Cutting skirting boards in-situ

Is this possible? Thinking about installing a wooden floor but don't want perimeter beadign and don't want to remove the skirting as I know from past experience, I'm likely to lose plaster as well.

Is there a tool to cut skirting whilst its in situ?

This has been asked on here before.

AFAIK the consensus is to remove it is best, the tool is expensive & not that good.
search the forum for skirting to show threads about it.

If it is a solid wood floor tongue and groove you can undercut the skirting using an undercutter you can usually hire these as they are expensive to buy for a one of job. another tool that can do this would be the fein multimaster or the bosch equivilent though this gives a finer cut the blades for these tools are expensive and it is a slow way to cut skirtings.

for laminate you will need to remove skirting at at least one side of room and run it through saw to match size of undercut skirtings on other side of room.

in general it is best just to remove skirting and replace or use beading. doing it the way you suggest makes doing the last row difficult or with laminate near impossible.

If you have to remove skirting run a stanley knife around top of skirting and wall first then there is more chance you will get it off without removing plaster.

str - an Arbortech Tuff Cut blade ... it fits in an angle grinder ... does the job well (but obviously not right into the corners - you have to use a sharp chisel/mallet combo there). £33 from www.axminster.co.uk.

Practice before you use it for real to gain an understanding of how it cuts, rates of feed & how much pressure you should apply.

Consider removing the old boards from the joists and then secret nail the new stuff to the joists. The removal of the old boards will reveal the original gap at the base of the skirtings. It is often possible to manipulate the new boards into this gap so avoiding the hassle of skirt removal or beading. The trick is to feed the first board in tight to the wall under the skirt, the complete the placement of the rest of the row without fixing - the last boards in the row to touch the skirt as it drops into position. THEN with a lever nudge that first board to get your expansion gap there - all the boards will move along so you need to check for the gap at the other end. Then you nail.

The last row can be tricky but the trick here is to glue the last 2 rows of boards together (usually it's one and a thin bit), push the unit under the skirt then ease it back to join the fixed floor. The method relies on careful measurement.

If you don't want to lift the old floor consider covering the gaps with a decorative architrave instead of the naff beading, painted the same colour as the skirt.

Try This for a direct link to the above blade.

It is going to be very difficult to get a straight cut with a grinder even with a carbide tipped blade, as there is no way to set the height of the cut.

This is what an undercutter is it is just a grinder with a height adjustable plate that allows you to cut in a straight line.

Advising someone to try and do this with a grinder borders on dangerous as you have no direct control of the machine this low to the ground it can easily kick back and remove limbs.

There are a number of specialist undercutters on the market for this job that for the sake of a few extra pounds will do the job properly and safely.

I have posted some pics of undercutting in my album. The Robert's jamb saw with a diamond blade was used for stone work and there is also a picture of the mutimaster in use.

LaminatePro wrote "Advising someone to try and do this with a grinder borders on dangerous as you have no direct control of the machine this low to the ground it can easily kick back and remove limbs." Nonesense! All power tools ARE potentially dangerous in the hands of the un-practiced; actually ALL tools are potentially dang....... You'll be suggesting that we don't recommend the use of hand-held circular saws next ... now they ARE more likely to kick-back in the hands of the novice but again practice would be advised.

The Arbortech Tuff Cut blade IS a perfectly adequate bit of kit for tackling this type of job so long as the user is confident* about using it. Height of cut CAN be controlled by the simple expedient of using a timber 'slip' (of the appropriate thickness) below the tool guard; the tool then slides along the slip which acts as a kind of fence. A perfect solution for the one off job. Yep, the OP could fork-out for a pros Undercut saw (£130ish).

*confident is code for practice 'till safe.

Symtoms.

The reason for the advice given is that an angle grinder is not designed for this job. If it hits brick or concrete or even cable trunking behind the skirting it is very likely to bounce out of the skirting and possibly right out of the hands of the person using it regardless of how much practice they have had using it.

The advice I gave was to HIRE the proper tool for the job at around £20 - £30 for the hire it is safer and more likely to get better results than messing around with a grinder and trying to get the correct size slip of wood to fit under it.

Of course all tools are dangerous if used incorrectly but morons that advise people to use them in a way they were not designed for are just as dangerous it's not their limbs that are in harms way when it all goes wrong.

Or buy the correct tool for undercutting at £50 this tool will do the job safely though it will be time consuming to do skirting boards with it. and as a bonus it can be used for all sorts of other jobs from sanding to grout raking.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=656314&source=emailclub&dm_i=5F,1DDB,3372A,42JL,1

link supplied by big-all on another thread

Lamin dear boy, please don't call me a moron ... personal abuse isn't welcome (or tolerated) here; I await your apology. By all means state, that in your opinion, my advice is whatever you believe it to be but I'd be grateful if you didn't slag-me-off. Bun fights are fine, disagreements healthy, different opinions valued, but no nastiness!

Whilst I share your view that it's always best to use the 'correct' tool for the job, sometimes improvisation is called for; infact, this forum is awash with this type of advice. The Arbortech blade isn't a bodge, it's designed for the purpose. Your view that there should be concern about the results of hitting brick or concrete, or even cable trunking can also be directed at those using a powerdrill to create holes for rawlplugs ... I bet there are countless thousands of folks over the years who've broken wrists (or jaws) when the hammer drill has 'kicked' when going into masonry. What about all those who've had a nasty shock when hitting a buried lekky cable when putting a picture up? Yep, lots of DIY carries some risk, we should anticipate that those undertaking it will take some care and use takle 'fit for purpose'.

30 years ago I adapted a hand-held circular saw to trim the bottoms of doors in-situ (we were knocking out flat conversions) - the modifications included moveable blade guard taken off, riving knife taken off, part of the base cut away to allow cutting ¼" off the floor. A firm, confident grip was required when using the beast but it did a great job ... yes, a blo*dy dangerous contraption but in those day the 'elf & safety was just coming-in. I wouldn't dream of using (or suggesting to others) something like this now 'cos I can afford the pukka tackle (DeWalt plunge saw) but others here maybe can't afford the 'correct' tools. I still have that old monster saw in a bag somewhere.