How correctly align out-of-true skirting boards?

[Ed]

Never done it before, but I am about to fit profiled skirting to my dining room walls which has recently been plastered and has 4 internal corners. Looking on the web, I see that the preferred method is to scribe rather than using 45 degree mitres.

So, fix one board along full length of first wall with normal square cuts at each end. Then take a second board and cut a 45 internal mitre. After that, use a coping saw to cut off all the newly exposed surface on the second board along the profile of the cut mitre. Then fit board.

What I would like to know ( and can't find answer on web) is how do I cope with the fact that the two boards may not be truly vertical when adhered up against the wall behind? For example, the second board may be tilted out a bit at the bottom say?

How do I modify the scribing method to cope with that?

Ed

[chris French]

In message , Ed writes

I star off by trying to get them vertical. Either but removing a bit of plaster behind the base of the skirting board, or packing out behind it as required.

[Dave Liquorice]

No internal skirting corners are not mitred at all. Fit one board then shape the end of the adjoing board to the profile of the face of the fitted board.

[The Medway Handyman]

To give the profile of the board.

Which you do by cutting an internal mitre, which shows the profile, which is then cut off with a coping saw to leave the profile of the face of the fitted board.

[Lobster]

Eh?(!)

But why would you need to cut the 45-deg mitre to do that?

Don't follow - you can get the profile clearly with a 90-deg cut ??

David

[Tim W]

Lobster wibbled on Monday 16 November 2009 07:38

I think I do. This 45 degree mitre is effectively reflecting the face shape into a line that follows the face shape at 90 degrees - ie the other board. Having this line, it's easy to cut along it to actually get a scribed end.

I haven't tried this mind, but I'm fairly convinced how it works... Clever if it does!

[Stuart Noble]

I don't see the point of a 45 deg cut for the internal corners given that it's so much easier to cut 90 degs. If you mark the profile on the back of the skirting board, it's easy to cut it accurately with a jigsaw.

[Ed]

Exactly right.. The scribing method I am following is well described in this article:

what I really want to know is how to modify the procedure to cope with the fact that the boards are not truly vertical when fitted to the walls e.g. one may be jutting out a bit at the bottom.

Any help on this?

Ed

[Dave Liquorice]

profile,

Yep. I misread the OP, thought he was cutting the fixed board not the one with the freshly cut internal mitre.

As to the OPs question:

I think you just need to cut the internal mitre along a line that is parallel with the face of the fixed board. Ignore the fancy shape at the top just think about the flat faces and how they need to meet.

Oh and decorators chaulk...

[Ed]

How do you shape the end of the adjoining board?

Ed

[Dave Liquorice]

You don't have to mark anything with the internal mitre just follow the line between the face and mitre with your coping saw at 90 deg to the face.

Not with a nice ogee toped bit of skirting, far to fine and complex shape. Probably OK for grotty modern round top or simple chamfered stuff.

[Stuart Noble]

As a general principle, I find it best to set out the skirting with Gripfil and adjust the masonry to suit. IME whatever you do behind the skirting in terms of filling or chopping out doesn't show in the finished job, but wavy skirting (where you attempt to follow the contours of the wall) does. If you need to whack some plaster behind the boards to get them vertical, so be it. It usually pays to level up the wall as best you can in advance, so that the plaster has time to dry before you offer up the skirting

[Tim W]

Stuart Noble wibbled on Monday 16 November 2009 10:29

>

I think that is what I'd do.

Have a small pile of bonding or one-coat mixed and ready and dot 'n' dab it behind the board perhaps every foot or foot and a half, using some blocks to hold the skirting in its finished position for 1/2 hour. Then fix it after the plaster blobs have dried. Both of those will take up more than

1/2" trivially and you don't need continuous support for skirting.

Warning - might be worth putting a bit of paint or bitumen on the back of the board, esp if oak to stop the wet plaster staining or cupping the board (I've made that mistake once).

[Stuart Noble]

Unless you're having a fitted carpet. Without continuous support those knee kickers the fitters use will knock the skirting out of alignment. Learnt that the hard way :-)

[Tim W]

Stuart Noble wibbled on Monday 16 November 2009 10:59

Ow... They must have been giving it some welly?

[Usenet Nutter]

Just take a spare piece of skirting and hold it against the second board at right angles with both outer faces facing towards each other and run a pencil down the profile and then follow that line by cutting away the excess using a coping saw . There is no need to cut a mitre on the second board . You will almost certainly have to fill the join with some decorators caulk but if you are painting the skirting it won't show.

[Stuart Noble]

You have to if you're stretching a carpet

[Tim W]

Stuart Noble wibbled on Monday 16 November 2009 11:37

I pleasure I intend to avoid :) We aim to be carpet free here for the foreable... Carpet is a super-magnet to yank all staining liquids and other agents off/out of sprogs.

[Stuart Noble]

Don't talk to me about sprogs and carpets....

[geraldthehamster]

I tried this for the first time recently. I'm not sure why, because I ignorantly did the previous room with internal mitres and it worked fine. Possibly I had the benefit of square corners. Anyway the mitre- and-scribing technique worked quite well, in the sense that decorator's caulk is your friend ;-) Next time I might try scribing without the mitre, as I found it difficult to guide a coping saw accurately along the thin edge of the mitred end.

Cheers Richard