Replacing skirting and architrave

kerryjack

In the process of replacing some timber floors and am now thinking of replacing skirting and architraves got my new mitre saw in Screwfix and ready for action, I presume I am going to stick them on with tech7 or something similar I won't be using any nails, any tips or tricks greatly excepted.

Rows Grower

Buy some panel pins and a hammer.

10-10-20

Patience - by the bucket.

Decide on what material you want to use as there are four choices: bare hard-wood (oak), bare medium/soft wood (pine, etc), primed MDF and sh1tty wrapped MDF.

MDF has some advantages in that it's flexible and you don't need to worry about grain, etc. It's quite consistent and you can buy it in up to 5.2m lengths. Easiest to finish and work-with.

And stick to a painted finish rather than bare unless you're a true craftsman as every mistake shows.

I did a large room at home with a cheap-ass mitre saw and that included areas around steps, and the best complement I got was when we had the painter over to paint the room afterwards, he commented on how good the chippie was who fitted the skirting… best he'd ever seen… he then said I should be a professional until I told him that it took me around 5 evenings (~15hrs) to complete the room. 😂

I glued the most tricky cuts, drilled and screwed-in some of the straight runs and used 0.5m spacers to provide a small gap. All of the edges were then backfilled with an easy-sand filler. The reason for not gluing all of it was that I find it difficult to get the glue to hold on longer sections, plus sometimes you want to get the skirting to follow a poor contour, and screws are best for that.

I used semi-solid oak in one room, and while it turned out well I wasn't able to get the level of finish that I really wanted, but I was able to hide my mistakes, so it still looks ok.

Lastly, before installing or measuring skirting go around the whole room with a bolster chisel and take off any sections of plaster which don't conform, my house had skirting gaps of 10mm at worst due to poor plaster finish.

Hope it helps.

Deregos.

Something like this will make the process way quicker and easier.

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/titan-ttb970nst-32mm-second-fix-electric-nail-gun-stapler-240v/964pg

kerryjack

Thanks guys primed MDF I am thinking as doors are painted french white so a length should do each door, might have to use some small nails so small nails gun would be handy and cheap as well.

Mr321

Plenty of good advice there from @10-10-20

Measure twice and cut once is the other main thing 😁 good luck