Uneven floor/skirting and kickboards

[bill.shitner]

I've just spent half a day pissing around with the router to get a 3m length of kitchen unit kickboard fitting reasonably tidily on a quite uneven floor. The floor doesn't look that uneven, but when you put a long, straight edge on it, lumps and hollows everywhere. The unmolested board was touching floor at each end and floating in air in the middle. Trimming the ends, the touch points of the kickboard moved to various points along its length; trim those and same again.

So, my question is: is there a better way to do it than rough measurements, followed by many iterations of fine adjustment, to get best fit? Against a hard surface (which this was), a kickboard or skirting board with completely faithful reproduction of the contours of the floor can look naff, drawing the eye to the unevenness. The trick seems to be to go some way to accommodating the ups and downs, but accepting that gaps between floor and board might be unavoidable for best overall appearance.

I'm aware of bendy profile strips that can be used to reproduce uneven surfaces, but I don't think that one of these would have helped over a 3m length.

What do pros do?

Thanks.

Bill.

[Chris Green]

Well I wouldn't be using a router to do it.

I'd use my belt sander for this sort of thing, quicker and easier for this sort of thing than a router and, of its nature will produce the sort of gradual 'out of straightness' that you're after.

I think I'd put the skirting in place, mark vaguely with a pencil, sand some and then repeat a few times until happy with the result.

Then, if really fussy, I'd use filler on the last few cracks.

[The Natural Philosopher]

They lay the strip on top of the floor and, using a spacer, draw a line onn it , say 1cm above the floor, with a pencil. Then they cut along that line.

[Andy Burns]

Scribing ...

[nothanks]

It's called "scribing". Put the timber in place, propped in places if necessary, then find a small spacer that's the size of the smallest gap. Rest a pencil on the top of the spacer and run the spacer along the floor so that the pencil draws the floor profile on the wood, then cut with whatever is must appropriate (jigsaw, sander, rasp, surform, scraper) to the line. It might take a couple of iterations but it's possible to get a near-perfect fit if needed. If appropriate, it can be made slightly easier to fine-tune if you put a bevel on the edge so that only a narrow strip at the front of the wood is against the floor. I treated myself to a Trend Easyscribe, but with care a compass will do the same job, as will a washer.

[Chris J Dixon]

Shouldn't that be the largest gap, otherwise you won't reach the timber? ;-)

Chris

[Tim Lamb]

Quite. Having done this and carefully trimmed exactly to the line, consider that you will be placing unsealed mdf/chipboard in intimate contact with a floor which diligent wives are likely to dowse with water at regular intervals:-)

No doubt someone will suggest a precautionary sealing tactic.

[Roger Hayter]

How do you do that with a kickboard that won't fit under the kitchen units uncut, when the floor in front of the units bears little relation to the floor a couple of inches further back? The only way I can think of is to use a narrower board temporarily screwed in place parallel to the kitchen units above and transfer the marks with another scribing process. The reason I ask is that I am just about to do this job.

[John Rumm]

Normally you would scribe the board to the floor, and use a final bead of silicone or some kind of profile strip to hide the cut edge and disguise the level changes.

[John Rumm]

In that case I would do the scribing onto a template, and transfer it to the final board.

I find a roll of 2000 gauge lining paper makes for good supply of cheap template material - its stiff enough to be handled a bit... so cut a strip and pin in place on the kitchen units, scribe the floor onto it, the take it and stick it on the back of the real kick board, and cut along the line.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yup. Proper 'Binky' CAD CAM Cardboard Aided Design and Cardboard Aided Manufacture.

[nothanks]

I believe the correct response is Doh! :-) Hopefully that's my only mistake today

[nothanks]

Polyurethane varnish and (perhaps) a silicone bead if you're confident that the strip won't need to be taken off

[alan_m]

I did similar using an opened out cardboard box as a template, I then cut the card to check the fit at the floor and then transferred the information to my kick-boards.

Don't forget to seal any raw chipboard edges as any water from mopping floors etc. will make untreated chipboard to swell.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Start by levelling the floor. Makes far more sense than trying to get things to fit afterwards.

[Andrew]

Sort the floor out.

Self levelling compound++