Holesaws without arbors?

[Man at B&Q]

Clue: the skirting board is very close to the floor.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

When the skirting is below a radiator so it's trapped behind two pipes and the rad prevents access from above, neither a bolster nor a crowbar are much use.

MBQ

[GMM]

Of course, my original post was, I now realise, misleading....What I meant was a holesaw without a pilot drill rather than an arbor (!) and it seems that the Starrett ones (as suggested by Mr Smith and TMH) are the sort of thing I had in mind as the pilot drill can be removed.

Would it really be so hard to get the hole started on what is, after all, going to be scrap? I sort of envisaged spinning it up to speed then offering it up to the wood in a 'one of us is going to win this' kind of way(!), although the idea of the ply template is an elegant solution.

I don't know about using a bolster to get these off - I usually struggle with a dirty great big crowbar and the wall ends up about as wrecked as the skirting, even with a piece of something to protect it! In my house, the skirting seems to be held on with pairs of cut nails at different angles, so it does take a serious amount of leverage to get it off. I had thought of the jigsaw/reciprocating saw approach but I can imagine that causing almost as much damage to the wall as the crowbar when it slips. It just seemed that coring out the boards where the nails are should be kind of straightforward.

Of course, when they're all replaced using gripfill, they'll be dead easy to get off, but that's another story!

Thanks chaps

[Cerberus .]

An even bigger clue, "..rest your hand on the floor whilst holding the drill steady with both hands,.."

Don

[1501]

skirting board you want to remove and nail it in place.

Now continue.

[Rod]

I might have misunderstood both the problem and other posts in other threads. But would it be possible to use a Fein Multimaster to cut three or four slots by each nail to make a triangle or square hole?

[The Wanderer]

Having read through the other replies in this thread, I'va always managed to get skirting off by splitting it close to the fixing nails using an old chisel (not a decent one) and hammer.

Most skirting used within the trade for the last 40-50 years is pretty poor timber. Two or three whacks with the hammer and the wood usually splits quite readily along the grain; a little bit of levering and away it comes. Then place a bit of scrap skirting under the hammer head whilst using the claw on the hammer to pull out the nail.

[John Rumm]

If there is space behind the board, then a long blade on a reciprocating saw will let you cut through the nails behind the board will very little damage.

[stuart noble]

Then you can usually just split the wood alongside one of the fixings by whacking an old screwdriver or chisel into it. Old pine splits easily with the grain.

[The Medway Handyman]

Get a Shark pry bar, nothing else comes close

bigger B&Q's sell them, not cheap but sooo good.

[GMM]

Well, I'm a bit surprised that nobody's suggested an SDS chisel - that could be almost as much fun as the angle grinder....

I rather wish I had a Fein, Rod, but I can hardly justify one to SWMBO, if you know what I mean, though I reckon I can just about manage to sneak one of those good looking prybars, which I'll clearly have to get now that Dave has recommended it.

My guess is that most people normally encounter more flimsy skirtings than I have: Mine are simply rectangular timbers around 3 x 1.5 (inches), and very ugly they are too. (As a matter of course I'm ripping them out whenever I do a floor and replacing them with chamfered MDF.) A long run is pretty easy...once you've wrecked one end. you can move along the length gaining leverage as you go, minimising the damage to the wall. The reason the question occurred just now is because I'm doing the downstairs bog and it's all short lengths in confined spaces, so it seemed cutting out sections where the nails are would be the easy way...but then again, nothing ever is, is it?

Perhaps I'll collate all the suggestions and try each, then let everyone know which worked best and which made me homeless/ put me in hospital, so I can report back. Somehow, a strange urge to try Mr Rumm's reciprocating saw approach seems to be gripping me, unless I can find a local source of those Sarrett holesaws..

Thanks chaps

[Rod]

I certainly do! :-)

[stuart noble]

IME the easy way in these circumstances is to split them.