Architrave and Skirting

[ProDave]

As a background activity, I am getting ready to fit the architrave and skirtings.  I have started by buying a couple of lengths of oak veneered architrave and skirting from Howdens.

 

No 1 discovery.  Take one Howdens stock length of oak veneered architrace and cut the architrave for one side of a door, and the "offcut" is just a little bit too short to do the other side of the door.  This is going to make it very wasteful.

 

Now I sometimes see joiner putting a little square / rectangle joining "block" at the bottom of the architrave to join it to the skirting.  As always, trying to search for those, does anyone know the proper name for it?  In our case it would need to be a rectangle to join 70mm architrave to 120mm skirting, solid oak, or oak veneer covering ALL edges.   If I can find some of those, then that shortens the required length of architrave so you would then get 2 out of each length with very little waste.

 

Next question is finish. I want to pre finish them and then glue them on, I don't want to be finishing in place and cutting in all the edges and I don't want to mess about filling nail holes.  So this method means the finish will have to be thoroughly dry as some clamping in place will be needed while the adhesive dries.  I have coated two samples.  One with Osmo oil which gives a nice finish but takes an age to dry.  The other with a clear satin varnish that will dry a lot quicker.  So far the clear varnish does not bring out the wood colour as well as the osmo oil.

[Oz07]

Skirting block

[ProDave]

39 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

Skirting block

Any idea who might sell them?  It seems howdens don't

[Hobbiniho]

yeh as said they are called skirting blocks, usually just made from solid wood to whatever size required, what profile is your skirting? as it is possible to get fancy designs etc but these are usually MDF for painting, if you have a fancy profile like ogee or lambstongue etc then it may be worth considering corner blocks aswell, this will make fitting the skirtings a lot easier.

 

i personally used osmo oil on all my finishings (solid oak) and nailed them on the plus side about finishing them first is it is very easy to remove any excess filler from the nail holes

[ProDave]

Skirtings are plain pencil edge oak veneeered mdf and 15mm thick.

 

So I guess these skirting blocks need to be slightly thicker, sat 20mm, and probably about 80mm by 130mm

[Jeremy Harris]

I used solid oak skirting and architrave, all fixed with adhesive and most of it without clamping.  The skirting was easy, as it just stayed in place using just Sticks Like Sh*t.  The architrave was trickier, but I found that running Sticks Like Sh*t down the wall bit, then using mitrebond on the lining to architrave bit worked very well.  The technique was to put both adhesives on the lining/wall bit first, then apply the mitrebond primer stuff to the architrave and carefully stick it on.  You have very little time to get the position right before the mitrebond goes off, but it does mean you can just apply pressure with your hands for a few seconds and then the things are bonded.  They've been on for 5 years now, with no sign of any problems (and no pin holes to fill).

[Hobbiniho]

i would go 80x125 this means the gap between the edge of the block and the edge of architrave is 5mm and edge of skirting and edge of block is 5mm, as you would want the architrave centred on the block or it will look wrong 

[ProDave]

It's starting to look like I just need a length of 80mm by 20mm solid planed oak, and cut it to length to make my own blocks.  That will probably work out cheapest.  They seem to be coming in at about £5 each ready made and that's before I can even find one that's the right size,

[Jeremy Harris]

Pity you're so far away, as I have a few lengths of 70mm x 20mm PAR oak sat in my garage.  I bought all the oak from English Hardwoods, on the recommendation of Joiner over at the old place.  Very pleased with everything I got from them, I don't think I had one dodgy bit in the whole order, plus they over-supplied by maybe 10% or so.

[ProDave]

As it happens I am discussing something else with British Hardwoods.

 

However they don't have what I ideally need 20mm by 80mm.  They have 19mm by 70mm which would work IF you could absolutely guarantee it would not be anything less than 70mm wide.  Perhaps you could do a size check on the bits you have?

 

I also need some smaller section oak for the door stops, they only do down to 19mm which I feel is too chunky for a door stop, I had in mind more like 10mm.

 

This sort of searching for the right material seems to always take disproportionately way too long.....

[Jeremy Harris]

6 minutes ago, ProDave said:

As it happens I am discussing something else with British Hardwoods.

 

However they don't have what I ideally need 20mm by 80mm.  They have 19mm by 70mm which would work IF you could absolutely guarantee it would not be anything less than 70mm wide.  Perhaps you could do a size check on the bits you have?

 

I also need some smaller section oak for the door stops, they only do down to 19mm which I feel is too chunky for a door stop, I had in mind more like 10mm.

 

This sort of searching for the right material seems to always take disproportionately way too long.....

 

 

Just checked an architrave, and it was 70.19mm x 18.69mm, so slightly over on width and slightly under on thickness (for some reason I thought it was 20mm thick, but it seems it's all 19mm).

[Oz07]

Don't you have a decent timber merchants nearby? We have a few here that keep oak on shelf with rip saw and thicknesser in

[ProDave]

Thanks.  I am going to check on Monday what the local merchant has.  I don't need very much.

[ProDave]

2 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

Don't you have a decent timber merchants nearby? We have a few here that keep oak on shelf with rip saw and thicknesser in

No I have generally been disappointed with all the timber merchants I have found, in fact I find buying timber a terribly disappointing exercise. So hard to find what you want, and then even harder to find any that's any good.

 

I hate to say it but the last lot of timber I bought for something nice, was from B&Q, and even they have a few sizes of planed oak, but oh the prices.

 

The new independant builders merchant in town had a small selection of planed oak when I was last there, so that is where I will be going on Monday to see in more detail what they have or what they can get.

[jamieled]

@ProDave I've used Cromarty timber for some bits, they'll be able to cut, plane etc what you need. Prices for what I needed were reasonable. Might be worth a call if you haven't already.

[ProDave]

6 minutes ago, jamieled said:

@ProDave I've used Cromarty timber for some bits, they'll be able to cut, plane etc what you need. Prices for what I needed were reasonable. Might be worth a call if you haven't already.

Thanks, never heard of them.  Funny name as they are nowhere near Cromarty?

 

It is certainly worth a call I will ring them on Monday.  It's the various merchants in Inverness that have failed to impress.

[Delicatedave]

5 hours ago, ProDave said:

As a background activity, I am getting ready to fit the architrave and skirtings.  I have started by buying a couple of lengths of oak veneered architrave and skirting from Howdens.

 

No 1 discovery.  Take one Howdens stock length of oak veneered architrace and cut the architrave for one side of a door, and the "offcut" is just a little bit too short to do the other side of the door.  This is going to make it very wasteful.

 

Now I sometimes see joiner putting a little square / rectangle joining "block" at the bottom of the architrave to join it to the skirting.  As always, trying to search for those, does anyone know the proper name for it?  In our case it would need to be a rectangle to join 70mm architrave to 120mm skirting, solid oak, or oak veneer covering ALL edges.   If I can find some of those, then that shortens the required length of architrave so you would then get 2 out of each length with very little waste.

 

Next question is finish. I want to pre finish them and then glue them on, I don't want to be finishing in place and cutting in all the edges and I don't want to mess about filling nail holes.  So this method means the finish will have to be thoroughly dry as some clamping in place will be needed while the adhesive dries.  I have coated two samples.  One with Osmo oil which gives a nice finish but takes an age to dry.  The other with a clear satin varnish that will dry a lot quicker.  So far the clear varnish does not bring out the wood colour as well as the osmo oil.

I'm replacing the whole skirting and achi in my house but can't afford that sort of waste so I'll be cutting all my lengths at 90 degs and using little square ends to butt them together. I was thinking of sitting wooden chess peices on each of these end but I think that might be a bit naff ? this image is not mine but shows what I mean, Natually the corners of the door archi will be bigger and square.

As for finish I would, you could use a water based stain that you can delute to get the shade you want. Also thining the first coart of varnish down if sprite based - 50-50 will allow it to penerate the wood a lot more. Fine rub down and second coat, them a rub down and a wax. I've done 100s of miles of skirting in hotels like that.

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Delicatedave

[Jeremy Harris]

3D printed gremlins sat on the top of each might be fun:

 

 

[Delicatedave]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Harris said:

3D printed gremlins sat on the top of each might be fun:

 

 

Tell ya what, if I could get someone to do those but with the heads of famous footballers I'm in ?

[ProDave]

So I got a length of American White Oak from the merchant today.  All they had that was close was 95mm wide so I had to cut the width down to 80mm (it looked silly at 95mm)

 

 

One stock length of Howdens architrave will do a full length down to the floor and a shorter length with a corner block.  So a decision has been taken not to use a corner block inside the bedrooms, just on the landing, and both sides of the downstairs doors.

 

the length of timber I bought will make 17 corner blocks at a cost of £1.30 each.

[Mr Punter]

Be good to see it with the skirting as well.  I am sure you have looked at floor finishes and whether they will go up to or under?

[ProDave]

I haven't cut any skirting to length yet so can't try it.

 

Carpets upstairs might go under (I like that but most professional carpet fitters don't)  Oak or slate floor downstairs.

[Delicatedave]

I tell what is a great supply of decent timber, the second hand furniture market. Even old kitchen doors as long as they are solid. I've just cut a strip of oak from a kitchen door to use as trim for our new stable door. The edge where the top and bottom door joins lets in rain if you don't put an edge on the top door. This was ideal, it even had a nice routed edge ?

I was thinking the rounding frame of an oak kitchen door is idea for what you want.

[ProDave]

I have just tried cutting a skirting external angle, and not happy with the results of the first try.

 

If I can't get it right I see two options.  Fit little corner pieces on all internal and external corners as per a few posts above.  OR fill the imperfections with wood filler.  Anyone have experience of a wood filler, than when sanded and painted with Osmo Oil would make a near invisible joint in Oak?  Or is that asking too much?

[Mike]

Anything more than 1mm and I'd re-cut the skirting. I wouldn't use corner blocks.