Curved Skirting Board(Kerfing?!?!?!)

boam

Hello All,

I am doing up my house and done away with all the old skirting board, the problem is now i have 2 bays, and i need to get my new skirting board to fit, i am using 7" Ovolo Skirting. I have read that there is a method called kerfing or something that will do it, (make saw cuts to the front\back of skirting and soak it then try to bend it) Although from the general reading on the net, normal joe public dont seem to have much success in doing it, so i am wondering if someone has actually done it and did it work, if not how much am i looking to get a carpenter in to do it for me? I am in South East London\Kent Borders.

Rgds

M

weekendwarrior

Well it was done by a complete novice here- http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/forum1/bending-wood-t11908.html

SUESMITH_2

we have round bays, we just did it with screws, luckily our bays are quite shallow iyswim. i did have the radiators rolled so they fitted nicely in the bays, nothing to do with skirting boards but hey you might be interested

Pretani

weekendwarrior wrote: »

Well it was done by a complete novice here- http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/forum1/bending-wood-t11908.html

:rotfl: That is totally uneccessary for that bend. In fact, there is no need for any adaption to the skirting for a bend of that size. The wood will bend more than that amount.

boam, MDF skirting is more bendy than normal wood, tell us the dimentions of the bend.

-_-_-_21

Hi

The link above refers to a convex curve which is much easier to ‘Kerf’ than a concave curve because the cuts will be hidden at the back.

You really only have 3 options IMHO.

• Pay a professional! It may sound stupid but it won’t be easy to achieve a really professional finish.
• Put the cuts into the front of the board and be prepared to spend a lot of time filling and sanding.
• My preferred option. Use a circular or band saw to rip the board into 2 or 3 thinner boards. You can then glue and screw the first board to the wall in any curve you require. Subsequent boards can then be glued and screwed to the face of the previous board once dry. This method is called ‘laminating’ and should give a you a pretty good finish.

Out of interest, what happened to the old skirting? Any chance of restoring that instead?

ormus

you can make a jig outside.
soak the bare wood in hot water and bend it to fit in the jig, then leave it for a day or so.
steaming the wood works even better.
we use this method on old boats and aircraft.

John_3:16

You may be able to do both kerfing and soaking. This way the wood will become more bendable. If you do kerf the deeper the cut the better. If you cut on an angle you can achieve the bend without the saw cut showing eg from top corner to bottom corner. You will have to be careful. Too few saw cuts will result in lots of flats showing on the front of the skirting. I would go with bending before you fix.:D

boam

The skirting board is bought, it is 7" ovolo and is redwood(softwood?!?!?!), and the bay is 3 metres long and i am soaking the board at the moment in water.... just out of curiosity, do i cut the back? or the front, i seem to get mixed answers when googling, some say cut the back some say cut the front?!

The old skirting has long gone, it seemed to be a plaster mould, but as we are not painting the skirting that option is out the window!!!!

If i was to get someone in to do it, how much would i be looking at?! Whats the Average carpenters day rate and how long to do?

dweeby

weekendwarrior wrote: »

Well it was done by a complete novice here- http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/forum1/bending-wood-t11908.html

Hi weekendwarrior, please check your personal messages...

Pretani

boam wrote: »

The skirting board is bought, it is 7" ovolo and is redwood(softwood?!?!?!), and the bay is 3 metres long and i am soaking the board at the moment in water.... just out of curiosity, do i cut the back? or the front, i seem to get mixed answers when googling, some say cut the back some say cut the front?!

cut the front. test it out on an extra piece of skirting first, to get the number of cuts and distance right. remember you'll have to fill the gaps in when you've finished. Flexable Plastic skirting or plyable mdf might be an option if your redwood doesn't turn out right.

ormus

heres an example of a jig to bend some wood, for an aircraft wing part.