A board-by-board skirting plan.
Measure each wall, mark any door opening and see how the pieces could fit onto full-length boards.
2. Your plan
Example estimate
Layout sketch · not an installation drawing
Your materials
What’s behind your estimate?
Why door positions matter
A door divides a wall into separate skirting pieces. We deduct its width and keep the lengths on each side. For example, a 4 m wall with a 0.9 m opening starting 0.3 m from the left leaves pieces of 0.3 m and 2.8 m.
Measure the actual unskirted opening, including architrave where applicable. For multiple doors on a wall, enter its uninterrupted runs separately with opening width set to 0.
How the boards are allocated
Pieces are sorted longest first and put onto the first stock board with room. The saw cut allowance is reserved wherever there is room after a cut. Pieces longer than the stock are split and a straight-run join is counted.
The purchase quantity is the larger of the suggested cutting-plan count and the net metres plus your extra percentage divided by stock length. A full spare board is shown when that calculation requires one.
Allowing for real cuts
The plan uses finished straight lengths and square cuts. Mitres, scribes, scarf joints, damaged ends and returns can require more material. Check every measurement, angle and allowance on site. The longest-first method is not guaranteed to find the absolute minimum number of boards.
Supplier guidance
Skirting 4 U: measuring and allowing for waste — a supplier reference, not a product endorsement.
Choose stock lengths that suit your walls, handling space and transport. Do not rely on a total-metres calculation alone.