Do I need to replace skirting in these places?

Question

I've recently been clearing out damp, mold and insects behind some kitchen cabinets. In the process we had to remove certain skirting boards which got damaged.

The skirting board in questions are shown substituted with red lines in the picture below. The blue lines represent kitchen cabinets currently take apart.

As you can see these skirting boards have no appliances in front of them and have cabinets in front of them so the area is pretty is unlikely to get hit except if you are trying to clean with a vacuum cleaner sticking the pipe in.

The area in the left of the picture is basically just empty and one might need to put a vacuum hose in or brush.

I'm wondering if I don't have to replace the skirting board since theres is no real activity in these areas. I would say they don't need to be replaced but then it makes you wonder why someone put it there in the first place. In worst case I imagine they may get hit by a vacuum hose when trying to reach down once month but then in the pic you can see where the skirting ends to the right and there is no skirting they obviously didn't think it needed to be there.

Do I need to replace them or not?

Thanks

Answer 1

Nope -- cross that task off your list!

Seriously, skirting boards (aka baseboard or baseboards to feed the search engine) are cosmetic. If you can't see them, you don't need them. They'll get in the way when you're trying to push the dishwasher back that last little bit.

(Some people think they keep creatures out... the simple fact is that if you have creatures and they want into your space, they'll find a way.)