Curved Skirting 01: 45 Degree Bay Window

Two days ago (10/06/2020), city still under lock-down but some of us are back out there providing essential services. Construction and maintenance are obviously essential at times, but is kerfing? Well its something I have seen before on M.D.F board used in scooped sub-woofer speaker boxes, but I had never kerfed before. I don't think I had even seen kerfed skirting before. The customer required forming curved skirting to the interior of a 45 degree bay window. The reason for this is that if you install skirting in the normal fashion around a curved corner, it will square off the corner instead of following it. This leaves an unsightly void between the corner of the skirt and the curve of the wall, which requires filling and just looks clumsy.

two kerfed skirting boards.

I looked it up on you-tube and all the videos, plus search results, said cut 3/4 of the material thickness depth wise, and every 20mm width ways across the back of the board. Some said they cut the front of the board and leave the back intact. I found this completely inadequate. On the first kerf i installed I followed the 20 mm spacing, then to get the board to bend I had to widen all the cuts to about 5 mm. It started raining. This was not the first attempt nor the second. However, I stuck at it.

I decided to conquer the kerfs with small lengths of skirting. Incorporating the curve into a longer, straight run of skirting; resulted in the board snapping as I tried to curve it around the bay. Eventually I had the first kerf installed and I was so happy. I think the rain may have helped, even though I was working with MDF, it made the material a bit more malleable. I had tested that kerf on the other side of the bay and already knew it didn't work. Wondering what to do next didn't last very long; I cut the board every 10mm.

Testing a peice of kerfed skirting against the bay window

This was not enough, so I widened the cuts with a miter up to the roman ogee decoration. I didn't take this miter through the board because bits of the roman ogee would have gone flying everywhere and it wouldn't really have increased the flexibility. Sadly for me the kerf piece still wouldn't quite bend flat. Determined not to give up, or break this board that was so close to success I drew for the sand paper, pocket knife and tenon saw. It was time to get old school. I carefully cut away irregularities and carved out cuts to provide space, cleaning all the grooves of debris. After a while, I sighed a breath of relief followed by a surge of triumph.

I haven't once mentioned the customers who where a lovely family full of gratitude hospitality, care and understanding. They really and truly showed their appreciation for this work!

The final result

By the time I finished it was nearly 9.00 pm! However I could not start early because lock-down Screwfix doesn't open till 8.00 am and i needed some solvent free high grab Gripfill, which is actually really good. What sort of time is that! Stupid lock-down nonsense.