Fitting Oak skirting to uneven fragile lime walls = Help!

[surreysteve]

Hiya

Have purchased some nice 6" Oak skirting and am now starting to fit to my daughters bedroom...or more accurately attempt to fit. Having looked at the job I thought I'd be better getting some advice as to the options moving forwards.

The issues are:

- Totally uneven walls with vertical beams at intervals - skirting leaves up to a 1/2" gap
- base of walls fragile (lime plaster/lath)

I have taken a couple of pictures which might help.

I am intending to fix with glue and where possible to nail/screw into the beam verticals where they meet the floor - this should provide a solid fixing, although it will leave a multitude of gaps between the wall/skirting. Obviously I will cut sufficient pieces to fit as 'tightly' as possible NB the trade off is that to attach to the front of the beams gives stability but maximises the gaps.

My questions are:

- Am I better to scribe a wooden top piece for the skirting to match the contours of the oak/walls i.e. make almost some small "boxing"
- Fill behind the skirting using a suitable substance (Lime, Hardwall. Filler?)

Or is there a better way of doing the job? eg Will Oak skirting bend/stay bent? (Am told can wet wood and bend it?)

Totally open to suggestion as am pretty new to all this?

Cheers

Steve T

 

[Keithj]

I wouldn't try to make any fixing to the lime wall - only to the oak uprights. Screws are better than glue.

You then have the option of carving off the back of the skirting to fit over the uprights and butt against the lime (or very close) and then fill in the gap with lime.

I wouldn't use glue - if the lime is crumbly, you'll end up with a worse mess (unless you are far more dextrous than I am).

Bending the wood is likely to be more trouble than it's worth - I found here that it tends to return to its original shape anyway, unless very firmly fixed.

 

[surreysteve]

Thanks for this - some good tips.

The trouble is that nothing is level and the oak uprights are 4' apart - even with some accurate routing nothing is going to go flat against the walls (Some the plaster is even curved by 2+")

Do you have any recommendations for the lime mix to fill the gaps - there will be some around 1/2" wide. (I was going to cop out and use Hardwall as I know it dries quickly and will do a job!)

Steve

 

[Penners]

Steve - I agree with Keith. Glueing to a lime-plastered wall could prove troublesome.

I would go with your first instinct and screw the skirting to the beams, filling in between with scribed-in filler boards to create a shallow boxed-in effect. If you have any thoughts about extending the electrical system in the room to add further sockets, this is an ideal time to do it - running the cables in the void behind the skirtings.

 

[surreysteve]

Great....I think screws are the order of the day!

.......any tips or links on how to do the scribing of the wood lid so it fits accurately against the wall...I imagine there is a 'trick' to it?

 

[Keithj]

Great....I think screws are the order of the day!

Always! Nails push things apart. Screws hold them together.

.......any tips or links on how to do the scribing of the wood lid so it fits accurately against the wall...I imagine there is a 'trick' to it?

Make a template! Wallpaper may prove a suitable medium. Trim it to fit the curves and bends. If necessary, fit it to a batten to give it some stiffness. Then use that to mark your lid.

Filling the gaps? I use only one substance - lime putty (calcium hydroxide). Don't allow it to dry too quickly or it won't carbonate properly, and don't let it get frosted. Covering it with a damp cloth works quite well - keep it covered for a few days, and wet the cloth as you go. It should be damp rather than dripping.

 

[JohnB]

Not skirting, but a built-in desk top. I filled the gap with a mix of 1 part lime putty to 3 parts builders sand, with some hair added (the same mix as used for plastering the wall). If the gap is too big, I stuff in a few bits of stone, brick, cement, or whatever I have lying around.

 

[Penners]

any tips or links on how to do the scribing of the wood lid so it fits accurately against the wall...I imagine there is a 'trick' to it?

I can only tell you how I've done it in the past.

Ensure that your fillet board is wider than the deepest part of the gap that you need to bridge. Lay this board horizontally against the outside faces of the studs, wedged up the height that it will eventually occupy.

Measure the widest gap that needs to be bridged. Tape a block slightly thicker than this dimension to one side of your pencil, as near as possible to the tapered tip. Now hold the pencil vertical and run the block along the wall so that the pencil point draws a line on the top of the board.

Done carefully, this will give you a pretty accurate cutting line. Once you have the board cut to a good fit along the gap, you can, if necessary, reduce its width by ripping along the uncut side, so that it sits flush with the front faces of the studs.

 

[Johnboy]

I spoke to a very good carpenter friend of mine some time ago regarding this exact same problem, he told me that he has 'bent' oak skirtings before by making a series of vertical cuts with a mitre saw across the full height of the board about 10mm apart to a depth within 4mm of the front face where the bend is needed. The board is then screwed to the wall and according to him, will adopt the shape of the wall a lot closer. You then fill the slits showing at the top edge and the inevitable gap left at the rear. I am not sure how this would look but he assured me it was better than huge amounts of filler along the back of the skirting!

 

[surreysteve]

Thanks for this advice...what a great forum!

Only one question to Penners - have read and re-read but unsure what exactly the "studs" are. Apologies if being thick! Also, using this method does the fillet form a 'lid' or does it sit behind the skirting as a filler?

Thanks for help so far and Happy New Year to everyone.

Steve

 

[Penners]

Steve - sorry if I was unclear. "Studs" are your vertical beams that form the wall - the ones you plan to screw the skirting to.

My method above can be used for a fillet board between the top edge of the skirting and the wall, or for a "lid" that sits on top of the skirting. It's simply a question of how much width you allow. If you like the idea of capping the skirting, this will (in my view) probably be more staisfactory. If you allow the capping to project a few mm beyond the top of the skirting, this will tend to hide any slight meanderings in the line of the skirting.

 

[chapel]

Hi,

One way round the problem, which we have in our early 17th century cottage, is fairly thin oak skirting - no thicker than 5mm. This is able to bend to the contours across the lime and studs. I'm guessing it was done a hundred years back and is attached mainly using nails. The stud fixings must be the key ones, and many many layers of paint have helped to secure the other areas.

Another way we have it, where there are no long runs incorporating studs, is with quite thick boards 1.5 - 2cm. These have actually been set back into the lime, eliminating the need to fill/scribe.

Let us know how you get on

Paul

 

[Penners]

Each to their own taste, but I find that wavy skirtings look much more odd than wavy walls.

 

[LadyArowana]

Each to their own taste, but I find that wavy skirtings look much more odd than wavy walls.

I'm surprised, thought they would be just your sort of thing....

 

[Penners]

That chap's not properly dressed. :evil: