Skirting Board & Architrave Calculator

Skirting Board Guide

What do I need to know about Measuring and Planning?

Measure the perimeter of the room. Deduct doorway widths (typically 0.8–0.9m per doorway). Add 10–15% for waste (mitres, scrap ends, mistakes). Skirting board is typically sold in 2.4m, 3.0m, 4.2m, or 4.4m lengths — longer boards mean fewer joins but are harder to transport. Plan which walls will have joins and position joins in less conspicuous locations (corners, behind furniture) where possible.

What do I need to know about Fitting Methods?

Traditional mitre joints at external corners (where wall meets wall outward) give a clean finish. Internal corners are best done with a scribe join (cutting one board to the profile of the other) — pure mitre joints at internal corners open up as the timber shrinks. Use a compound mitre saw for clean mitre cuts. Fix with lost-head nails (nail gun or hammer and punch) or adhesive (no-more-nails) — adhesive is preferred on solid walls where nailing may cause vibration cracking in plaster.

What do I need to know about Door Architrave?

Door architrave (the decorative moulding around door frames) is typically sold in the same profiles as skirting boards. Each door requires approximately 5–6m of architrave (two vertical legs plus a horizontal head, with 45° mitre joins at the top corners). Architrave is fitted about 6–8mm from the edge of the door lining (the margin), with the inner edge flush. The thickness of architrave should match or complement the skirting board for a consistent look.

What do I need to know about Finish and Painting?

MDF skirting is the most common choice for painting — it is dimensionally stable, machines well, and paints smoothly. Solid wood (pine, oak) is used for staining or in period properties. Prime MDF with a sealing primer (to prevent the cut edges swelling when painted with water-based paint). Apply one coat of primer and two topcoats with fine sanding between coats for a smooth finish. Use a small brush for cutting in along the floor and ceiling line, then roll or brush the face. Caulk the top edge where skirting meets the wall for a neat, gap-free finish, especially on older walls where the surface may not be perfectly flat.

What do I need to know about Mitre vs Scribed Internal Corners?

Internal corners where two lengths of skirting board meet, such as in the corner of a room, can be finished either with a mitred joint, where both pieces are cut at a 45-degree angle to meet cleanly, or a scribed joint, where one piece is cut square into the corner and the second piece is cut, or scribed, to follow the profile of the first piece's face. Mitred internal corners look neat when walls meet at a true 90-degree angle, but most real rooms have walls that are slightly out of square, sometimes by a surprising margin in older properties, which means a mathematically perfect 45-degree mitre often leaves a visible gap at either the top or bottom of the joint once fitted against a wall that isn't quite square. A scribed joint is generally considered more forgiving and more durable for internal corners specifically because it follows the actual profile of the adjoining board rather than relying on two perfectly matched angled cuts meeting a precisely square wall, and it tends to stay tight-looking even as timber skirting naturally moves slightly with seasonal humidity changes, whereas a mitred internal joint is more likely to open up a visible gap over time as the timber behind it shrinks or swells.

What should I know about Skirting Board Materials (MDF vs Softwood vs Hardwood)?

The material a skirting board is made from affects cost, how it handles during fitting, and how well it performs over time, beyond the price-per-metre figure used in this calculator. Primed or pre-finished MDF skirting is the most common choice in modern UK homes, since it's generally the cheapest option, comes with a smooth, consistent, knot-free surface ready for painting, and is less prone to warping or splitting than solid timber, though it's more vulnerable to swelling or crumbling if it gets persistently wet, such as from a leak behind a bath panel, making it a less suitable choice for bathrooms and other consistently damp areas. Softwood skirting, typically pine, costs more than MDF but can be stained or varnished rather than only painted if a natural wood look is wanted, and generally copes with damp conditions better than MDF, though it needs knots sealed properly before painting to stop them bleeding resin through the finish over time. Hardwood skirting, such as oak, is the most expensive option but offers the most durable, premium finish and the best natural moisture resistance of the three, and is most commonly chosen to match existing hardwood flooring, doors or staircases in a property rather than for cost or performance reasons alone.

What do I need to know about Skirting Board Heights and Period Property Matching?

Skirting board height has varied significantly by building era, and matching it correctly matters both for aesthetics and for keeping a period property looking authentic. Victorian and Edwardian properties commonly used tall skirting, often 150-225mm or more, frequently with ornate moulded profiles, reflecting the taller ceilings and more decorative detailing typical of the period. Mid-20th century and most modern new-build housing tends to use much shorter, simpler skirting, often 90-120mm, with plainer profiles (ogee, chamfered, or bullnose) reflecting lower ceilings and simpler construction costs. When replacing skirting in an older property, matching the original height and profile — or at least staying proportionate to the room's ceiling height and other period detailing like architrave and cornicing — avoids an odd, mismatched look, even if the new skirting is a modern moisture-resistant MDF rather than solid timber. As a rough proportion guide, skirting height is often chosen at around 7-10% of the room's ceiling height for a balanced look, though period properties with very tall ceilings often use proportionally taller skirting still. If only part of a house is being renewed, check existing skirting elsewhere in the property before ordering, since an inconsistent height between rooms is noticeable even to non-experts.

Worked Example: Skirting for a 4m x 3m Room

A rectangular room measuring 4m × 3m, with one standard doorway 0.9m wide, needs its perimeter calculated and then adjusted for the door gap.

This room needs 6 standard 2.4m skirting board lengths to cover the full perimeter after accounting for the door gap and a sensible waste allowance for mitre cuts and any mismeasurement. The 10% waste allowance matters more than it might seem on a simple rectangular room — most of that waste doesn't come from mistakes but from the unavoidable offcuts left over at corners once boards are mitred to length, since a board rarely divides evenly into the wall lengths needed, and the remaining offcut from one wall is usually too short to be useful on the next. Rooms with bay windows, alcoves, or multiple door and opening gaps consume proportionally more skirting per square metre of floor than a simple rectangle, since every extra internal or external corner adds a mitre cut and therefore a small amount of additional waste.

Skirting Board Profiles Explained

Skirting board profile (the shape of the moulding, as seen in cross-section) is largely an aesthetic choice but has practical implications worth knowing before ordering. "Chamfered" or "pencil round" profiles are simple, flat-faced boards with a basic rounded or angled top edge, typically the cheapest option and the standard choice in most modern new-build housing. "Ogee" and "Torus" profiles have a more pronounced S-curve or rounded moulded top edge, giving a more traditional or period look, and are correspondingly more expensive both in material and because more complex profiles require more careful mitring at corners to keep the moulding pattern aligned across the joint. Very tall, elaborately moulded "Victorian" or "period" profile skirting (sometimes 150-220mm tall with multiple decorative steps) is specifically chosen to match the proportions of older properties with higher ceilings, where a standard modern 95-120mm skirting would look visually undersized against the room's scale. A practical consideration often missed is that more elaborate profiles collect dust in their grooves more readily than a flat chamfered board and take longer to paint properly, since a brush has to work into every curve rather than running smoothly along a flat face — a genuine time cost worth factoring into a DIY decorating timeline, not just the purchase price of the board itself.