New Skirting board : MDF vs Timber .+ Internal corners

I will shortly be buying new skirting board following an electrical & re plaster job in my daughters bedroom.

This will be "all new " -no matching required.

A recce at B & Q has shown that I can get either MDF or timber.

Any thoughts on pros & cons ?

Apart from facts that

MDF is factory primed and Timber is cheaper.

I will be using approx 167 mm depth with Torus ,or similar, profile.

presumably MDF does not need aclimatising to the room atmoshere as I imagine Timber would.?

I will need to do a join in one wall lenth as max length seems to be 2.4 mts. I would recon to do this by "mitreing" - overlapping diagonal cuts - to disguise the join ?

Also - I read that the conventional wisdom for internal corners is not to mitre but to profile one board , with a fret saw or similar , to fit against the other which is cut straight.

But iIs this only if mitreing is difficult ? I will be using my compound mitre saw - subject to any advice here - amd would therfore expect to get a neat mitre for an internal corner - there are no external corners on this job . Or am I being naive ? or are there other reasons to use profiling on internal corners ?

Thanks

Richard

Reply to
Jack Fate
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I think butting is slightly better when using real wood as the shrinkage is more uniform..with MDF teh shrinkage is much less..miter it mate.

I never use (visible) real wood in place of MDF unless I want to see the grain. Its in every way an inferior structural material in all but tensile strength.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

True

AFAIK; the method of overlapping two lengths of material , as you've described, is known as _scarfing_ (scarf joint) the shallower the angle - the more the overlap - the better).

This process is known as _coping_ (cope) ; one uses (understandabley) a _Coping saw_; it's blade is narrower than a fret saw and the frame is deeper in order to get the blade close to the line. One transfers the profile of the moulding to the board's edge and then cuts to the line with the saw cutting at an angle -away from the line. {I cutt off a sample of the profile, about an inch long' to use as a template]

The internal corners are very rarely 'true'. A mitred joint might be 'perfect' in the horizontal plane but open up in the vertical plane. A coped joint is intended to but up vertically while still allowing a little freedom in the horizontal plane. Its edge matches the profile whille the cutting back of that edge allows a little latttude, {non-purists use the mitre saw to cut away the majority of the excess material than use the coping saw to obtain the edge} It;s easier to show than talk about. :)

Reply to
Brian Sharrock

Not by much though - Wickes MDF is £2.91 a metre, wood is £2.70. Much easier with MDF.

No, much better dimensional stability.

Your mitre saw may well cut a perfect 45 degree, but the corners sure as hell won't be 90 degrees.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Apart from that, consider how hard it would be to physically fit mitred internal corners on all the corners - assuming you have continuous lengths of timber between corners.

And once you've fitted them, then fixed them, there's no way you'll ever be able to pry them off in the future without trashing them, should the need ever arise. No, coping is definitely the way.

David

Reply to
Lobster

In message , Jack Fate writes

An issue with the factory primed MDF fitted by our builders (10 years back so things might have moved on) was a slight yellowing when finished with oil based white paint. We have re-decorated since and it is OK (white) now.

I would avoid MDF where floors are routinely washed.

regards

Reply to
Tim Lamb

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