OT – Skirting board painting question – any carpenters/joiners about?

Ok, so I bought new (wood) skirting board and wiped danish oil onto one side (as we wanted a natural effect).

I cut/mitred everything to size on Monday, and now trying to attach it to the wall pretty much every one has warped/arc-d from top to bottom…

What did I do wrong? Should I have coated both sides, or something else?

Sure it wasn’t warped to start with? Did you store it on something flat?

Change in humidity from DIY shed to your house will cause some warpage.

you need to let the wood acclimatise to your room, laid flat, before cutting and fitting i would expect.

Where did you buy the skirting?

I’ve had some right bananas delivered from builder’s merchants. Now always pick them all myself…..

No real warp before starting and I selected the pack myself as all straight.

‘Painted’ flat on my trestles in the garage and all flat when I cut them. Bu99er…

But then I suppose it would’ve been worse if I’d put them up on Monday and today they’d have ‘curled’ off.

Better order some more and a lesson learnt – also need to put off the carpet fitting.

you need to let the wood acclimatise to your room, laid flat, before cutting and fitting i would expect.

This. With hardwood flooring some manufacturers say 7-10 days in the room before fitting.

Not sure about skirting but I would say similar, maybe a week ?

My colleague (who teaches painting and decorating at our college) says that indeed, putting a finish on just one side of lower-grade materials can mean it’ll warp on that side.

Think of what happens when you wet one side of a piece of paper, it tends to curl to that side as it dries.

He says the term is ‘Back-priming’ and ideally, you will finish/paint all sides of your skirting before fitting…

I’ve always oiled both sides of worktops to stop it cupping, stick some on the back side too.

Are you sure it’s the wood and not the walls that aren’t true/flat?

When I skirted our the living room the gaps at some points of the wall can’t have been far off 20mm 😯

*When I skirted our the living room the gaps at some points of the wall can’t have been far off 20mm*

same here – lovely old house character with its plaster and lathe. nail gun made short work on contouring the skirting to the wall :d

Are you sure it’s the wood and not the walls that aren’t true/flat?

Yep

cool

My colleague (who teaches painting and decorating at our college) says that indeed, putting a finish on just one side of lower-grade materials can mean it’ll warp on that side.

Think of what happens when you wet one side of a piece of paper, it tends to curl to that side as it dries.

He says the term is ‘Back-priming’ and ideally, you will finish/paint all sides of your skirting before fitting…

never heard of that in 27 years as a decorator,maybe i’m just a rough arse

Ok, so new boards ordered (should be here tomorrow) and the plan is:

1 Bring inside and lay separately
2 Next week, cut/mitre to size
3 Danish Oil both sides
4 Fit next day

What am I missing?

the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th coats of Danish for a decent finish 🙂

How are you going to fix them to the wall?

Here is what my take is on it

you bought the packs of skirting from a nice dry place and spread them in the garage to oil the face
then its been pretty humid of late so the wood has absorbed some moisture but not on the now oiled side so it curls

Packs of wood from a diy shed, tightly bound and dry, you then open the pack and release the tension, and apply moisture.

Result banana skirting.

Fix to wall and then coat with danish oil.

Firstly, what in the name of bleedin’ jaysus are you doing putting Danish Oil on softwood skirting boards as a finish?!? Is it 1970 all over again? 🙂

Roight, piss taking aside, I would prime the back of the boards with cheapo primer/undercoat, and apply the first few coats of whatever finish you want. Fix boards to wall. Then apply top coat of finish. Deep skirting boards will often dish and shrink once fitted to a wall.

Do not leave them!! As soon as they are delivered seal all edges/faces then cut and fit them ASAP, skirting boards are not the same as flooring, you leave flooring to acclimatise to the room environment to aid with expansion/shrinkage.

Timber cups according to the direction of the end grain, it will naturally curl, adding paint only to the face just makes it worse.

The other option would be to run relief cuts length ways on the back side of the skirting.

HTH

Ps email me if you want more in depth advice

Phil

How are you going to fix them to the wall?

Ok, so varying advice…

The wood comes from the local builders merchant, and while stored inside its just an unheated warehouse.

Danish Oil because all the other wood was put in ‘natural’ and has turned a ‘colour’, so using a very small amount to get it near.

No Nails was the mounting method I was looking at, as I don’t want to see any nails/screws.

Phil – you’ve no email in profile, but I do 🙂

this is better for fixing, not to be confused with expanding foam

instastik

“for professional use only” 😉

I moulded all of the skirtings in my house from planed timber, because moulded skirtings then were expensive and I had the tools to do the job, but i let the wood acclimatise to the room beforehand.

What I did was to stack the timber in the room, but with thin strips of batten between each board to allow airflow.

I weighted the top board and left the timber for a week in the room.

I did the same with several softwood panelled doors too.

These were then stable enough to be machined and fitted soon after.

Some bowed a little and the very bad stuff needed planing before fixing.

All painting occurred after fixing, filling and final sanding.

Since then, I’ve seen primed MDF skirting, which looks like an easy, but expensive solution to real timber, saving a lot of work painting.

Personally, I don’t like stained softwood – it looks like what it is: a cheap and nasty imitation of hardwood.

Also, quality finishing hardwood is not easy and most attempts I’ve seen really let down the beautiful timber beneath. You really need to spray it to get the best finish. This material also requires a very high standard of joinery and very fine sanding/preparation.

On softwood, it’s Satinwood finish every time for me, but each to their own!

Softwood skirtings are machined when the wood is very green, they also come from tiny trees and usually have the heartwood (tree centre) running down the back of them (hence the hairline cracks). They will warp whatever you do.
I usually run a power plane (set to 1mm)down the back of them to flatten them before fitting. Nae Nails etc and a compressed air nailer is the neatest way of fitting them.
BR, do you ride a Norco or Rocky Mountain? In which case we have met in an tweedside plantation a couple of months back!

don’t use no nails, use stixall or sticks like s**t, undercoat them first, both sides, let them dry, then cut them, fix to the walls as you go, (the only way to get neat joints) use mitre fix and small pins on external mitres and scribed joints on internal corners. architraves on first, go round the room clockwise. then paint top coat, or other finish, hoovering properly first.