Knot-free skirting boards, door linings, cill boards and architraves

[Cordless Crazy]

Where can I buy knot-free skirting boards, door linings, cill boards an

architraves in soft wood, or is this not posible?

Am planning to varnish/stain it all to a similar medium oak colour t match the floor, without going to the extent of buying solid oak item (cost is one reason!). Plus I want it to match the stair handrai already fixed in sortwood.

I dont fancy a whole array of knots visible as you get from the typica gear from B&Q etc.

Any ideas, cheap sources in SE England/London or guidance

-- Cordless Crazy

[Stuart Noble]

Any decent timber merchant should have *relatively* (i.e. relative to the sheds) knot free softwood and, with luck, you can lose the bigger ones in the cutting. Champions are not bad if you have a branch nearby.

[Michael Chare]

Many timber merchants will let you select the bits you want to take. (like buying vegetables in a super market!)

[Pete C]

Hi,

Try a large timber merchant like Champion Timber:

cheers, Pete.

[Cordless Crazy]

Cheers Pete. My local champions was perfic

-- Cordless Crazy

[fred]

In article , Cordless Crazy writes

Pete C Wrote:

[Pete C]

Good! BTW there's some ramblings of mine on staining pine at the following...:

I'd use the back of the skirting etc to practice getting the match to the floor right.

cheers, Pete.

[Cordless Crazy]

Interesting reading Pete. Looks like this Sikkens stuff is the way t go!

BTW any advise on fixing the skirtings without screws? Am going to b Gripfilling the blighters to the wall by running beads down a couple o routed grooves on the back, formed by my circ saw (if it doesnt com pre-routed). I dont fancy making good any holes or screwheads an having them noticeable. My next concern it ensuring they stay bonded t the wall while Grippy cures

-- Cordless Crazy

[Cordless Crazy]

Fred,

Champions were sound as. Go to their website and view their massiv range. Lengths, boards, insulation, decking, sheds, doors etc Th quality of their softwood pine is way better the the B&Q crudy knott stuff. Reasonable rates almost knot free (the occational 6mm knot) bu otherwise unwarp, true and available in length up to 5m+. Best thing i you can give them a cutting list and they will cut it and deliver it fo free within a 10 mile radius of the branch (a few located around th south east

-- Cordless Crazy

[owdman]

Knot free is just about possible if you specify "unsorted" grades of softwood i.e. what was in the old days sorted into 1st 2nd and 3rds. But why would you want knot free anyway - knots are just a natural feature of many timbers. There are knot free(ish) alternatives to redwood such as pirana pine etc but they have other drawbacks.

cheers

Jacob

[Dave Fawthrop]

| |Where can I buy knot-free skirting boards, door linings, cill boards and |architraves in soft wood, or is this not posible?

The sheds sell stripwood, which is lots of short bits of wood with the knots cut out and glued end to end with an extended VVVVVV sort of join. You could buy that and form it into "skirting boards, door linings, cill boards" yourself.

[Stuart Noble]

With an 8ft length restriction though, and those laminated boards are far from knot-free

[Pete C]

It's one way to go, maybe others can add other ways...

One thing worth a mention, if using a water based stain it will raise the grain some, for a smoother surface solvent based is better.

When using solvent based stain indoors, there needs to be plenty of ventilation during the initial drying to stop the solvent smell building up too much.

Here's a pic of some pine which I've used a fairly thin coat of Cetol HLS 'Teak' on (it does look quite a bit lighter in reality though), with some bare wood for comparison:

Using more coats makes it darker, and maybe obscures the grain a little. The finish comes out satin but isn't too glossy.

Another product that might be worth a look is Rustins Wood Gel, I've no experience of it though.

cheers, Pete.