Matching Skirting, picture rail, and the varnished floor!

[Matt Durkin]

Hi All, I'm in the middle of re-decorating my dining room (as per other threads!). I would like to remove a fitted cupboard between the chimney breast and an internal wall (brick built). One problem I have is that the skirting board and picture rail would need to be extended round the alcove that would be left. The skirting board is not square and has a shape cut into it at the top, though I'm not sure how it was done as none of my router blades will cut the shape. Would I be able to buy skirting with and have the shape matched? What sort of place would do this (homebase / wicks / B&Q etc or somewhere more specialist). I have a similar situation with the picture rail - I don't know much about putcure rails so am not sure if they come in standard shapes, but if not I'll need another very small section making to the same shape.

My last quandry is that I'll need to sand down the floorboards and varnish to match the rest of the room. Does anyone have advice on how to match varnish colours? I also have a small hole that I need to fill with woodfiller and match the colour in a prominent place on the floor (stiletto heel disaster!). Any tips on achieving a good match here?

As always, advice much appreciated.

Matthew

[Andy Hall]

You may be able to find a close match at a timber merchant, although more likely you would need to find a joinery firm. If you are lucky, they will have tooling for their spindle moulder which will do the job. Otherwise they may be able to obtain a cutter to fit the spindle head. There are literally thousands of tools available so you should be able to get what is needed. In the worst analysis, tools can be made, but that costs a bit more. It really depends on whether you are happy to accept a close match or must have the absolute identical.

That would be pretty difficult to impossible. Even if you could match the colour, you won't be able to match the effect of wear You would be better off sanding the lot and starting again.

.andy

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[Andy Hall]

There are devices for doing this type of thing which consist of a stack of thin plastic cards between two clamps. You offer the tool up to the wall and carefully press the cards against the surface of the moulding. You can then lay the tool on a piece of paper and carefully trace the shape with a fine pencil.

I can't remember the name of these devices though. Even so, the result is not as good as taking a sample of the moulding to a joiner.

.andy

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[John Rumm]

[Michael Mcneil]

All very expensive. If you have the same stuff in a smaller room you can sacrifice, canibalise that and replace with new in that room.

What sort of length of stuff are you in need of? Make a moulding plane out of a piece of scrap iron and a file and shape up a section to plant on some square board. the angle of the profile wants to be in the region of 30 degrees.

Either do that or see what youy can put together from the stock mouldings on sale in places like B&Q.

[Andy Hall]

.andy

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[Michael Mcneil]

angle. Spindle moulders work on an angled cut of 30 degrees. (Eg. The profile for a semi-circle would be an ellipse.)

Or you could just cut the blade square on and set it in a simple scratch block, something like a marking gauge. It will take a hell of a long time to pare away any substantial lengths with that though.

There are charts of profiles. No idea where they might be found though. Old C&G text books perhaps?

[Andy Hall]

In fact it's not. I had a joinery firm order a custom cutter set for their spindle moulder for a short run that I needed a few years ago. The cutters for this are less than £10 as a standard item e.g.

I paid under £50 for a customised set to fit the spindle cutting block used by the joiner.

The result was a perfect match to the original.

.andy

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[Matthew Durkin]

Thanks for the reply. One problem with the picture rail though - I haven't got a section to take anywhere that isn't fixde to the wall. I think the rail has been on the wall for many years and I don't want ot remove it! Is there a way I can capture the cross section to have another cut to match?

Thanks,

Matt

[Hugh]

Matt, I make up my own skirting from something like 6 x 1 , or 7 x 1 timber, and , in my case use ogee architrave which I tack onto the top - looks very attractive. This is a very much cheaper option than having the whole skirting made up for you. So, in your case, is there a moulding that you can buy 'off the shelf' that closely resembles the existing, and that will sit on the top of the appropriate size square edged skirting? Hugh

[Michael Mcneil]

And how much for the order in total?

The joiner getting some 7 quid and hour his boss charging you double for it, his time, the factory overheads and the taxman's cut?

Then there is the problem of finding someone to do it. How much was that worth? And the rest of your time, you loveable old philanthoroughpissed you?

I'll bet. And he didn't expect any more business from you in the future too neither.

We are talking about 10 feet or so that would be more expensive to make than to tear out the whole house and replace with off the shelf new.

[Andy Hall]

About £75 including setups and materials.

This was a small local workshop with a guy working on his own. You were saying.....

Not really. I found two or three small local joiners who supply for restoration work.

I cost my time quite highly, but not as highly as doing a job properly rather than bodging it.

For what I wanted, I thought that the price was fair, and he did get some repeat business.

In my case the mouldings were of a particular type for which it had not been possible to find an off the shelf match. A new moulding would have looked incorrect.

Tearing it out and replacing with new is not the point. I prefer to do a job properly on the principle of if is worth doing it is worth doing well. If that costs a few pounds more then that is worthwhile for the correct outcome.

.andy

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[Matt Durkin]

Thanks for the advice all. The one thing I'm still uncertain about is the way to get the best match I can on the varnished floor. The option to re-sand it all and start again is not one I'm about to undertake! The floor runs from my dining room, through the hall and into the lounge. So - I need to try to match a small area of original wood when I remove the fitted cupboard, and also some woodfiller to fill a small hole (in an unfortunately prominent place). There must be some kind of technique to get a reasonable match?

Again - advice appreciated Thanks, Matthew