Skirting and Architrave Tools Guide (UK)
Skirting and architrave help tidy the edges of a room and cover the gaps where floors and door frames meet the walls. Whether you’re a joiner on site or a DIYer working at home, the right approach makes the job cleaner and quicker. This guide covers measuring, cutting, fixing, and finishing so your boards sit neat and tight.
1. Measuring and Marking Up
Use a tape measure for each length and mark your skirting board slightly oversized for straight cuts. For internal mitres (scribes), leave extra so you can work the scribe until it fits clean. If the same piece has a straight cut or an external mitre at the other end, allow enough length to make that cut as well. A combi-square ensures that corners remain consistently square when working up to a frame’s architrave. Before fixing, check for pipes or cables behind the wall.
2. Cutting Skirting Boards
A mitre saw gives you clean, accurate cuts for internal and external corners. Keep the board tight to the fence and lower the blade slowly so the cut stays smooth. Use a workbench wherever possible; working on the floor makes cuts harder to control and becomes awkward when handling long lengths. If you’re cutting full 4.8 m boards, keeping tools off the floor also helps with good housekeeping. When you need to notch around pipes or uneven floors, a jigsaw handles the small shapes well. Keep the jigsaw steady and let the blade do the work to avoid chipping the edge.
3. Internal Scribes (Tight Internal Corners)
Internal scribes give you a tight, clean finish in internal corners where two skirting boards meet. Start by cutting a 45-degree internal mitre on the end of the board, then use a coping saw or jigsaw to remove the waste along the profile. Work the scribe back gradually until it sits tight against the adjoining board with no visible gaps. Check the fit often; a few small passes usually work better than taking off too much at once. Once the scribe sits clean, the board is ready to fix.
4. Fixing to Timber and Masonry
Fixing to Stud or Timber
When fixing skirting or architrave to studwork, a pin gun or brad nailer keeps the boards tight without leaving large fixings on show. Work along the length, checking the board sits tight to both the wall and the floor. Always check for pipes and cables in plasterboard walls before firing nails.
Most joiners use adhesive on the back of the skirting as well. A tube-grade adhesive like Sticksall works well in a caulking gun — no idea why it’s still called that, but it is what it is. Apply blobs roughly every 400 mm; some joiners run full lines, but that uses more adhesive without much benefit.
Fixing to Brick or Block
If you’re fixing to brick or block, switch to an SDS drill for a stronger hold. Drill clean holes, use suitable plugs, and sink the screws about 3 mm below the surface so the filler can grab properly later. On longer runs, a thin bead or blobs of adhesive help support the board while you screw it back, especially if the wall is uneven.
5. Fitting Architrave Around Doors
Start by cutting and fitting the headpiece first. Once that’s in place, measure and cut the two legs so the margins around the door frame stay even from top to bottom. Keep each mitre tight by holding the architrave firmly against the saw fence before cutting. When fixing, a pin gun helps keep the arks secure without bulky fixings showing on the face. Use a Mitre Fix two-part adhesive to glue the mitre together, holding the joint in place for a few seconds while it sets. Once all sides are fixed, sand the mitres ready for painting. Accuracy here makes the whole door set look clean.
6. Finishing Touches
Once the skirting and architrave are fixed, fill any pin holes and lightly sand the surface so it sits smooth. Run a clean bead of caulk along the top edge to seal the gap between the board and the wall. Wipe away any excess before it dries so the line stays neat. Give the boards a quick dust-off and they’re ready for painting.
7. Tools You’ll Need
Now that you know the steps, here are the tools used throughout this guide.
For clean cuts on internal and external corners, you can use one of our mitre saws.
For notching around pipes or uneven floors, a jigsaw gives you more control on the detailed cuts.
If you’re fixing into brick or block, an SDS drill gives you the strength needed for reliable plugs and screws.
For clean fixing and drilling, you can use our drill and driver bit sets.
Once you have your impact driver and pin gun collections ready, we’ll add the links here.
You’ll also use the standard hand tools found on every joinery job: tape measure, knife, hammer, combi-square, caulking gun, pencil, and radio.
8. Read More
You can browse all tools for this job here: Skirting and Architrave Tools Collection.
More joinery guides will be added as the store grows.
