Forgotten concealed skirting boards – what now?

Hello, during construction we decided to go with concealed door frames and a clean, minimalist interior without traditional skirting boards. We installed the concealed frames and prepared the floor levels for a future composite floor.

And here’s where the problem comes in: • Composite flooring requires a minimum 5 mm expansion gap around the entire perimeter of the room to allow for natural movement caused by changes in temperature and humidity. • However, during planning we overlooked the fact that with concealed frames we also needed to plan for concealed skirting, which would cover this gap. • As a result, we now have the finished floor and the concealed frames, but no system for finishing — there’s nowhere to hide the expansion gap.

If we don’t respect the expansion gap, the floor may eventually start to warp, lift, or get damaged. But if we do keep the gap, we end up with a visible joint, which ruins the clean look of the walls and the detail at the doors.

👉 Do you have any ideas on how to solve this issue most effectively? And if not, could you recommend what type of visible skirting/trim would work best with these doors, and where to source it from?