Best saw/tool to mitre skirting board

[Stephen]

As I have knocked through from the living room to the dining room in my Victorian terrace I have to replace a fair amount of skirting board.

The skirting board is just under 7 inches deep.

What kind of mitre saw will tackle this? I had a look on the HSS Hire website but am not sure what to go with.

Would the "Crosscut & Mitre Saw" (code 03431) do the job?

Also, what do you guys recommend as the best way to refix the skirting board. The walls are fairly uneven so I'm not keen on using Gripfil. I am leaning towards screwing the skirting on. Does that sound OK?

[Andy Hall]

The sliding version, 03421, would be a better bet and give a cleaner cut, especially as you would be near the limit of 03431. Also, 03431 is a 110v version so you would need to rent a transformer as well unless they include it in the deal.

The traditional way is to insert wooden wedges into gaps between the bricks and then nail into them.

Screws are fine as well. You can get counterbore and plug cutters whereby a counterbored hole is cut for the screw and then a plug from a scrap piece of the material. Insert screw, then plug over the top and then cut, sand or chisel to flush with the skirting board surface.

[Stephen]

Thanks Andy

Thats good advice. I have changed my order with HSS to 03421 as suggested.

Stephen

[Andy Dingley]

Mitre the external corners, but cope the internal ones -- especially on older and wobblier houses.

Personally I always saw my outside mitres by hand, using a fine-ish handsaw and a board mitre box. There's rarely more than a couple to a room and it's quicker than setting up one of those nasty noisy things.

[Staffbull]

Yep deffo scribe the internal angles, as even with a new build It'll rareley be square !! and with an old house not a hope !! our 300yr old cottage we had before this was a nightmare a la DIY

[The Medway Handyman]

Good advice. Rooms have few external corners & lots of internal. Good advice also here

[Dave Plowman (News)]

How much is the hire cost? You can buy a sliding compound mitre saw from B&Q quite cheaply that will do 7" skirting.

[Stuart Noble]

Using basic 6" x 1" is the easiest way. You then only have to mitre the

1" moulding you fix to the top.

All the more reason to Gripfil on uneven walls. This means the skirting sits nice and straight, and the gaps behind it are filled. To me nothing looks worse than skirting hugging a wonky wall