Wickes Torus Skirting

[whookam]

I bought a lot of Wickes Torus pine skirting board a good while ago. I was planning to fit it a soon as I bought it but because of numerous reasons I've only recently had time to get round to it. It has been stored flat and in my house since.

My problem is that every single piece of skirting seems to bow slightly when looking at the profile of the wood. I put his down to just one of the pieces being 'off' but every single piece is the same. Not just similar either, every piece seems to have exactly the same amount of bend. Is this just an (expensive) coincidence or is the Wickes Torus moulded to this shape for some reason that I'm missing?

Needless to say its making mitering the external corners around the chimney breast impossible.

 

[whookam]

Actually, that was a dumb question - of course the wood is MEANT to be straight. I think my 'cupping' (is that the right term?) may be due to the way the skirting was packaged and how I've stored it. The individual pieces were packaged so each one was the same way round as its neighbour (ie. flat side to shaped side etc.) I guess that if the wood has a tendency to cup then storing the wood in this way would do nothing to stop it.

So my question is now can I do anything to straighten this skirting up? And, if so, how long will this take?

My thought is to unpack every piece of skirting and stack them alternately so that two pieces are flat side to falt side then 2, shaped side to shaped etc. This way each piece exerts pressure against the 'cupping' of its neighbour. Will this help or do I need to just get some new wood?

 

[Symptoms]

whook - cupping will appear 'cos of the way the timber was sawn in the mill so is a common problem. You are correct to assume you should have fixed it to the wall asap, thus avoiding the potential for the timber to 'move'. Cupping on profiles can be minimised/avoided by the mill introducing grooves along the rear surface so preventing the cupping effect. Grooving the rear surface, then pulling the boards onto the wall is the only way to reclaim your skirting, otherwise it's new stuff.

 

[whookam]

Ok, I'll try out the groove thing. Haven't really got much to loose at this point. With the groove on the back, is it best to have it as wide as possible to try and counteract the cupping, or does it not really make much difference?

 

[big-all]

several slots along the length stopping 5mm short of the front face and avoid the molded top section
number of slots depend on amount of cupping

in general slots are the width of your saw blade and about every 18mm

 

[freddydo]

I bought a lot of Wickes Torus pine skirting board a good while ago.

I think this a consequence of poor modern joinery quality, timber is fast grown, quickly and poorly kiln dried and sawn 'through and through'which means the grain pattern is suseptable to cupping as it dries further.Even after fixing movement can still take place ruining many a good 'chippies' work. Take the good advice on grooving the back and good luck.