Home DIY

Like Bobbo has said, there are a lot of little things to take care of with skirting. Especially tricky if you have 2 inside angles as you can't leave the ends over length when you scribe to the floor level. If your room is on a slope then you need to adjust for that with the boards or the mitres or both.

I don't use the method in the video but it's a very popular method. There's a special jigsaw base that helps me out occasionally with skirting but I find if you have them level and measure the angles with the starrett angle finder then you can cut them pretty reliably with a decent mitre. If you have a wall that slopes in at the base, which a lot do especially in the corners, then take some material off the back of the board with a plane or chip some lumps out of the wall.

I would always start by deciding on a level above the floor that I want the skirting to be. Use a level or laser line to mark that and then scribe the bottom of the board to fit the undulation of the floor. If you are fitting carpets you can leave a gap. So if you want 6" skirting you start with 7" and cut it down. This is the step I think most people overlook.

Most people think skirting should be pretty easy but it requires most of the tools and lots of experience to get it right because you have to account for the walls and floors not being straight and level.

Don't even get me started on the best way to fix them to the walls!