What kind of floor skirting boards are and with what tool they are installed, the rules for the formation of neat internal, external and non-standard corners. Docking the floor plinth in the corners is a responsible process, which is important to carry out with high quality, since precisely defined, precise corners delight the eye and give the floor covering a complete look. To connect the products and get a neat joint, you need to know the technology for cutting them and the existing methods of fixing. Before cutting the floor plinth, read the instructions and recommendations below.
The main types of floor skirting boards
To date, skirting boards from the following materials are used for finishing the premises - wood, plastic, MDF.
Wooden skirting boards are a traditional type of finishing product. In old houses, only such were laid on the floor. Wooden skirting boards have a raised surface on the outside and special grooves for mounting wires and cables inside them. They are fixed with self-tapping screws, less often nails. It is allowed to use a sealant to fix them on the floor. If self-tapping screws are used for fastening, then dowels are pre-installed in the walls.
Among the advantages of wooden skirting boards are durability, environmental friendliness, safety for humans and animals, the possibility of reuse.
However, their use does not always allow you to hide the wiring. In addition, after installing a wooden plinth, it must be additionally putty and varnished, paint, stain. In addition, wood is an expensive material, and therefore products from it will be distinguished by a high cost. And before cutting the skirting boards to the floor, you will need to prepare special equipment.
Plastic skirting boards are simple and convenient products for finishing flooring. In them, most often everything is thought out to the smallest detail: the design of the outer and inner corners, pockets for laying cables and wires, end caps, special fasteners for fixing on the wall and floor.
Plastic skirting boards are characterized by quick installation, a variety of colors, no need for putty and painting after installation, the presence of additional elements for sealing joints. This finish goes well with any flooring material: parquet, carpet, tiles, laminate, linoleum. Whatever coverage you have, you can easily match a plastic skirting board to it.
However, plastic is a fragile material, and with a strong impact, chips and holes can appear on its surface. This will require a complete replacement of the entire whip of the product, as a minimum. Despite this drawback, modern builders prefer plastic skirting boards due to the large number of its advantages.
MDF skirting boards are environmentally friendly and attractive products. On their front side, paper impregnated with dyes is glued. Moreover, the process is carried out at high temperature and under pressure. This excludes flaking of the decorative coating during operation.
A melamine coating is applied on top of the paper. It protects the skirting boards from moisture and stubborn dirt. Even when exposed to direct sunlight, the product will not lose its appearance for many years. Also, the advantages of MDF skirting boards include quick installation, easy maintenance, cost-effectiveness, and a wide palette of shades.
Before joining the floor plinth in the corners, it should be remembered that MDF is highly fragile. In the process of mounting and cutting such a product, extreme accuracy is important.
Plastic or MDF, from which skirting boards are made, are lightweight materials that have a large number of colors. That is why it is quite easy to choose a product for any interior decoration and design solution. Most often, when choosing a color, skirting boards are repelled by the shade of the floor covering.
Skirting board installation tools
The procedure for trimming and joining skirting boards from different materials is not much different. The main difference is that wood, plastic and MDF have different hardness and density, and working with wood, for example, is more difficult. If a sharp knife is also suitable for cutting plastic, then a hacksaw is needed for wood.
To work with wooden, plastic or MDF skirting boards you will need:
- The miter box is a special carpentry tray for sawing, on the sides of which there are slots at different angles.
- Roulette and pencil.
- A hacksaw, jigsaw or carpentry knife. Any of these tools will work for cutting. But it's up to you to decide how to cut the plastic skirting board for the floor. It depends on which tool is easier for you to work with.
- Fine-grained sandpaper.
- Sealant or putty.
- Fasteners (self-tapping screws, dowel-nails).
- Screwdriver and hammer.
Before proceeding with the final finishing of the floor, it is necessary to correctly calculate the number of skirting boards. To do this, measure the perimeter of the room and multiply by the standard length of one product. Most often it is 2, 5 or 3.5 meters. It is imperative to purchase finishing elements, plugs, fasteners and docking tabs.
How to cut the corners of a skirting board
The acquired plinth must be cut according to the perimeter of the room. To make this process faster and easier, you can draw a diagram of it on a sheet of paper, marking all the outer and inner corners.
Cutting the plinth for internal corners
Despite the fact that rooms most often look like a regular rectangle, the corners in them are not equal to 90 degrees. Such a corner is the dream of any builder and repairman. If you are still lucky and you have a classically correct angle, then to cut the skirting board, you need to do the following:
- We place a wooden or plastic sheet in a miter box;
- We find on the side panel a furrow and a mark of 45 degrees;
- Focusing on it, we begin to saw the skirting board with a hacksaw;
- We clean the resulting edge with sandpaper.
When cutting a plinth, remember which side it is on. When working with wood, a special putty will help to obtain the ideal angle.
If you are unlucky and your angles do not have 90 degrees, then you need to do the following steps:
- We make small markings on the floor. Use a pencil or a washable marker for this. On one and the other side of the corner, it is necessary to draw the future border of the plinth. In the corner, you will get a kind of rhombus. Its diagonal is the cutting line.
- Attaching the plinth to the resulting rhombus, we mark its diagonal.
- Draw a straight line from the resulting mark to the corner of the plinth. This is your cut line. Focusing on it, sawing is done with a hacksaw.
- It is recommended to process the resulting end with sandpaper.
Some experts recommend making the cut at a low magnification. This will allow you to manually adjust the skirting board to the corner as accurately and tightly as possible.
At the end, you need to insert a plug into the resulting joint to form a neat inner corner of the plinth for the floor. If this is a tree, then the joint should be treated with putty and prepared for further painting.
Forming outer corners on skirting boards
If you have a classic outside angle of 90 degrees, then the process of its formation is the same as for the inside one. When cutting, you must remember which plinth you have on which side. After receiving the joint, it is necessary to close the ends with a special plug. If during the cutting process there are small flaws, they can be easily corrected with mastic, and then closed with a plug.
If you have non-standard angles, then cutting the skirting board comes down to the following steps:
- We apply the canvas to one wall.
- Using a pencil, mark its inner and outer borders.
- We do the same with another skirting board.
- As with the inside corner, we get a rhombus just outside. Its diagonal will serve as the cutting edge.
- With the help of a file and a miter box, we trim.
- We carefully clean the resulting ends and install the plinth.
- The final touch is the end caps in the corners.
Your outer corner of the plinth on the floor is ready, and you can finally fix the product around the perimeter of the room using self-tapping screws or special glue.
Cutting skirting boards at non-standard angles
Modern design solutions in interior decoration often consist in the use of original forms. In this case, it is quite difficult to carry out the installation of the floor plinth in non-standard corners. After all, they are often both internal and external at the same time. Sometimes the corners are completely rounded. That is why the docking methods described above are not suitable.
If you are dealing with a round corner, then you need to cut the skirting board into 4-5 pieces. Using the connection plugs, carefully lay out the entire corner in small pieces. Do not forget to fix them with glue or putty. This will create a neat rounded corner.
If you have an inside-outside corner in the room, then you should take the following steps:
- On one side, we apply a plinth and draw its border on the floor.
- Now we apply the second half and make two marks: one is the intersection with the drawn border, the other is with the wall.
- We connect the resulting points and make a cut.
- We carefully close the ends with plugs.
If you use wooden skirting boards to finish non-standard corners, then instead of plugs you will have to use putty. After hardening, the resulting surface must be carefully sanded with sandpaper. And the principle of how to cut corners for a wooden plinth remains the same.
Installation instructions for plastic skirting boards
We start the installation from the middle of the wall. To do this, we cut the end at an angle of 90 degrees and carefully grind it with emery paper. This will allow for better adhesion between the two parts.
To prevent the skirting boards from moving away, it is recommended to use special glue or sealant for fixing. We also use special fasteners - self-tapping screws, dowel-nails.
If you have sockets at the bottom, then you should carefully cut out a recess for them with a jigsaw. We carefully process the resulting surface with sandpaper.
If you need to dock the plinth with the door frame, then you should calculate the length of the canvas in such a way that only the side plug can be placed between the end and the door jamb.
How to cut the corners of a floor plinth - watch the video:
Before cutting the corners of the plinth for the floor, you need to prepare a suitable tool, depending on which product you are using. The procedure for installing products and forming beautiful and neat corners is simple, but it requires care and patience. With a little practice, you can carry out these finishing works yourself quickly and without problems.
