Indy Total Construction

For a tight fit, you should only measure and cut a skirting board after fixing the adjacent one in position. What’s more, neatness dictates that the ends have to be cut in the right way.

External corners are always mitred. You can use either a deep mitre or box, or a circular saw which should be set to a 45° bevel, and drive light nails through the completed joint. Where walls meet at odd angles (eg, round bay windows) you’ll have to gauge each angle with a sliding bevel, and measure it with a protractor. Then re-set the bevel to half the angle, and mark the pieces accordingly.

On internal corners, however, a mitre will tend to separate and show a gap because, when you fix the second board against the wall, it will tend to move away slightly from the first board. The answer is to scribe the profile of the molding onto the second board — see opposite. Cut it out so that its end fits snugly into position over the first board. Then cut it to length at the other end. (Plain boards, of course; can just be butt-jointed.)

The fixing itself depends largely on what’s behind the old skirting. If it’s fairly recent, the plaster will probably run right down to the floor, the skirting being simply nailed on top of it. Nail the new piece on in the same way, using masonry nails long enough to pass through both layers of plaster and into the brickwork — say 63mm (2 1/2in).

For a hollow timber-framed stud partition, use ordinary oval or lost-head nails, making sure they pass through the cladding and into the timber sole plate (into the studs. too, in the case of wide skirtings). Ordinary nails will also do for solid walls of soft blocks.

The idea of an architrave is to hide the join between a door or window frame or lining and the surrounding plaster

A loose architrave can be nailed back in place to the door frame, or even screwed to the surrounding masonry if you drill right through it with a masonry bit and insert wall- plugs to take the screws. But removal and fixing are both easier than for skirting, so replacement is usually the sensible alternative to major repairs. You just lever the existing architrave off, and nail the new one on.

On a brick or block wall, you usually nail through the molding’s inner edge and into the doorframe, lining or ‘wrought grounds’ with 25 mm (1 in) oval nails; lost-head nails or panel pins can also be used. But if necessary you can nail through the middle of the molding and into the wall itself, using cut nails for medium-hard blocks if you like, and masonry nails for bricks and hard blocks. If you find that there are rough (concealed) grounds between the plaster and the frame or lining, then nail into those. On a stud wall, nail into the studs.

At the bottom, the upright pieces butt against the floor and the ends of the skirting. At the_ top the corners are mitred. A good idea is to start by cutting off three pieces of molding which are manageable but still slightly too long. Then you can mark off the heights of the two upright ones (which may of course differ a bit, depending on whether the floor is flat or level), mitre their top ends and fix them loosely to the wall.

This makes it easy to mark off the exact length of the top piece. Mitre its ends, position it, and make any adjustments – by moving the uprights slightly, and even shaving the mitred ends with a sharp chisel or block plane if necessary. Then nail all three pieces finally in place, and pin the mitres from the top as for skirting boards.

When mitring, always make quite sure you’re cutting the right way round. That sounds silly, but you’ll find it’s all too easy to waste whole pieces by mistake

Failing that, a hacksaw should do the job.

In certain places — eg, the backs of alcoves — the skirting board is held in position by the two pieces at right angles to it. So, unless you remove at least one of those first, sawing the board out is your only option. A flooring saw may work. Otherwise drill a series of holes in line dOwn the face of the skirting, and use a chisel to chop out the waste between the holes so you can prise out the two ends of the board. Pipework and other obstacles sometimes force the same solution.

If a length of skirting refuses to come away completely, you may still be able to make sawing easier by levering enough of it out to push timber wedges behind it. In all cases, it’s best to saw at an angle of 45° across the thickness. If you’re just removing a section, cut the new piece to the same angle when you come to fix that in place.

Always use 45° cuts, rather than butt joins, if you have to make up a long piece from two shorter ones. They’ll be less conspicuous, especially if you site the join near an out-of- the-way corner.

Whether or not you’ve had to pause in order to repair a sash or to repaint everything, you’re now ready to carry on and fit new sash cords.

The first step is to remove the weights. To get at them, you have to take out the one or two pieces of wood covering each weight compartment — the pocket pieces. These are usually just a push fit, and you pry them out with an old chisel or screwdriver; in somecases, – however, there’s also a retaining screw. Lift out each weight, untie the cord from it, and attach it to the free end of the string, making a complete loop. If there’s rust on the weight, you can rub it off with abrasive paper at this stage. but there’s no need to paint it.

You can buy new sash cord from almost any builder’s merchant or hardware store, but ask for it by name — doesn’t just use any old cord. To fit the new cord, untie the loop of string. tic the cord to it, and use it to thread the cord over the pulley and down into the weight compartment. Then tie the cord to the weight with a strong knot. At this stage don’t try cutting the cord to the correct length — leave it too long.

Most sashes have a groove, near the top of each side, in which the cord is fixed with small galvanized round-head nails. Either nails the cord into the groove and trims off the excess, or marks the groove length on the frame and trims the cord to the mark.

Whichever you do, the weight should hang 50mm (2in) above the base of its compartment when the sash is at the top of the frame. It’s the same for each sash. Note that the cord shouldn’t be fixed right to the top of the groove, or the sash won’t run all the way up. The topmost nail should be as far down from the top as the top of the pulley is from the top of the frame opening.

After fixing the cords at both sides of the outer sash, replace the parting bead. Then repeat the whole process for the inner sash, and lastly replace it and the staff bead in position. When fixing the beads. make sure the sashes have room to slide free.