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Any joiners/chippys?

M

matt j

pfm Member
I've offered to do the skirting and architraves (and as it turns out quite a few other jobs she didn't know about) at my sister's, most of the problems look easy enough to sort but there's one I'm not sure about.

The doorway from the dining room to the kitchen is hard up (about 10-20mm, not an even gap over the height) to the dining room wall, barely enough room even for a cut down slither of architrave, what is the go-to method with this one? I was thinking just architrave flush up to the wall at the header and then a bit of beading or something to make the side look half decent??
 
Not a professional but done lots of this sort of thing. You can do as you suggest, but I always think it looks a bit 'half done'. Horses for courses though.

Anyway what I do is measure the largest distance between the wall and the frame edge down the doorway and rip a bit of architrave down to that measurement with a jig saw or circular saw if the measurement isn't too small (go carefully a you will have a quite thin bit of architrave and you don't want to snap it). Then I try it against the doorway and see where it needs to fit better, then plane it to fit in an iterative process so it ends up nice and snug against the wall and square on the doorway (recessed a,little from the frame edge as normal). I then glue it in situ (having mitred to top for the head of course). If there are any gaps against the wall simply use decorators caulking to fill and smooth these out. The header architrave will need to be mitred and then trimmed to fit as well.
 
If the gap is that small, the lining must be buried in the wall?
If the joint between the wall and the lining looks nice, I'd be leaving it and just architraving the other leg and the head.
What type of architrave are you using?
You could do like tiggers said and spend ages cutting down the architrave but no one will notice but you...
 
matt j said:
I've offered to do the skirting and architraves (and as it turns out quite a few other jobs she didn't know about) at my sister's, most of the problems look easy enough to sort but there's one I'm not sure about.

The doorway from the dining room to the kitchen is hard up (about 10-20mm, not an even gap over the height) to the dining room wall, barely enough room even for a cut down slither of architrave, what is the go-to method with this one? I was thinking just architrave flush up to the wall at the header and then a bit of beading or something to make the side look half decent??
Click to expand...

easier to see with a pic matt . i normally just put a nice neat bead of decorators caulk down such a small gap and just paint it
 
patcmbll said:
If the gap is that small, the lining must be buried in the wall?
If the joint between the wall and the lining looks nice, I'd be leaving it and just architraving the other leg and the head.
What type of architrave are you using?
You could do like tiggers said and spend ages cutting down the architrave but no one will notice but you...
Click to expand...

Well she has had the walls dot and dabbed so it has bought the wall out a little further. I did think of ripping a bit of architrave but by the time it is thin enough to fit you'd not be able to tell it apart from a bit of angle beading or similar.

It doesn't look great to be honest, old house. I'll get a picture tomorrow because I've got to move some sockets first that the plasterers removed and then smashed.
 
Thanks Gav, I do usually check his channel but must have missed that one. Two tools I don't have, a mutli tool and a brad nailer. Hmmm...
 
Take out the door and paraphernalia and just have a clean throughway between dining room and kitchen?
 
In a previous life I saw quite a lot of door frames, surrounds and skirting being replaced after re-plastering in early garden city homes.

The guys used to lather on Gripfill then whack it into position with a 6 foot bubble. No dicking around required.
 
It depends how much time you want to spend on it and how much mess you want to make.
Taking it all out would of course look the best in the end but you're turning a one hour job into a multi day one.
I would be putting that bead of caulk to cover the rough joint..
 
I doubt anyone would notice if you took the time to scribe a piece of architrave in. Like you said, a bit of beading would do.

Not wanting to teach granny to suck eggs and all that, but when doing the skirting don't use mitres for the internal joints. I only say this because I've seen experienced builders make this mistake.
 
I think...that applies well if you have pine skirting boards as it keeps the corner tidy if the wood shrinks. But if your skirting boards are modern MDF, it is not inclined to shrink - so mitring internal corners would work OK and be quicker to fit....
 
JensenHealey said:
I think...that applies well if you have pine skirting boards as it keeps the corner tidy if the wood shrinks. But if your skirting boards are modern MDF, it is not inclined to shrink - so mitring internal corners would work OK and be quicker to fit....
Click to expand...

When you fix the skirting, you end up pulling the joint open. It's much faster and easier to scribe. Also, achieving a neat joint is a hell of a lot easier.

It's one of the first things I learnt when I did my City and Guilds in Carpentry and Joinery.
 
Fatmarley said:
When you fix the skirting, you end up pulling the joint open. It's much faster and easier to scribe. Also, achieving a neat joint is a hell of a lot easier.

It's one of the first things I learnt when I did my City and Guilds in Carpentry and Joinery.
Click to expand...
It's a very useful and satisfying technique and is indeed the ' correct' method but it takes a bit of practice and maybe a few tools some don't possess (depending on technique).

I think those fixing MDF skirtings finished with paint can reasonably mitre and run a small bead of caulk if necessary.
 
roman said:
It's a very useful and satisfying technique and is indeed the ' correct' method but it takes a bit of practice and maybe a few tools some don't possess (depending on technique).

I think those fixing MDF skirtings finished with paint can reasonably mitre and run a small bead of caulk if necessary.
Click to expand...

If you don't mind your joint looking like a dog's arse I suppose you could do it that way.

Corners are rarely 90 degrees and walls are rarely plumb near the floor. Add these two together, plus the added gap when you fix the skirting and you can end up with a right mess.
 
It's an old house, even though it has just had the walls done I was only going to scribe them in anyway as they wont be square.
 
Fatmarley said:
If you don't mind your joint looking like a dog's arse I suppose you could do it that way.

Corners are rarely 90 degrees and walls are rarely plumb near the floor. Add these two together, plus the added gap when you fix the skirting and you can end up with a right mess.
Click to expand...

I take your point and I personally scribe wherever I can. It's one of the most satisfying aspects of woodwork when it's done right. But I've seen people balls it up enough times to know it's not always that easy.

I would add that you can compensate for walls not being 90 degrees when mitering and that one of the perils of scribing, particularly when using MDF, is the feather edge you can end up with at the top of the profile. There's often just as much filler used to tidy up a bad scribe as any mitred joint.

If anyone is interested in all of this I'd urge them to practice with some scrap to get the hang of it. It's magical when it works and even the process of discovering the cut line brings great satisfaction.
 
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