Join skirting

[RJH]

How best to cut skirting for a decent join along a straight run? Straight edge to straight edge, or 45 degrees? Or something else?

[Reentrant]

Search on "scarf joint"; there are lots of variations depending on what tools/skills you have. If you're painting rather than varnishing then any method (even a simple butt with a mortised mending plate behind) + filler then sanding would do.

[Tim Watts]

I usually do a 45 degree bevel. If you can get the backs level (perhaps a shim under one side is necessary) it looks good without too much sanding.

[Tricky Dicky]

45 degree joint is the best and if you can glue it you should be able to sand it down, once painted it will be invisible. Butt jointing will always show no matter how much you sand and fill due to the natural movement of the wood.

Richard

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The answer is don't. It's almost bound to shrink and show at some point.

[Cash]

As will any other joint! As for your "45 degree joint", it is well to remember that timber generally only moves in thickness and width and very, very seldom in length - so theoretically, when using skirting straight from the merchants, butt jointing is usually best.

To get the best results. leave the timber in the room it is to be fitted for a few weeks to get rid of any excessive moisture and 'bend' to any shape that it wants. Once any movement has stopped - then fix it. If you do that, then you will have more success if you want to use any 'fancy' jointing methods.

Which reminds me. As a young apprentice way back in 19 nought dot, I once dovetailed skirting at its joints in a rather large cupboard - and won the bet of a shilling - along with a bollocking of the old chippie for wasting time.

All great fun the them days.

Cash

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Hmm. If that were the case, why is it the norm not to mitre skirting on internal angles?

[Roger Mills]

45 degrees is the norm. I've got several joins like that in my house, and they're all ok after a number of years.

One thing which you *could* try which had ought to work (although I've never done it myself) is to butt the ends, and create a biscuit joint.

[Cash]

Because you *SCRIBE* internal angles - you get a better fit, especially when moulded or round-edge skirting is used.

BTW, that is quite literally a "butt" joint that follows the shape of the moulding[s] - and easily done after first cutting a mitre on the end of the board and following the outline of the moulded shape at the base with a coping saw and leaving a small 'relief' angle on the back of the board to make an even better fit if wall corners are out-of-square.

Cash

[RJH]

Thanks everyone - I'll go with 45 degrees I think.

It's MDF by the way. I gave up on the pine after a number of boards warped.

[John Rumm]

Because shrinkage in the thickness of the timber will tend to lessen the mitre angles, and hence open up a visible gap on the inside of the joint (i.e. the room facing side). With an external corner the same happens, but the internal corner is against the wall and hence less visible.

[John Rumm]

I normally scarf joint straight runs - not because timber movement makes much different (it does not move much along the grain direction), but it gives a bit of extra lateral stability to the joint (plus more glue / fixing area), and leaves a line that is slightly less predictable to the eye and hence harder to see.

e.g. when I needed to make a cabinet top cove section that could break down into separate sections, I used a variety of joint angles on the different components, and once painted its very hard to work out where the joint is:

[stuart noble]

+1 . Picture frames illustrate the problems with mitres very well, which is why the wider profiles were often machined in sections and t&g'd together to stagger the gaps. IME timber needs to be below 10% moisture content to avoid this happening

[John Rumm]

and here is one we drew earlier ;

[John Rumm]

The most notable example is when someone mitres an internal corner of a wide windows board - like in a conservatory.

[Chris French]

Probably be hidden behind furniture anyway :-)

[soup]

Because those internal corners are rarely at 90°