Basically installing baseboards

Community

Posted By Keith Rowe

Posted 1 month ago

Many of us do impeccable work on our renovations. We plan for months before we order the dynamite for the walls we want moved, we agonize over the myriad nuances of hardwood, and we (hopefully) remember to consult our spouses before painting the room with argument red.

But the baseboards, which are a could-happen-any-time job, remain undone. Soon a should-have-been-done-yesterday job appears, which always trumps a has-to-be-done-now job and relegates a baseboard job to the not-yet-done pile.

First we need to paint our trim. I spray it with a professional sprayer because I love the finish it produces, but for most of us, two coats of high quality latex paint, applied with a brush in the direction of the trim will do the trick.

Apply trim to all the windows and doors before doing baseboards. Make the window trim ¼" larger than the window, and door trim 1/2" larger to accommodate hinges.

Most of us have access to an air compressor and 18-gauge brad nailer, but if not, they can be rented. Apply the trim with 2" brad nails, hitting wall studs/plates wherever possible-meaning fire the nail about 1 -1/2" from the window/door frame. Make sure you keep your hand more than 2" away from where you're nailing. Sometimes brads hit something, curl around, and come back out the wall. If your hand is too close you'll put on a pretty good show for anyone nearby.

To map out the baseboard, I draw out an approximation of the room on a full-sized piece of paper showing all walls around the perimeter, including closets. On this map I will write the length of each piece, as well as the angles at either end.

Now I pull out my cheap and trusty little yellow angle gizmolian thing (made by Pro-cise). I use it to check the actual angle of each corner. Due to the vagaries of framing and drywall, very few of the angles will be at 90 degrees.

Now, armed with the lengths and angles for each piece it's time to cut them. Set up the mitre saw in a location that will maintain household bliss-like a garage or outside-and cut each piece according to the drawing. Notice you have to divide the angle by two to get the right cut.

Next, apply the baseboard pieces using the brad nailer. Place the nails below 1-1/2" from the floor to hit the bottom plate of the wall. It's also good to place a nail in each stud at the top of the baseboard. Find the studs with a stud finder if necessary. Also at some point, place the stud finder on your chest while your spouse is in the room and press the button. It will beep and you'll say, "Look honey, I found a stud, hee hee hee." She'll hide how impressed she is by pretending to roll her eyes, but you'll know.

You may think that's it, but the next steps are the ones that will turn an OK trim job into a "look honey, I'm a stud!" professional quality job.

Get some non-shrinking sand-able fill and apply it to all the nail holes. Don't put it in the cracks, because they should be filled with caulk. Once dry, pass some fine sandpaper over the filled holes to smooth things out and it's ready for paint.

All the cracks at the corners need to be filled with a bead of caulk, as well as window trim and door jambs to give the finished product a professional, seamless look.

The trickiest part of the program is also the most important. Place a tiny bead of caulk, which matches the baseboard colour, on the horizontal crack between the baseboard and the wall. For this you'll cut the end of the tube as small as possible and carefully apply the bead. Every two feet or so wet a finger with saliva — for some reason the best stuff for the job – and run your finger along the beat to blend it. Make sure not to smear it or it will never look quite right.

A bit of touchup paint applied to the spots where you filled the holes will finish the whole thing off.

And there you have it. The baseboards are done. Now you can get to those have-to-be-done-todays before they become should-have-been-done-yesterdays.

Happy renovating.

Please write me at roweonrenos@gmail.com , or call me at 403-807-6124 if you have questions, comments, or topics you'd like me to cover here.

Keith Rowe owns Lighthouse Builders, a renovation

company operating in the Cochrane area.