One of the little jobs on my list for the next few weeks is relaying a floor and replacing the skirting in a bedroom. I'm putting down some reclaimed floorboards which I intend to sand to replace the crappy old odds and ends which are currently down there, and I'll replace the skirting while I'm at it. I was planning on getting a chippy in to do this, an easy day's work for him I would guess, and he'll have all the right tools. However, I'm toying with the DIY idea.
What I'm wondering is what tool do I need to do the mitres for the skirting, and is it one of those jobs which is difficult to do well, even with the right tool. I'm guessing this would do the job (at the cheapskate end of the market):
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What does "Depth of cut 120 x 65mm" mean? I'd like to use the same saw to square off the ends of the floorboards, but their cross section is 170 x 21mm.
Depth of cut, 120*65 mm. means the biggest bit of wood it will cut is
120*65mm
for a150 quid you will get a pretty good tool, which is about what you would pay the chippie. Decorators filler maket good looking skirting board joins, but you still have to be within 1-2mm.
You don't say what height of skirting you are planning to use, but does the "crappy old odds and ends" suggest an older place with skirting boards about 160-180mm high or is it the normal modern stuff of 80-100mm high?
If it's the latter, then the saw you describe would be able to do the cut across the width, but I am dubious that it would manage wider skirting.
The depth of cut figure simply states the depth that can be managed at a given width and is usually close to the optimum figure. Some saw specs give a variety of combinations.
The limiting factors for the saw are the diameter of the blade (210mm here) and the guarding arrangements. It's a pretty safe bet here that this saw is not going to manage much more than 140mm on 22mm wood, almost certainly not 160mm.
You could go up to a 250mm saw costing around £50 (e.g. Screwfix
19638), but I am dubious that this would manage 180mm - the main additional capability is compound cuts.
Unfortunately, at the widths you need, it looks like you are into sliding mitre saw territory, and the cheapest start at around £100 for a 200mm one from B&Q, with the average unbranded product being about £140-150
This would still likely be less than a good carpenter for a day, and you would have a saw to use afterwards.
If it were just the straight cuts on floorboards, you could easily make up a right angle jig, clamp it to the board and use it as a guide for a circular saw - that would be cheap enough.
Another option for mitre cutting, if you are really only doing a few, would be to use a hand mitre saw - e.g. Axminster Power Tools 244001. There are cheaper ones, e.g. from Screwfix but they don't have the cutting width capacity.
For any of the mitre saws and especially the cheaper electric ones, the actual scales on them may not be accurate; added to which the walls may not be truly square. So it's a good idea to have some scrap material and do some trial mitre cuts to fit the sections before cutting the actual skirting boards. This is especially important if you are going to leave the skirting boards in natural wood rather than painting. You really can't use filler if you want a decent looking job. If you are painting, you can get away with a mm or two of flexible filler painted over without the job looking like a bodge.
Unless you have a lot of external corners to cut,a mitre box and saw will be enough .All other are butted to gether cutting using a jigsaw. to shape or a coping saw. Flooring cramps are very essential.
The trad kit for skirtings is; 2 sliding bevels,1 combi square, protractor, straight edge, tenon saw, panel saw, 2 saw horses, g clamps, pencils, coping saw, any number of made up (on the spot often) mitre blocks to suit the job in hand, block plane, chisels, out sharpened gouge, er, probably a few other things I've forgotten. You could try and make do with a mitre saw but it could be a struggle as very few things are actually square in old buildings. So cut over size and be prepared to chisel, gouge, whittle, back to a good fit - and fill gaps with putty. cheers
Circular saws can also be set to cut at 45°, so could also be used to cut skirting board, though some practice on scrap is useful to check how accurate the angle setting is.
Also an electric planer allows the board to be cut a couple of mm oversize and then planed down to an exact fit.
In practice the angles in a house are often not quite perpendicular, so an adjustable bevel:
and protractor and some adjustment capability in the jig, plus some creative planing ;) will give an exact fit.
cheap tools like that have their limitations. The blade tends to push sideways on the wood as it cuts, so the wood must be held quite firmly to get an accurate cut, and take the blade down twice for the perfect cut. But dont press down on the wood on the tool base to do it, as it has a plastic base that bends, altering the angles. Hold firm at the base edge where its metal. If you bear this limitation in mind, it works fine.
so it wont do it in one cut. It will do it in 2: cut it, turn wood round, line it up with your eye looking across the blade edge, recut to complete. Crude but works. Re-lining up is quick and accurate if you look along the edges of 2 teeth, no guessing.
perhaps most of the jobs I'd have liked it to do - like simply cutting floorboards or shelves square. IMHO, you need something that will cope with a 12" shelf.
The B&Q sliding version with the 10" blade - although much more expensive at about 140 quid - will do this, and is also rather more accurate. It's one of the few cheap power tools I've been happy with - I'd love a good version of the same, but they were rather out of my price range.
Of course, in a standard square or rectangular room you'd not mitre skirting boards anyway. Internal corners are scribed. External corners - like round a chimney breast - are the only ones which are mitred.
But an adjustable square cutting saw can still be useful for part of a scribed joint.
I haven't chosen the skirting yet, but it is likely to be at the larger end of the scale (it's an old victorian house).
All in all I think it's going to be better to get a tradesman in to do a good job. It sounds like the outlay in tools (which probably won't get much reuse) justifies shelling out for a chippy. At least I can do it with clear conscience, having rationally examined the DIY option ;-)
You can avoid long mitreing altogether by using a 2 part skirting. Plain 6x1 with a 2x1 ogee architrave on top looks good, and gives you a taller moulding than is generally available. All the 6x1 joints can be straight cut, and the 2x1 you can do with a toy mitre box and a tenon saw.
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