Repair is always not easy. Especially if it is done by hand. There are always some nuances or processes that are performed by a person for the first time. So, working for the first time with the baseboard, you can spoil many meters of expensive material. Especially everyone cares about how to cut the baseboard in the corners. We will talk about this and much more today.
Introduction
At any final stage of
repairing a floor, ceiling or walls, the final stage is the trimming and
installation of skirting boards. At the onset of this stage, especially for beginners, many questions arise. For example, about:
- how to choose a plinth;
- which baseboard is better;
- how to stab skirting corners;
- how to fix the baseboard yourself, etc.
So let's get it right from the start. What is a skirting board, why is it needed, what type to choose, and how to cut corners of the skirting board for each of its types?
What is a skirting board and its types
A skirting board is a kind of one of the decorative trim elements that hides the joint between the wall and the floor or the wall and the ceiling. This interior detail is very important for the home and therefore, when installing it, you need to carefully consider all the nuances of installation. Especially on how to cut the corner of the skirting board and properly fix it.
There are many different types of skirting boards, which have their own characteristics of fastening trim. These types include baseboards made of various materials:
- wooden;
- polyurethane;
- PVC
- ceramic;
- metal.
Each of these types, depending on the purpose and material, has its own rules for trimming and further installation. The baseboard angle should be as even and beautiful as possible. The poor appearance of the skirting board can ruin the picture of your entire repair. So, let's figure out how to correctly cut the corners of the skirting board for each of its types.
Wooden baseboards: trimming a corner
Working with wood is not particularly difficult. Like any skirting board, the wood should have the most correct docking angle, since most often the joints between its parts cannot be covered. The cropping curve or the gaps between them are immediately apparent. How to cut the corner on the skirting board so that the joints are almost not noticeable? For proper cutting, we need two tools: a miter box and a saw. In order to use the miter box, you must remember two rules:
- The left baseboard is applied on the left, the right - on the right.
- We apply floor skirting boards to the far wall, and ceiling skirting boards to the proximal wall.
If you work according to these two rules, the angle will always be smooth and almost invisible with the final installation. Before trimming the corners, it is very important to measure the length of the plinth: floor - on the top line, ceiling - on the bottom. And only after that you can start trimming. Thus, we answered the question of how to cut corners of skirting boards from wood.
Trimming corners: polyurethane skirting
Like a wooden skirting board, polyurethane is very easy to trim. This type is most often used in a house with uneven walls. This skirting board perfectly bends around all the bumps and fits snugly against the wall. In the same way as when trimming the corners of a wooden baseboard, we need two tools: a special
saw (for metal or a string for polyurethane) and a miter box. The rules for working with the miter box do not change. The correct determination of the length of the skirting board, and then its correct trimming will serve as the key to a perfectly even and most clear fastening between themselves in the corners. Do not forget that the baseboard needs to be cut immediately from two sides - this will save your time and nerves.
PVC skirting boards: how to trim corners?
So, how to kill the corners of PVC skirting boards? This is a great material that works great. Its distinctive feature is that if there is no miter box on hand - it does not matter. This material can be trimmed by eye. This is due to the fact that the joints in this material, as well as the corners are overlapped with special plugs that hide all the roughness of the joints, making the baseboard ideal. Of course, if you are not sure, you can use a miter box - with it the edges will turn out more even. When working with this material, there is only one caveat - between the edges of the skirting boards there should be free space - about 5 millimeters. It is necessary to install the corners, both internal and external, as well as plugs, if you decide to connect the baseboard somewhere in the middle of the wall. The end places facing, for example, the doorway should be flat. Special stubs are put on these places.
Metal baseboards: methods for working with it
We already know how to slice corners of a skirting board from wood, polyurethane and PVC material, now it’s worth talking about metal ones. This type is best trimmed with a grinder. Metal is a very hard material, so it’s better to use it to simplify the work. She will not bend the metal, will not leave dents on it. To cut the corner on such a material, the miter box will not help. We need to manually measure the angle of 45 degrees and independently cut the skirting board. It is worth noting that the angle of 45 degrees should be opposite for the right and left sides of the baseboard. You also need to clearly understand whether you cut the inner corner or the outer. After determining with these points, no problems with installing a metal baseboard should arise. In the end, even if the joint is not quite even, a special corner will cover it.
Work with ceramic skirting: features
Ceramic skirting board is a great solution for bathrooms and official establishments. Fixing a ceramic skirting board is significantly different from fixing other types, since the material used instead of the finished skirting board is a regular floor or
wall tile. Cutting corners for this type of skirting board is not difficult. We just need to cut off the width of the tile, which is necessary for joining. Such tiles are attached to special glue. Between the separate parts of this material it is necessary to leave a certain, but always equal distance - for this, special crosses for tiles are used. When the glue dries, we pull out the crosses, make sure that all the gaps between the tiles are equal and apply a special filling seam to the remaining slots. In the same way, we process the external and internal corners of a ceramic skirting board.
Skirting Choice: Buyer Tips
When choosing a skirting board, you need to pay attention to many things. For example, if the walls of the house are perfectly smooth, you can use hard views, but if they have irregularities - soft ones, such as PVC skirting boards or polyurethane, which will lie on all the bumps and will be tightly attached to the wall. Knowing how to cut corners of skirting boards, you can determine for yourself whether you can do it yourself, for example, to make perfect joints using wooden skirting boards, or you better choose a material such as tile, metal, PVC, etc. Do not forget about the design of your room and the shades that are used in it. Having chosen the material, decide on the color scheme. Having figured out all these points for yourself, you can choose exactly the material that is suitable for work and with which you can easily cope on your own.