How to match an old skirting board

That's normal. Skirting profile names aren't a standard. One supplier's “ogee” is another's “Victorian”, and a lot of merchant boards are reversible, with torus on one face and ogee on the other. Names get you into the right aisle. They won't give you a match. A matching board comes from three measurements and a clean look at the section.

The three numbers that decide a match

1. Height. Measure from the floor to the top edge of the board, in millimetres. Measure in a couple of places, because old floors aren't flat.

2. Thickness. Measure from the wall to the front face at the bottom, where the board is flat. Paint adds to this (more on that below).

3. The moulded section. This is the one people miss. It's the shaped part at the top: the curves, steps and grooves, measured down from the top edge to where the flat face begins. We call it the moulded head depth.

The moulded section decides the match because of how skirting is made. A spindle moulder runs the board past a cutter ground to the shape of that top section. The flat face below it is just however tall the timber was. So two boards of different heights can come off the same cutter, and two boards of the same height can need completely different cutters.

That's why we measure every profile from the top edge in absolute millimetres, never as a percentage of the board's height. In our library, the moulded section runs from 3mm on a Pencil Round to 44mm on our Regency profile. Height is secondary: we mill stock heights from 95mm to 220mm, and other heights to order.

Step 1: Get a cut end

You can't read a section from the front. A photo of the face shows the shadows, not the shape. You need the end grain: the cross-section you'd see if you sawed through the board. Where to find one:

• The length you're replacing. If you're taking a damaged piece off, that's your sample.
• Somewhere hidden. Inside a built-in cupboard, or behind a radiator or a freestanding unit. A hand-width piece (about 100mm) is enough.
• An existing end. Sometimes a board stops short at a stair string or an alcove and the end is exposed.
• A leftover. Lofts, garages and cellars in older houses often hold offcuts from the last refit.

If you can't get a cut end at all, you can't get a reliable match, from us or anyone else. Some things can't be measured from the front.

Step 2: Take the paint into account

Old skirting often carries decades of gloss. Paint does two things. It adds thickness, and it rounds over the crisp details: the sharp little step (the quirk) under a bead, or the edge where a curve meets a flat. A profile that was cut sharp can look soft under paint.

A real example. When we traced the board our own Quirked Ogee profile was taken from, it measured 171.8 × 19.1mm. The stock it was milled from was 170 × 18mm, and about 1.1mm of the “thickness” was paint on the face. Order 19mm stock to match what you measured and you'd be wrong by the paint.

What to do: read the section at the cut end, where the paint is thinnest. Look for the sharp corners, and assume anything that looks slightly rounded may once have been square.

Step 3: Record the section

There are three ways, from least to most accurate.

Profile gauge (the pin comb)

Push it against the face and it takes the shape. It's useful for a rough idea of what you have. It produces a stepped outline, though, and it can't reach into tight undercuts. Fine for “is this torus or ogee?”; not good enough to grind a cutter from.

Trace the cut end

Lay the offcut on a sheet of paper and draw tightly round the end with a sharp pen. Lay a bank card flat on the paper next to the line. Bank cards are a fixed international size (85.60 × 53.98mm), so they give a photo true scale. Then photograph the whole sheet from directly above. That's how our scanner works: AI uses the card to read your line in true millimetres, to ±1mm, and redraws the section.

If you'd rather use a printed guide, our A4 trace sheet has the scale marks built in. Print it at 100% (not “fit to page”), trace, and photograph.

Post the offcut

Nothing beats the timber itself. A workshop can read the section directly and check it against a cutter on the bench.

Step 4: Match it

With the height, thickness and section in hand, you have four realistic routes.

A. Stock boards

If your skirting is a common modern profile, such as a plain pencil round or bullnose, a merchant's stock board may well be right. Check the section against yours, not the name on the label.

B. Reclamation

Architectural salvage yards sometimes have runs of period skirting. It's hit and miss on length and profile, and the boards usually need stripping.

C. A library match

Many “period” boards turn out to be one of a handful of classic sections: torus, ogee, lamb's tongue, ovolo and their variants. If yours matches a cutter already on a rack, it's the quickest and cheapest route to an exact match.

With us: scan your board and the matcher compares your section against every cutter in our library. Matched profiles are milled to order in solid pine at six stock heights (95–220mm), from £18 to £36 per metre depending on height, in 5–7 working days. Need a height that isn't listed? The same curve at your exact stock height is £18 per metre, no cutter charge.

D. A bespoke cutter

If nothing on the rack matches, a new cutter is ground to your section. That's how profiles that stopped being made decades ago get reproduced.

With us: post the offcut, and we check it against your scan and grind a cutter to your exact section. Your first lengths are milled 7 days after the sample arrives, at £18 per metre plus £120 for the cutter (the cutter charge is waived on orders over 25m). You approve a traced overlay by email before the full order is cut, and the cutter stays on file, so the next metre is a reorder. How bespoke works →

Not sure? Post us a sample

If the photo won't come out clean, or you just want someone to look at the real thing: the sample match is £9, credited back against your order. Pay, get a postage QR on your phone, and drop a hand-width offcut (at least 10cm) in an envelope at any Post Office. It needs to fit a large letter: 353 × 250mm, no thicker than 25mm, no heavier than 750g. We scan it in the workshop and email your match within one working day of it arriving. If it's on the rack, we name the cutter. If it isn't, we quote the bespoke run.

Fitting new against old

• Match the height, then scribe the bottom. Old floors dip. Cut to the height of the existing board at the joint, and scribe the bottom edge to the floor rather than trusting the stock height along the run.
• Mind the thickness at the joint. New timber is at the stock thickness. The old board is thicker by its paint. Sand the paint back at the joint on the old board, or expect a fine step you'll fill.
• Prime the end grain. Our lengths come sanded and unfinished. Knot-seal and prime before fitting, including the cut ends.
• Join on a mitre, not a butt. A 45° scarf joint along a straight run hides the seam far better than a square butt.
• Don't forget the architrave. If the door linings share the same moulding, measure them too. Several of our profiles are also milled as architrave at 57, 70 and 95mm wide.

Questions

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