because a substitution supplied later will not match a room that was finished in the other option.
What to put in the order
State the finish by room, not once for the project. Name the topcoat where a primer board is used, so the painted result is specified rather than assumed. Add the height and profile reference, since the finish changes neither of them, and note which rooms are being handed over early.
