Fixing Skirting To (Curved) Walls

There's a wall in our house that's has a slight curve in it. This hasn't caused me much bother at all really. Although I always knew it would when we did the hallway and I had to replace the skirting on said wall. Not something I was looking forward to at all. I've mentioned before how I hate doing skirting.

Well, when I took off the hundred year old skirting at the beginning of the hall project (more of which later) I noticed something about it:

At the end where the bend was they'd carefully cut a dozen or so slits in to the back of the board, which helps it bend a little easier. Until I saw this I don't know how I thought they might have done it. Gradual bending under the effect of steam maybe?

Anyway, that was months ago, but I made a point of remembering the trick as I knew at some point I'd have to put some board back on. That time came this weekend gone. Although I was replacing nine inch board with five I still thought it might help.

Here's the board after I'd added the slot and ready to be stuck to the wall:

Aside: Notice the tiled floor! This is the reason the skirting came off in the first place (I'd always wanted to avoid taking it off). More on the tiles and the floor, which was a massive project in itself, later!

To help hold the board to the curve of the wall I used three "sprags" as you can see below:

This is only really possible when the width of the room allows a piece of wood to span it.

It's at this point that I had added a load of grab-fast/no-nails/stick-like-shit/whatever-you-call-it to the back of the board. Whether or not I could have left this for a day or so before removing the sprags i don't know. I didn't want to find out though and decided to find a better way of securing to the wall.

The original skirting was attached with nails which were hammered through the board and in to a noggin of wood in a joint between the bricks behind. How on earth they ever managed this I don't know. I've tried in the past to do this and never had any luck.

The other method I've tried is to hold the board in place and drill through it and slightly in to the wall behind to mark where each hole was. With the board removed you can then drill and plug each hole before putting the board back in place and screwing to the wall. Getting all the holes to line up is a bit hit and miss though and not an approach I'm keen on.

What I did this time was try and new approach, which also drills the wall behind and plugs/screws though, but does so while the board is in place.

To do this you need the following:

• 7mm Rawl plugs
• 7mm wood drill
• 7mm masonry drill
• 10mm wood drill
• 10mm wood plugs
• Screw with a 10mm diameter head

With the board in place you then:

1. Drill 10mm holes in to the board (<=10mm deep) in the place you think you need to secure it.
2. Using these holes as markers drill 7mm holes right through the board.
3. Use the 7mm masonry bit to drill the whole in the wall behind (hoping at this point there's a brick there and not a joint).
4. Get the Rawl plug and bang it through the hole in the skirting and in to the wall behind. Use something 7mm or less in diameter to do this. I used a nail punch to help me.
5. Screw the board up using the screws. Because the screw has a 10mm head it will go in to the first hole but not through the 7mm inner hole!
6. Plug the outer hole.

In pictures:

The tools

Drilling the hole in the wall behind (with that reassuring site of red dust ;o):

Plugging the holes (This board is something Dad did for me using his plug cutters. Very useful to have. Thanks Dad!):

And there you have it. It's a little faffy but it's an easy way to get the board secured to the wall without any guess work or room for mistakes.