MDF vs Pine Skirting Board?

[ashthekid]

Which is best to go for?

MDF or Pine? Or another material?

I’ll be painting it a colour rather than varnishing. 
 

I think I want to say MDF and possibly even HDF that Skirting World offer which is a slightly higher density and moisture resistant at just for added bonus. 

[TerryE]

We went with HDF skirting in our new build.  I did all of the carpentry and fitting; Jan the painting.  In previous houses we used pine.  I found HDF easier to work, fit and paint.

 

[Simplysimon]

for min movement and stability it has to be HDF, when it come to scribing the internal cornes it's horrible as it's so friable

[Nickfromwales]

I'm  not a fan tbh, as the vulnerable external mitres take a bash from hoovers etc and start to fray. Pine is much more robust imho, just a total PITA for prep / prime / paint. Get set up ( either way ) to spray all of these BEFORE installation, as this removes a ton of downstream backache and cutting in.

[Carrerahill]

Got to be real wood for me. When we renovated the first floor I used all Howdens MDF stuff. It looked good for a while but now looks awful and by the time I got to the extension and ground floor I had converted to pine. I also go for the bigger stuff, 145mm I think, it looks great and is very forgiving. I am going to rip out all the MDF over the next year or so upstairs and replace it as rooms get redecorated.

 

I literally hate it! 

[MJNewton]

I'm a big fan of MDF, well for skirting at least - hate it for anything else! Straight as anything and so easy to cut, prep, finish and fit. Nick's point about vulnerable corners sounds reasonable, although I've not noticed an issue myself. (I'd get on my hands and knees to inspect some corners were it not for the fact that I'm the only one that does any hoovering around here so I know no one else will have bashed them with it!)

 

I've always bought from MDF Skirting World and found them really competitive price-wise and never had any issues with their free delivery service (they use their own vans which not all do). Have never gone for their pre-primed offerings preferring to paint everything myself.

Edited June 20, 2022 by MJNewton

[TerryE]

On 20/06/2022 at 00:56, Simplysimon said:

for min movement and stability it has to be HDF, when it comes to scribing the internal corners it's horrible as it's so friable

 

I never found any problems with internal corners at all: I don't mitre them but cut one with a negative profile, with the straight section using a (japanese) hand saw, and the profile bit done with a fine tooth jigsaw with a cut-on-pull blade on the reverse side (easier to draw the profile).  No probs with tearing or breakout.  

 

We didn't have that many external corners so it was fairly easy to plan the laying sequence so that I could pre-glue and pin the externals and let them dry before fitting, with the far end being the square cut pair of any internal corner, so the piece can be overcut 5mm or so; offered up and cut exactly to fit.

 

It's 4 years since we moved in and we've got no noticeable wear and tear yet.