How many lengths?
Measure the room dimensions carefully and take your measurements with you when you go shopping for mouldings.
For mouldings running right round the room, divide the room perimeter by the standard length of the moulding.
Round the answer up to the next whole number of lengths to allow for cutting corner joints.
Before you begin
When fixing mouldings to your walls, remember that cables may be buried in the plaster. Cables to light switches invariably drop from the ceiling immediately above. Socket outlets may be fed from above or below.
Use a Bosch Detector to check for cables before you start work. Mark the position of cables clearly on the walls before driving nails or drilling holes.
Acclimatise mouldings
Unwrap new mouldings and store them in the room where you intend to install them. This allows them to acclimatise to the house temperature and humidity.
Prime the back faces
Treat the back faces of the mouldings with wood primer or varnish before fixing them, especially if they're to go on external walls.
Removing existing mouldings
Skirting boards
First cut along the top edge with a knife to sever the bond to paint or wall coverings.
Gently prise the board away from the wall by driving the edge of your brick bolster down between board and wall. Use packing to protect the wall surface. Drive in wooden wedges as you work along the wall to hold each length away from the wall surface. When you have the board partly free, lever it off with your crowbar.
Installing new skirting boards
1. Skirt the first wall.
Start work on the longest wall in the room.
Walls needing one length
Cut the board to the length required and fix it to the wall. Use screws and wallplugs on solid walls. Use oval wire nails on stud partition walls, or if the original skirting was nailed to timber, use fixing grounds. Countersink screw heads and punch nail heads in.
Walls needing two lengths
Cut a 45° mitre on the 'open' end of the first length so that it faces out into the room. Butt the square end into the corner and fix the length in place.
Take the second length and cut a 45° mitre facing the other way on one end.
The mitred ends of the two boards should join precisely to prevent the joint opening up visibly if the timber shrinks.
Cut the second board square to length, so it runs into the next corner of the room. Spread the cut faces of the wood with adhesive then fix the board in place, aligning the mitre joint carefully.
2. Skirt the other walls
For corners to fit neatly together take your second board and lay flat on the floor, profile side facing up. Stand an off-cut vertically on one end of the uncut board aligning top and bottom of each board, and draw round the profile using a pencil. Cut along the pencil line using a coping saw.
Complete the second wall with a square ended board and scribe the end of the first length on the third wall as before. Carry on with this sequence to complete the fourth wall.
Dealing with external corners
At external corners, cut mitres then glue and pin the joint. This prevents the joint opening up if the wood shrinks.
3. Fill joints
Fill all the screw and nail heads, ready for decorating.
Use flexible fillers to seal the joint between the top edge of the skirting board and the wall. A hard filler will soon crack and fall out.
DIY Tip:
Drive pins through the corners of the mitre joint from above and from the side. This prevents the joint opening up.
Decorating mouldings
Use filler suited to the type of wood finish you propose using, to fill nail, screw holes and corner joints. Use decorator's filler to hide any irregularities between the mouldings and the wall. Sand the filler flush with the surrounding wood before painting, varnishing or staining your mouldings to taste .
DIY Tips:
Use masking tape on the walls alongside your mouldings to give a neat paint line.
Leave the tape until the paint is touch dry.
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