At the final stage of the arrangement of the floor, the places where the finish coating is attached to the walls of the room are usually covered with skirting boards. The most popular recently acquired plastic products. They are not only aesthetic and diverse, but also very functional. The question of how to cut a plastic baseboard arises from any home master who has encountered this procedure for the first time. Tools and devices for carrying out such work are quite simple and quite affordable.
Advantages of plastic products
Compared to its counterparts made of wood or MDF, plastic skirting boards have a number of advantages. Their undoubted advantages include:
- Durability and durability.
- Moisture resistance. They are suitable for installation in rooms with high humidity (bathrooms, showers and toilets).
- They do not need to be painted or applied with another protective coating.
- The construction market offers a huge selection of colors: from a variety of plain to imitate the structure of expensive wood species. It is easy to choose fillets for any interior design solution.
- Easy handling and wall mounting.
- Convenience with subsequent care. The only limitation: it is not permissible to use abrasive cleaners that can scratch the top decorative layer.
- Affordable price.
- Safety for human and animal health. All modern polymer materials for this purpose are made in strict accordance with sanitary standards and requirements.
Varieties
There are several types of plastic skirting boards for the floor, depending on the material of the finish coating:
- Special T-profile for framing floors with carpet. To decorate such products, strips are used, cut from the floor covering itself, which are fastened with double-sided tape.
- L-shaped products specially designed for fixing linoleum to the walls.
- Universal , which are suitable for floors of a wide variety of materials (from tile to laminate or parquet board).
By functional features, such products are:
- with a cable channel arranged inside the fillet (one or several) for laying wires for various purposes (telephone, antenna, computer or electrical).
- with pressed rubber strips along the edges for a snug fit to walls with roughness and roughness.
In terms of geometric dimensions, the choice is also quite wide. The width of the fillet, which is usually chosen, is proportional to the height of the ceiling of the room, can be from 40 to 150 mm. The standard length is 2 or 2.5 m. The thickness of the profile in the lower part, depending on the design, is within 10 ÷ 38 mm.
Tools and fixtures
When arranging the finishing framing of the floor, any home craftsman reasonably raises three main questions:
- How to cut a plastic baseboard?
- How to do it accurately and at the required angle?
- How and how to fix the chopped pieces to the wall?
Saw long products into separate parts of the required length using:
- grinders (with installed thin cutting disc);
- electric jigsaw;
- a hand saw (for metal or with small hardened teeth).
The final choice of how to cut the plastic baseboard depends on the tool already available, personal preferences and experience.
For reliable fixation of fillets to the walls of the room you will need:
- a punch (with a drill of the required diameter) or an electric drill (with a shock mode of operation);
- a set of dowels and screws;
- screwdriver or screwdriver (to save time and effort).
To accurately saw off pieces at the right angle, you will have to buy a miter box (of course, if it is not in the household). You can’t do without it.
Miter box: varieties and methods of use
The miter box for cutting a plastic baseboard is a special tool designed for accurate cutting at a certain angle. The simplest products are made of wood or plastic. In geometric form, they represent a segment of an inverted U-shaped profile. The side walls have narrow cuts for hacksaw blade. The most common fixtures until recently were fixtures with three cuts, allowing you to trim the end of the baseboard at angles of 45 ° and 90 °. However, the layout of modern apartments is very diverse and often there is a need to equip various corners of the premises. Therefore, manufacturers produce products with a large number of slots designed to install a hacksaw blade at various angles.
The price depends on the size and material of the device. So a plastic device from Stanley with a length of 310 mm, a width of 130 mm, a side height of 78 mm and the possibility of sawing at angles of 90 °, 45 ° and 22.5 ° now costs 750-800 rubles.
The application algorithm is quite simple:
- Using a marker and a ruler, we mark the cut line.
- Firmly press the profile to the vertical wall of the device so that the marking clearly coincides with the installation location of the saw.
- Gently saw off.
You can cut a plastic baseboard with a hacksaw for metal. This tool has its advantages: small cutting teeth and a small stain. However, the low longitudinal stiffness of a narrow hacksaw blade can adversely affect the quality of the processed surface. It is better to use special edge saws for this (with a wider and more rigid blade). Hardened teeth easily handle plastic.
More complex designs are the base with clamping clamps (for fixing the workpiece). The kit already includes a saw mounted on special rails. The cutting angle can be adjusted within wide limits. Materials for the manufacture of the base are metal or impact-resistant plastic. But such devices are already more expensive. So, the popular rotary models from Gross or KWB with a double-sided saw (the size and sharpening of the teeth for various materials), depending on the size, already cost 2200-4700 rubles.
Using such devices is very simple:
- set the necessary angle;
- the fillet is pressed to the bed with clamps, so that the marking is strictly under the saw blade;
- make a cut.
And even if you decide to make repairs in only one room, then you should think about renting such a device and not think about how to cut a plastic baseboard. Ease of use, speed and quality of processing will pay off the spent funds in full.
How and how to fix
The simplest, least labor-intensive and fairly reliable method of fastening is the use of universal quick-drying adhesive compositions such as "liquid nails". The disadvantages of this method include:
- When dismantling (if necessary) the product will most likely be spoiled, so initially it goes into the category of “disposable”.
- The inner surface of the fillet must have a sufficiently wide flat strip to allow the application of the required amount of glue.
If the delivery set of a plastic plinth for the floor includes fasteners: metal (or polymer brackets) or special long profiles, then first they are fixed to the wall with dowels and self-tapping screws. Further installation is quite simple. The product gently snaps onto already attached devices. The advantages of this method include: the possibility of multiple dismantling (this is especially convenient when changing wallpapers: the lower edge of the wall decoration can be wound behind the baseboard).
The presence of a cable channel with a decorative outer strip allows you to simply screw such a fillet to the wall through pre-drilled holes.
Docking of individual segments
When installing polymer fillets, they must be reliably and at the same time aesthetically joined at the corners of the premises to be equipped, and sometimes in a straight section, along a long wall. The best solution to the question of how to join the skirting board is to purchase the necessary number of special products. Almost all manufacturers of flooring edging products produce these small, but very convenient and necessary "details" of various geometric shapes:
- for arrangement of internal and external corners;
- for horizontal joining of straight lines;
- for closing ends.
These devices either simply snap on the ends of the profile using special antennae; or in the places of their installation, brackets are attached to the wall, and then docking elements are fixed to them.