Fitted Skirting Boards

We at Funky wood get asked the way to fit skirting boards at all times but people seem to appear worried when I inform them (don’t be!). In this explanation I’ll add pictures to allow it to be a little easier and use numerous lay man terms as i possibly can because I know a large number of not joiners out there.

Before fitting any skirting board it is advisable to first order your skirting board weather it be Pine skirting boards, Walnut skirting boards, Ash or Pine along with enough wastage. I have written another article relating to this (walnut skirting) but let’s just say you would like 10-15% waste (hardwoods) meaning you would like that much more then you need, this will cover you for those bits at the conclusion and save you piecing up mismatched items of wood with grains, knots etc which are not very nice to think about especially in a tiny room. When you have got this it’s time to do timber selection it’s likely you have bought oak skirting therefore you noticed it has a lot of colour differential in this lengths, it would be good and keep similar shades together in numerous rooms or keep it together in a single room where it changes only once or twice.

OK! we are nearly on the point of start fitting the skirting board, the only thing left to try and do is look at your timber and select what lengths could head out where once this done its time get rolling.

I was taught by an old guy who was quite strict well, i will tell you what exactly he taught me. The first thing you need to do is stand in the primary doorway or the only doorway in many rooms, looking across at the wall facing you. This is your kick off point as this is where most people enter a room it will need all the scribes hidden as people be given the room. Start with your first piece about the back wall or this wall opposite as this causes it to be harder to see this scribed joints.

If you don’t understand what a scribe is I allows you to know…. you are cutting a profile over a end of some timber to match any profile of timber you wish to push it too. If you use a coping saw it is possible to cut the profile out easily when you need to do some curved work. A tip that might help, if you mitre the section of skirting board use any jigsaw to cut down the mitre cut. The mitred cut will give you a true curve towards the top of skirting board. It’s a cheat really and you will need to careful but it’s sometimes better to cut to a line then not have access to one at all.

So, just to recap, the first skirting board length you might have put in is merely a straight length with simply no cuts. It has to fit tight between walls. If you find the idea hard to measure the capacity of the wall (sometimes due to tape measure doesn’t fit in at the conclusion) measure from one of the wall and bring this tape measure across and mark the wall 100-200mm off of the end (remember in which distance) then determine back. Add the two together therefore you get the distance to the mm. This should give you a true reading of the capacity of skirting board you need in the first place.

So you have placed your first duration of skirting board, do not fix it set up just yet, keep it loose. Things always happen and best to keep the options open till you have got cut everything. The idea is to start opposed to this of the room and work your path back to the entrance.

Once the first section of skirting board is set up, work around the room till you might have reached the door. As long as you haven’t fixed anything in you should check that it all calculates fine then fit this skirtingboards in appropriately.

I use a number of different fixing methods. I will list below-

Use Gripfill, Pinkgrip etc. If you use this method it needs fixing set up with a nail gun. If it’s a hard piece or you don’t have a nail gun you should nail a small wooden pads on a lawn then use small of wood to guard the face of this skirting board (soldier). Use another piece involving wood and nail this to the pad and hammer because of the face of this soldier to push the skirting board contrary to the wall and nail set up.

Another method is to help drill and plug. Only use a great plug cutter and nice plugs. There is a service provider of plugs in strip of 4 on ebay (they are the cheapest and the best) If you use these one’s which I’d personally highly recommend you need a 12mm pilot cutter. Glue the plugs in and leave magically. The next day make use of a sharp chisel and lose layers of the select around 1/5 mm each time. It is important to be sure you have the grain going identical way as the skirting mother board (horizontal).

This should get any person started with fitting skirting boards correctly.