Skirting boards butted-up and not scribed

Hi, First off your contractor obviously isn't a carpenter by trade. All carpenters would always scribe internals and mitre externals regardless of whether it was going to be painted/stained or waxed etc...Out of square walls, doesn't make any difference if you know what you are doing....Pencil round skirting is probably the easiest to do.I would get a carpenter in to redo them bearing in mind you're staining them. You'll always see the filler, which looks bad and re-negotiate the conservatory price with your contractor about payment for this. Hope this helps

A decent joiner will always do a mitre to external corners and scribe the internals with the profile scribe to the wall least visible. Give them a reasonable deadline and refuse to pay till they put it right, if they don't put it right by the deadline employ a craftsman joiner to do the work and knock his bill off their price. Simple as that. People like that get us all a bad name.

You are right, sounds like a botched job, can't get any easier than pencil round, get then done properly. If that's his standard of finish then I would be looking at what else he has botched!!

This contractor should be prevented from doing any work for the public. He is rubbish and talks rubbish get a refund or deduct cost of fitting skirting. Then get professional carpenter to fit some good skirting properly! Charlie Bates

You are spot on with your last sentence, a good carpenter would be able to scribe the internal corners, and mitre the external corners. Although most corners are hardly square the mitre saw can be set to allow for this, can even be done by hand saw. If a good carpenter fitted them you shouldnt need any filler.

DO not pay them!! any carpenter would scribe internal corners and any tradesman with a mitre saw can do a external mitres!!!

Hi Neiltheblue, Without prejudice to either you or your contractor; There is no justifiable reason for the scenario you have described other than poor workmanship. Simple as that. External corners should be mitred and regardless of the angle a perfect joint is acheivable providing the two pieces are the same profile. Internal corners should be scribed but it is quite common place to find these have been mitred. Again there is no excuse for a poor fit. As for filling the gaps - yes this is acceptable within reason, usually the decorator will fill/caulk any gaps along with the fixing holes from screws/nails as standard practice, prior to painting. However, as you intend to stain the timber you really need a good joint from the start as the filler will remain visable after staining. Your requirement for staining the skirting should have been made clear to the contractor from the start to ensure the level of finish was acheivable. If this was not the case my advice would be to fill and paint or remove and hire a joiner to install new. Hope this helps. Regards Holbex Design Ltd

yes you are right and he is wrong, a decent carpenter should beable to scribe good tight internal joints and have neat mitred external joints and don't kow what he's going on about. I've never seen butted joints before. hope you haven't paid him yet. Good luck

hello cut skirting at 45% and then cut with a coping saw easy job for a carpenter