How correctly align out-of-true skirting boards?

[Tim W]

Stuart Noble wibbled on Monday 16 November 2009 13:00

BTDT?

OTOH, I love our slate kitchen floor, but we have to stop matey doing head dives onto it...

[Stuart Noble]

Indeed, and I still can't bear to talk about it :-)

[Ed]

Thanks, it seems that there is more than one way of scribing the second board. I will give each method a try.

Whilst I got you, can you (or anyone) advise me on this:

The longest wall in my room is almost 4m. I would prefer to use a single length, but I can only find skirting in the diy shops at 2.4m.. So I will have to make a join of two pieces across the long walls. I am minded to just cut 45 degree angles and overlap the cut ends.. Do I use glue at the overlap or are there special nails that I should use to hold the two pieces together at the joint?

[Usenet Nutter]

Did you not try a Timber Merchant to see if they do longer lengths altho' if you don't get a 4m length then a join is a join. I'd probably use glue for the join but also use short pins to hold it in place and punch them below the surface .

[The Medway Handyman]

[geraldthehamster]

I recently bought a 4.5m length of skirting from my local Travis Perkins.

Cheers Richard

[Usenet Nutter]

No you don't .You either need to do a 45 deg mitre or hold another piece of the same skirting against the second piece and draw round it ...then cut away the escess ..That gives you a profile that fits against the first piece ike a jigsaw piece ...Try it and you will see why your suggestion doesn't work

[Ed]

Ohh, so if I put a third little off-cut bit of skirting into the angle between the fixed first board and the second board (which is to be cut) and draw around its profile onto the second board, then cut away the excess of the second board, then that should accommodate that the first and second boards might not be both exactly vertical?

Ed

[Usenet Nutter]

Almost ..You don't literally need to put it in to the angle but you put the scrap piece up against the second board at the end and do as you say ......if the walls are not exactly vertical then you need to sort that problem as necessary and some filler will probably be required where the two boards meet ..

[Stuart Noble]

Then I might just as well go no further than stage 1 and have an internal mitre

[Bolted]

It is easier to follow than a pencil marking. It also works for all angles of corner.

[geraldthehamster]

If anyone is remotely interested, I've just tried my first scribe by the other method - drawing round the profile of a spare bit of skirting, on the back of the piece to be cut, and cutting it with the coping saw. This was my third ever attempt, and I got a much better result than I did when I cut a mitre first. I think because I was able to cut through the full thickness of the wood, rather than following the edge of a mitre. I'll still need to caulk it, but I found it much more accurate. I'll certaonly be using this method in future.

Cheers Richard