Skirting Board

My daughter has decided she wants the skirtings and architrave in her room to be "wood coloured" rather than painted, so I decided that instead of my usual nails and screws I would do what everybody else seems to do and glue my skirtings to the wall with Gripfill. That way I avoid the filling of the screw holes, which always show up regardless of how much wood stain you use.

I actually did this once before, in a small closet in a previous house, and it worked out Ok. The architraves around the door were easy, because there is space for some G-clamps to hold everything in place. The skirtings though, don't give you this luxury. Once again, I resorted to my scissors jack and a chunk of wood, cross braced across the room, to push the skirting into the wall. I also used a spare length of skirting flexed into position across the room, as in the following picture:

I actually resorted to this after sitting on the floor holding one end of a long board in place with my feet, while reading a book. It was Sunday evening and I had to get up to watch Top Gear after 20 minutes clamped up against the wall, and it still hadn't stuck. A hasty solution that seems to work. It won't work for the last piece though, because there will be no pieces left to use for bracing.

My usual approach to the internal corners of skirting is to scarf the shape of the moulding onto the end of the piece that butts up against it. I have had more success with this in the past than with hand cut mitres. However, I decided to make use of the facilities of the mitre saw, purchased back in the summer (see previous post from some-when). So far it has been very successful.

Finally for this evening, a picture of the conservatory, which has now been brought back into use (just in time for winter) to give us somewhere comfortable to sit at last :