I have no idea what I'm doing! Help!

[whatsthecraictoday]

I am trying to add beading to some vinyl flooring and I've cut it all out (but not glued it yet). I've cut each end at differing 45 degree angles but no matter what I do I can't get the pieces to fit together nicely. There is always a gap! The man at B&Q just said to fill in the gaps with caulk but that just sounds very messy to me.

Other people seem to have seamless beading - any ideas what I'm doing wrong? I'm utterly useless at DIY! Couple of photos attached.

You really need a mitre box for these kind of cuts - they are really difficult to get right.
Bear in mind you need a 45 degree angle on the depth of the beading as well as face - ie: the back of the bead that touches the skirting board needs to be shorter than the front of the bead that is visible. I'm sure I'm explaining that really badly! But get a cheap mitre box (under a tenner) and make sure you sit the beading up in the box in the way it will sit in the final position and you should get a cut good enough to tidy up with a little bit of filler (rather than loads of filler!)

This is the thing which makes my dh swear the most and he is pretty good at DIY.

Thanks! Yes, I've been using mitre scissors and that might be where I'm going wrong. So if I use a mitre box and saw, it might be neater?

So, you’re going to need to consider a few things.

1. Mitering joins in skirting, beading etc is really difficult to get right. I consider myself pretty advanced with DIY and can’t get it professional - good enough, but not professional.

2. Your walls most likely aren’t at nice 90 degree angles. A mitre box is a good suggestion, but cutting at 45 degrees may not work. You may need to cut one piece at 49 degree and the other at 39 for example to get them to join neatly. Joiners will use a variety of tools to get the cut exact.

3. in your cuts you’ve not accounted for the overhang. You don’t finish the cut in line with the wall, you need the wedge bit to overhang to allow the next bit to butt up against it. It’s hard to explain, but in your second picture that is never going to meet with the other bit as it needs to be an inch or so longer.

4. Wood filler can be your friend rather than caulk in terms of filling gaps, but if they are large then it will still look crap.

5. Maybe consider using something easier to join like straight bits of wood. No need to do mitre cuts then and you just cut to length and butt up at 90 degree angles. Other consideration is you can get stick on tape that won’t be as nice looking but will defintely be better looking than a bodged load of beading with gaps everywhere.

If you want to see how the pros do it then loads of YouTube videos. As per the above, it’s an incredibly technical skill, and I think one of the hardest things in DIY to get looking good.

Like the others said, it's fiddly, but can be done. I have a mitre saw, so I can try as many cuts as I want, and I still struggle to get it perfect.

Take a couple of failed cuts and try lots of different approaches, until you get an angle right. Then use that to make your final cut identical, repeat with each angle. Stops you getting one right and then messing up the other end.

Also remember outer angles and inner ones are different.

What's the purpose of adding the beading? If it's to cover the edges of the vinyl then silicone sealant or caulking might be easier to get right.

Ideally you need a mitre saw, its very difficult to get accurate cuts first time by hand. Only the external cuts should be mitres . Internal cuts are easier scribed as the angles are rarely 90 degrees . In fact external angles are rarely 90 as well but it’s easy to adjust he saw.

this guy explains it well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Pvhcf95Aupc

Ah thank you everyone! I think I've been fooled by some YouTubers who said 'it's pretty easy' to do. I bought just one length of beading as a 'practice run' to see if I could do it. The walls and skirting needs painting first but I figured I'd at least have a go at chopping up and this was the result.

It might actually just be easier to pay a carpenter to do it! I did try the stick on stuff but it looked awful unfortunately!

I'm going to read all this advice through and use one more practice strip (and a mitre) to see if I can get any closer but failing that, might be a job for the pros!

You are right to consider asking a carpenter.

Part of being good at DIY is knowing when your skills and time available are not sufficient for the standard of job you want to do.

With a lot of practice and a good teacher you could master this skill but do you want to invest that much time and energy?
If you do a bodged job it will be sitting there annoying you all the time.

I'm sorry that this may sound rude but you are not even close to a professional finish yet and don't have any instinctive feel for the job. A carpenter would do a great job, fast and make it look easy but you know now that it isn't.

On the other hand if you love DIY (I do) you might massively enjoy learning a new skill and getting the satisfaction of a job well done in which case go for it!

PS a good way to practice is by making mini picture frames.

I did beading in our front room after we had Amtico fitted. I made exactly the same mistake you have at first. However, once you get the hang of it it’s quite straightforward, it actually needs a bit of concentration each time you cut !

You’ve made the cuts at the wrong angle, it’s really easy to do. How I did it was to line up the beading against the wall, see how the angle should look and make a pencil mark, then literally move it into the mitre box close by in the same position and cut (it will make sense when you do it). A mitre box is essential imo.

Once I’d got into the swing of getting the angle right, it was fine and four years later, mine is still looking good. Keep persevering but buy extra strips !

Mini picture frames are nothing like cutting mitres up to uneven floors/ out of plumb/level skirtings and out of square angles.
The best way to practice is get some scrap wood, anything smallish will do and use that on the mitres you need to cut. This way you can try cutting it as many times as you like and see where you are going wrong without wasting the beading with wrong cuts.

There are many different methods and tools that people use but the best way to learn is by doing it yourself. A joiner would use a mitre saw which makes it ten times quicker and easier than doing it by hand . Do you know anybody with one ? If not , as said above a small mitre block / box will make cutting more accurate.

Yep, you've made the wrong angles, the long edges should meet whereas you've cut them and butted up the short edges.

My husbands pretty good at it but it's obvious which ones he's done Vs our carpenter. Definitely worth getting a carpenter in if you want it to look good long term.