How to fit skirting boards

Inspired by a helpful YouTube guide. This walk-through is based on the Wickes video "How to Fit Skirting Boards | Wickes", which covers the process from measuring right through to painting. The section on caulking the top edge is particularly useful — that single step hides a multitude of minor imperfections in older walls.

1. Measure up and plan the cuts

Walk the room and note down the length of each wall. Add around 10 per cent to your total for waste from mitres and coped cuts. It sounds generous, but running out halfway round a room because one cut went wrong is genuinely irritating.

Decide which lengths will butt into a corner first (these get square-cut ends) and which will overlap them (these get coped ends). Coped joints are far more forgiving than mitres on internal corners because most internal corners are not actually 90 degrees, especially in older houses.

2. Cut square-end lengths for straight runs

For walls that start and end at door frames or architrave, square cuts are all you need. Measure carefully, cut cleanly, and offer the board up before fixing. If there is a small gap at one end, a block plane or a few strokes of sandpaper will close it.

Hold the board tight to the wall and mark the length from inside the corner or door frame. Measure twice, cut once. That said — you knew that already.

3. Cut external mitre joints at protruding corners

External corners (corners that stick out into the room, like a chimney breast) need 45-degree mitres. Set your mitre saw to 45 degrees, cut the first piece slightly long, and offer it up. External mitres are less forgiving than coped internal joints, so take small adjustments until the two halves sit flush.

Glue the mitre faces as well as fixing to the wall — it stops the joint opening up as the timber dries and moves with the seasons.

4. Cut coped joints for internal corners

Run the first length of skirting square into the corner. The second length gets a coped end: cut a 45-degree mitre, then use a coping saw or jigsaw to cut along the profile that the mitre reveals. The cut follows the front face of the skirting so it sits snugly over the first piece.

Test the fit before fixing. A small rasp or abrasive paper cleans up the profile if the fit is tight in places. This takes a bit of practice on moulded profiles, but on simple torus or ogee skirting it is very achievable with care.

5. Fix the skirting to the wall

On stud walls, nail or screw into the studs. On masonry walls, use masonry nails, adhesive, or screw into plugged holes. For a plasterboard-lined wall with no studs nearby, construction adhesive (Gripfill or similar) plus a couple of screws into the plasterboard is usually plenty for skirting boards up to 100 mm high.

Keep the boards sitting tight to the floor. If the floor is uneven, a thin packing piece under the board holds it level while the adhesive sets. Remove the packing once dry.

6. Fill any gaps and caulk the top edge

Fill nail or screw holes with a fine surface filler, let it dry, and sand smooth. Then run a thin bead of decorator's caulk along the top edge where the skirting meets the wall. Tool it off with a damp finger and wipe clean before it skins over.

This one step makes an enormous difference. Even a slight gap between skirting and wall catches shadow and looks unfinished. Caulk fills it and the painted result looks like it was always there.

7. Sand and paint

Give the skirting a light sand once the filler and caulk are fully dry. Wipe down with a damp cloth to remove dust. Apply a primer coat if the timber is bare wood, then two coats of eggshell or gloss in your chosen colour, lightly sanding between coats.

Water-based eggshell has largely replaced solvent-based gloss for skirting boards these days — it dries faster, smells less, and cleans up with water. It does scuff slightly more easily, but for most rooms it is the sensible choice.

When to call a handyman

Call Richard if the room has complicated angles, if the floors are very uneven, or if there is pipework or cabling to work around that makes measuring and fitting tricky. Skirting looks straightforward until a room turns out to have no square corners and a floor that undulates.