Hi all,
I'm currently re-flooring the downstairs of my house with Walnut laminate. I've removed all the old skirting board (white painted), which was fitted with no nails. My intention is to buy new pine skirting board and varnish (or wax/woodstain) a walnut colour and fit.
This is my first experience of fitting skirting boards.
I've looked around on different sites and have a couple of questions:
1. Should I use Varnish, wax or woodstain?
2. I've bought an electric/metal/stud detector, should I nail/screw or no nails onto wall
3. If screw, how do I cover up screw hole? I've read that filler doesn't cover very well when varnishing, so to counter sink and plug...how do I do this? What do I need to buy?
4. Do I stain/varnish or wax before fixing to wall? and do I cover both sides?
5. Should I also stain ends after mitre?

Thanks in advance for the advice

Cheers


Danny

1. For a durable finish I personally prefer Sadolin lacquer. Pricey but durable. I know that others here favour Sadolin. Either way stain first (water stain or spirit stain - water is more controllable) and denib before applying a clear top coating

2. Sorry to say, but I've never had much success with stud finders. If plasterboarded onto studwork it is often possible to see the joints when the old skirting is removed (for metal and timber studs). With dot and dab or plaster onto masonry you'll have nothing - and those walls are where a tradesman will often GripFill (No Nails) and pin (16 ga). No Nails on it's own doesn't work that well - you really need a few pins or nails to hold the skirting in place while the grip adhesive sets (they are left in situ and punched under with a hammer and nail set afterwards). If nailing alone you'll need to have either a solid timber ground or timber wedges knocked into gaps in the brickwork then sawn off to nail into.

3. I wouldn't recommend drilling, countersinking and pelleting in softwood. Home made pellets in softwood don't work that well (it's difficult to cut them without "ragging" the edges or breaking the pellet apart) and as you say filler will "shine" through. If you nail instead (small ovals, oriented to the grain of the timber) it is possible to punch the nail heads under and fill the resultant small holes with coloured wax after the staining is finished. See Liberon, Konig, etc for details. You may have to mix 2 or 3 different colours to get a good match. You'll need a thin, very flexible 1in stopping knife with the sharp corners of the blade ground off to a nice radius (P120 alox paper on a block of wood - stops the tendency of the sharp corners of the blade to scratch the timber) to both apply the wax and to remove the excess when it has cooled and a cup of hot water to warm both the wax and the stopping knife.

Should you screw and pellet you'll need a decent drill.countersink set (recommend Trend Snappy) in the appropriate size (probably #10) and I'd strongly recommend buying-in your pellets in a matching species such as those sold by Appleby Woodturnings amongst others. Once the glue (white PVA, excess wiped away immediately with a damp, not soaking white or unbleached cloth such as an old, well-washed T-shirt) has set, about 24 hours, the pellets are removed by paring with a razor sharp chisel used bevel down - and I do mean razor sharp, not as it comes from the factory.

4. If nailing I'd stain before cutting and fixing as that is far easier to do on a pair of trestles. If pelleting I'd install then stain after installation although the pellets are liable to take up the stain differently and will therefore show. Put your protective finish on after you've installed and done all the pelleting, etc, no need to cover both sides unless it's a wet area (e.g. bathroom, kitchen, sometimes entrance lobby)

5. If your mitre is nice and tight (and it should be) then there's no need to stain the cut edges because they won't be seen. Same goes for scribed internal corners

_________________
"The person who never made a mistake, never made anything" - Albert Einstein

"I too will something make, And joy in the making" - Robert Bridges, 1844~1930

Stained skirting and trim looks awful these days it is so pass'e. Do it in white, it will look so much better and it will make the flooring stand out.

Fixing skirting only requires what is needed. In most cases an adhesive is perfectly adequate but if the wall is slightly undulating then a mechanical fix maybe necessary at points. As for hitting anything just look logically at where you are going. Power cables are likely to be under sockets and switches so avoid those areas. Again with pipes this is more likely near radiators.

DWD

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Painting with BIN

pine has a completely different grain structure so will never look like any other timber
and with time the pine will naturally darken so may start with a similar colour but finish darker

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we are all ------------------still learning

I hate both DeWalt and Big-all they got in before me. Unless your skirting is identical to the floor don't bother. Pine sucks and all it says is I really wanted Oak or something else but I could only afford the cheapest, I personally would not mix pine with anything. White skirting!

Thank you all so much for the advice...although would still like to stain, job and knock's advice is so involved, I don't think I have the expertise to do all of that (I'm a driving instructore...if you want to learn to drive, I'm your man ;-) )
Think will go for white skirting...ochaye said it best as can't afford the oak...so had to go cheaper

So, pine SB, fix with small oval nails to hold them in place until no nails goes off, then fill any gap, then primer, then gloss...is that the best way to go?
Also, what about foam adhesives to fix?

Years ago I striped, stained and waxed our skirting and as its an old house the picture rail. I've got the hassle that paint won't stick to it now that our tastes have changed.

Some of the people on here swear by it. We don't use it in the trade - too expensive and in any case you still need to nail stuff in place (more so because of the tendency of foam to push stuff about). Could well be easier to master than using a grip adhesive for a beginner - just remember that it expands quite a bit so don't go mad. Not sure if it needs a foam gun or not - if it does then that's another £20

To answer the question of blotchiness on softwoods in particular, there are two things needed to overcome this; firstly the timber surfaces need to be properly sanded up to P120 grit and secondly before applying anything else the grain can be "sealed" using a pre-stain wood conditioner (Google Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner - available on ebay uk and elsewhere). These do tend to work best with gel stains but it isn't an absolute must. Always experiment with finishes on a small offcut first before going "hog wild" and "slapping it on all over"

_________________
"The person who never made a mistake, never made anything" - Albert Einstein

"I too will something make, And joy in the making" - Robert Bridges, 1844~1930

gripfill or similar and a few nails to hold it in place or if you have enough scraps and/or clamps you can clamp it using the opposite walls as your bearing surface.