Looking for guidance on angles

[Mjward]

In a nutshell, skirting is my nemesis.

I'm learning but I'm sure there is an easier way and looking for any useful YouTube/guides you recommend on getting the angles right.

Most out there deals with the perfectly flat wall and the perfectly plumb walls, leading to "just set your mitre saw to 45 degrees" etc.

In the real world, if we take a standard 4 wall room, pick one wall and you've got 2 walls perpendicular to it. You've got that internal corner scribe to contend with (again not just 45 then scribe, possibly an angle to each on the vertical). Then you've got the floor rarely perfectly flat. If you scribe the bottom of the skirting to the floor first it's inaccurate as your skirting isn't exactly in the right position without the internal scribes. Conversely if you do the internal scribes first, they won't be in the perfect position without the bottom scribed to the floor

This is my 3rd attempt at skirting and I'm finding it so frustrating I'm assuming there must be a trick I'm missing (or the norm is for a lot of caulk!)

 

[niall Y]

With skirting in an old house, it often expedient to run it parallel to the floor, which usually means you are dealing with compound angles on the external corners. If you try and keep the tops level you can often end up with the skirting tapering from full width to almost nothing in a room - which isn't a look. Though some form of compromise between the two methods is often what you have to run with.

A sliding bevel is really handy to set up the slope of the internal scribes. You can also use it to transfer the angle of the external corners onto paper. Folding this to the marked lines will give you the angle to cut. If you are handy with handsaw and can easily follow a marked line it will be a lot easier than struggling with setting up a chop saw for these complicated angles. You can even use the sliding bevel on the top of the skirting to run the saw against for the first part of the cut. Holding the skirting upright with the marked line vertical, in a vice or workmate, helps keep to the line when sawing.

 

[Bingy man]

walls are rarely at 90 deg in the corners and never flat along the entire length . I’ve also struggled with skirting in the past but since I’ve started scribing the internal corners it’s gone a lot better . I always find the best way is to say fit the back wall and jyst cut it to the width eg 3 mtrs at 90 deg both ends and just place it into position. Then scribe the next piece into the corner and ghen the same again until you have 3 sides completed but not fixed . For ease of explaining this let’s just pretend there are no doors, measure your final piece and again scribe each end to the profile of your chosen skirting ( probs should of said this earlier lol) then place into position ( you can make this very slightly wider to give a tighter fit ). Now what I do is make sure the corners are level and jyst eye it up to see how it looks all round . You might need a shim to lift it here and there . Also you may find you have a high spot in a particular section pushing the skirting away from the wall ( use an old wood chisel and remove the high spot ) same can be done if there is a low section ( pack it out with a shim or glazing packer and tape it onto the offending area . Use the same trick with external corners if needed. The external corner could be 90 degrees if your lucky but it could be 95/100 / 87 etc . A starrett mitre angle thingy is useful at this point . Once it looks ok and your happy with it then start fixing using your prefered method, screws and plugs for me as a rule but sometimes I’m forced to use no more nails etc. all that’s left now is to fill any fixing holes and caulk the gaps between back of skirt and walls and bottom of skirt to floor if reqd . I use a glazing packer to profile the caulk if needed and a wet finger for a smooth finish. A 2nd fill of caulk if there are wide gaps may be reqd . Sorry if at some points I’m teaching you to suck eggs but This is how I do mine and it always looks decent ( imo ) and I’ve not had any complaints..

Starrett 505P-7 Miter Saw Protractor
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[Cabinetman]

Yes mitres on corners went out a long time ago, they are nearly all scribed now.
Good advice from Blingman, to not start to glue to the wall till all are looking good and levelled out, but sometimes you can only do the best you can with what the builder has left you.
Ian

 

[Doug71]

A wall can look straight until you put a piece of skirting against it, always best to get the skirting vertical if you can, often means chipping a bit of plaster off at the bottom of the wall.

If the floor is out a kneeling board can be handy, basically a 2ft long off cut of skirting. You lay one end on top of the skirting and the other end on the floor then kneel on it to push the skirting down to the floor while fixing it.

I remember back in the day cutting the external mitres with a handsaw, I find it much easier with a SCMS because you can nibble away until it fits.

Bradshaw joinery has a good video on fitting skirting, not sure how much it covers angles though.

 

[Mjward]

Thanks all. A lot of gold tips and I think the not attaching to the wall until all the main pieces are cut will certainly help eliminate issues where an uneven floor is making it difficult to keep skirting height consistent around the room.

I'm fairly handy on the actual cutting of the end scribes where the skirting touches another skirting board but I think you've touched on something I'm not doing... Focusing on making the skirting level and plumb to begin with. I should be setting it upright and either chip away plaster or use shims to get it to affix that way, then makes all the corners substantially easier.

 

[ChaiLatte]

For external coners, this video is good at explaining the parallel line method of bisection.



It is a useful technique to master as it has much wider application than just skirting.

 

[RupertV]

Yes mitres on corners went out a long time ago, they are nearly all scribed now.
Good advice from Blingman, to not start to glue to the wall till all are looking good and levelled out, but sometimes you can only do the best you can with what the builder has left you.
Ian

I was taught back in the 70s to always scribe internal corners, if they aren't, they more often than not look bad and amateurish because a, for them to be tidy the mitres have to be perfect on walls which are probably neither perfectly plumb or at right angles and also b, if you are using soft wood and it shrinks the front of the mitre will open up. Also, if I am mechanically fixing the skirts I tend to fix each piece as I go before transferring the scribe line onto the next piece (easy done with the sliding bevel, which I have to say is one of the most useful and often used tools a carpenter can have) which can then be slightly back cut to give the impression of a perfect mitre even when it isn't. In a simple room without any external corners start on the wall opposite the door (one piece) then scribe back around in each direction until you end up with what should hopefully be simple plumb cuts where the skirts meet the architraves. Where there are external corners to deal with it is sometimes expedient to start with the external mitres first as that can give you a bit of leeway at the other end which is probably scribed. Hope this makes sense and is of some use to someone out there. Otherwise it is practice and never ever assume walls and floors are square or true.

 

[Kendall Downes]

I'm in a similar boat with skirting boards, especially when it comes to getting the angles right in real-world situations. I've been considering some renovations myself, including changing the flooring and dealing with the skirting boards. It's a bit of a learning curve, but I've found that taking the time to scribe the internal corners and ensuring the skirting is level and plumb from the start makes a big difference. I also try not to attach them to the wall until all the main pieces are cut and ready, as it helps eliminate issues with uneven floors affecting the skirting height. These tips from the thread here are really helpful, especially the advice about using a sliding bevel and not relying too much on external mitres. It's all about practice and not assuming everything is perfectly square or true in older homes.

 

[johnnyb]

"Do your best and caulk the rest" is the skirting mantra...

 

[Spectric]

For a lot of good information on doing these task, rather than look for info on skirting boards look for baseboard which is the american term and they do seem to do a lot more fancy trim work than we do. The problem now is finding good videos that can be watched without the distracting and time consuming adverts.