How to cut and fit skirting boards
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Skirting boards are one of the weird things that you don’t notice until you don’t have any. Generally skirting boards are there to protect the bottom of the plaster and to hide any gap between the floor and the plaster, providing better insulation and protection from dust.
Fitting skirting boards can be tricky and is something that the less experienced renovator might want to call in a carpenter to help with.
If you do want to give it a go yourself follow the guide below.
- The edges of the skirting boards will need to be cut with a mitre saw, if you don’t own one, these can be hired at most tool stores.
- External corner joins (for example on a chimney breast) are usually fairly straightforward. The two ends for the join will need to be cut on 45 degree angle so that they fit together smoothly.
- Cutting the joins for an internal corner is slightly more complicated. Place one end of the board against the other board and trace the profile of the board onto the other. This is known as scribing.
- Then cut the board on a 45 degree angle using a mitre saw.
- Next using a coping saw cut round the scribed outline so that the boards fit together neatly.
Tips
- It’s always best to cut the corners before you cut the boards to length, to give you a couple of attempts at cutting the corners.
- In older houses the external corners are usually uneven, so even the most accurate cutting is not going to produce a tight fit on the corners. Don't stress too much about this - the only way to deal with this is to cut the corner as tidily as possible and use wood filler or decorators caulk to fill any gap between the boards and the wall.
Read more about this - how to fix skirting boards to the wall.
Handyman Quotes
from local handymen
