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Skirting and architrave calculator: how many lengths

Type the length of each wall and where the doors are. It works out the skirting (baseboard) for every stretch of wall, stopping at each doorway, and the architrave (casing) round each door, then the lengths of each to buy. Free, with no sign-up.

The walls

Each wall's length along the floor, corner to corner.

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The doors

Each doorway's size inside the lining, and how far its lining is from the wall's left end.

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The timber

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Skirting

Buy 1 × 12 ft, 3 × 10 ft

40.93 ft along the walls in 5 pieces, mitred or scribed into the corners.

  • Wall 1: 9 9/16" and 97 9/16"
  • Wall 2: 120"
  • Wall 3: 144"
  • Wall 4: 120"

Architrave

Buy 2 × 14 ft, 1 × 7 ft

2 sets (a door's two legs and its head, on one side): 4 legs (82 7/16", mitred at the top) and 2 heads (36 7/8", mitred at both ends).

Skirting, length 1 of 4: 12 ft
144
Skirting, length 2 of 4: 10 ft
120
Skirting, length 3 of 4: 10 ft
120
Skirting, length 4 of 4: 10 ft
97 9/16
Architrave, length 1 of 3: 14 ft
82 7/1682 7/16
Architrave, length 2 of 3: 14 ft
82 7/1682 7/16
Architrave, length 3 of 3: 7 ft
36 7/836 7/8

How it works

Skirting runs along each wall from corner to corner and stops either side of a door at the architrave's outside edge. Each stretch left is a piece of skirting, cut from the lengths you can buy; a stretch longer than the longest length is joined.

Architrave goes round each door on the side you choose, or both: two legs from the floor, mitred at the top, and a head across them mitred at both ends, set back a few millimetres from the edge of the lining so the line of the lining shows. The pieces are cut from the architrave lengths you can buy, longest first, with the saw cut allowed.

For measuring a room and what to allow, see skirting and architrave: how much do I need.

Questions

Where does the skirting stop at a door?

At the outside edge of the architrave, not the lining: the architrave's width plus the gap it's set back from the lining, each side of the doorway. Each stretch of wall left is its own piece of skirting.

How long are the architrave legs and head?

Each leg is the doorway's height inside the lining, plus the set-back, plus the architrave's width, mitred at the top. The head is the width inside the lining plus two set-backs and two architrave widths, mitred at both ends. That's one set; a door with architrave on both sides of the wall takes two.

What if a wall is longer than the skirting lengths?

The skirting is joined: the run is made from parts as long as the longest length, none shorter than 300 mm, and the answer says how many joins there are. A scarf joint (two 45° cuts) hides a join best.

Does it allow for mitres at the corners?

Each piece is measured along the wall to the corner. In an inside corner that's the length to scribe to, or the long point of a mitre. Round an outside corner the mitre's long point is further out, by the skirting's thickness, so allow that much extra there, and a little over if you're new to cutting them.

Is this the same as JoinerKit's skirting and architrave?

Yes. The same rules put skirting along the walls and architrave round the doors and windows in JoinerKit, where the room, its doors and its fitted furniture are drawn, so skirting also stops at units standing on the floor.

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