This is the last of three posts about installing baseboard molding. We’re finally ready to install the new baseboard molding. We’ve just removed the old baseboard molding and trim and we’ve installed the new trim around the doorways. Just like when we installed the trim, you’ll want a nail gun or a hammer with a countersink to put the nails in neatly without banging up the wood too much.
A quick word about paint. I paint all my baseboards white and I paint them all before I even begin any of this measuring or cutting stuff. I just lay them out across some saw horses and give them two good coats of paint with a roller. I use a roller instead of a brush because I like the texture of paint that’s been put on with a roller instead of a brush. That’s just me, I guess. Yes, we’re going to cut these pieces and probably nick them up a little bit here and there installing them, but it’s a lot easier to touch up some paint spots once they’re on rather than try to paint them perfectly once they’re installed.
The most difficult part of installing baseboard moldings is often the process of cutting the angles just right. I’m going to tell you something that I’m really not supposed to say: you can fake it. Seriously. If your room is even remotely rectangular then you can simply cut all your baseboards on a 45 degree angle and then “patch up” or fill in the corners with caulk if they don’t look perfect. If you aren’t sure how to use a caulk gun then just use a little caulk from a squeeze tube and smooth it out with your finger. This doesn’t mean you can be sloppy with the baseboard cutting, but it means that the project is something a beginner can definitely accomplish with a little bit of practice and still end up with great looking baseboards.
Measuring Baseboards
You’ll want to measure the distance along the wall for one of your baseboards. It really doesn’t matter where you begin, though you might want to try starting in a “less visible” part of the room that might be hidden behind furniture so that you can practice a little bit. Let’s say you’re starting with a section of wall that has piece of trim on one side and a corner on the other. Measure from the edge of the trim to the corner. Now measure it again. Really. Get down to the 16th of an inch if you can. Now make a note of it and measure it again. Still the same? Good.
Cutting the Baseboard Molding
Now the cutting. This is a little daunting at first, especially if you’re not very good at figuring out puzzles. Here’s what I recommend: practice. Really. Buy an 8 foot piece of cheap trim and cut it into 1 foot increments if you have to. Then take two 1 foot pieces and cut one for each “side” of a corner. I’ve even made up some cheat trim pieces that I’ve used to explain these things to other people. Here are some of the things you’ll have to consider:
There are only really two types of corners: Inner Corners and Outer Corners. Inner corners are the places where dust bunnies collect. A square room would have four inner corners. Outer corners are those corners that you can skin your little toe on when you’re walking past them at three o’clock in the morning. You may have them around doorways that don’t have any trim or if your room is not a pure rectangle. Okay, now look at either type of corner and use the point where the two walls meet as a center point. The piece of baseboard to the left of the center point is called the “Left” side and the piece of baseboard to the right of the center is called the “Right” side. Pretty easy, huh?
As for a choice of cutting: if you’re going to do more than one room…ever… then spend the money on a compound miter saw. I did my first room using a handsaw and a miter box and it took me about four times longer than it should have because for every single cut I had to spend 10 minutes line up the baseboard molding in a flimsy little saw box and then manually sawing through the wood. It’s no fun. Really.
Now all you have to do is take a few practice pieces and cut out a left and right piece for an inner corner and a left and right piece for an outer corner. If you’re using a miter box then you’re going to have some pretty good arm muscles after this. A compound miter saw will make short work of this. In either case you’re going to lay the piece of baseboard with the back down (so the good face of the baseboard is facing up) and you’re going to cut it at a 45 degree angle, either coming in from the left or coming in from the right. Some compound miter saws only tilt one way, so you’ll have to move the baseboard upside down in and cut it.
My baseboards with a gap in the corner and nail hole still visible. This is an “inner” corner with a left and right piece.
Okay, now that you’ve practiced your cutting it’s time for the real thing. Let’s go back to that example where we have a piece of door trim on one side and a corner in the other. Let’s look at an imaginary wall and pretend the baseboard is on the right side and six feet away is an inner corner. That means the piece of baseboard molding we’re working with is a “left” inner corner because it is left of the center point where the two walls meet. First, cut the trim side of the baseboard molding straight down. Lay the baseboard on your compound miter saw and cut straight down into it. Done.
Now take your tape measure and measure down to the six foot point. Mark it. Don’t cut yet. You have to plan to have the saw blade come out the BACK of the baseboard at the six foot mark, but it will go into the front of the baseboard a little bit short of the six foot mark because you’re going in at a 45 degree angle from the left. Yes, this is tricky at first and it is why those practice pieces are so important. Depending on the thickness of your baseboard it might be a quarter to a half inch before the six foot mark in our case.
After cutting you get to take your baseboard to the spot where it goes and try to fit it in. If it fits perfectly then congratulations! If it is still too long then you’ll have to take it back and shorten it. Here’s a tip: shorten it on the trim side because that’s a straight-down cut and you don’t have to worry about any angle cutting. Always cut a little less off than you think you need. You can always cut off a little more but it’s pretty darn difficult to make a board longer once it’s been cut.
Installing The Baseboards Against The Wall
The same gap filled with caulk. I haven’t even painted at this point, but it looks much, much better. Yes, I also have shoe molding installed in this photo.
Once the cutting is done it’s time to install! You can use a nail gun and basically just fire a nail or two into the baseboards or you can do the same method I used when installing the trim: drill a small hole and then tap in some tack nails and counter-sink them. The trick here: drive the nails into the studs along the wall. Driving nails into your baseboards and into Sheetrock ultimately won’t do you much good.
Some people also recommend using glue or liquid nails behind the baseboards. I’m not a fan of this stuff because I’ve had to remove things that had glue and it often destroys your walls. As long as your baseboard and walls are fairly straight a few good nails should keep them in place and tight. There are almost always studs around doorways and in corners, so you should be able to at least nail in the ends of most pieces of baseboard pretty well.
Just keep going around the room. It will probably take longer than you plan, but that’s a good sign that you’re measuring it well. Don’t fret if your corners aren’t 100% perfect? Why? Because we have white caulk to save us.
See, if you have a gap or your corners don’t quite line up you can take a little bit of interior white caulk and fill in the spaces. Take your finger and run it over the gap, making sure the caulk is in and flush with the area around it. Have some wet paper towels or a rag ready to get the caulk off your fingers or floor or wall or hair or where ever else it happens to end up. When the caulk is dry a day or two later inspect your handiwork and then paint over it to make sure it matches. I like to “dab” on the touch up paint all over my baseboards and trip with a cheap sponge brush because it kind of copies the texture of rolled on paint.
That’s it!
I’m going to be honest: no amount of reading alone will make you a pro at this. Buy a baseboard or two and practice the painting and the cutting and even the installing if you’re unsure. You’ll get the hang of it. I’ve done a couple rooms now and I’m still finding new tricks and facing new challenges each time. Once you get going with a project like this you quickly lose your fear and just keep barreling ahead. That’s part of the fun of home improvement projects like this: the end results can look really nice but if you screw it up it’s not like your house is going to catch fire. You can always try again later.
And remember this: right after the job you’ll see every single flaw and dent and gap in the baseboard molding. Give it a week and you’ll be surprised at how you simply forget or don’t see all those flaws. Another saving grace for baseboard molding: it’s down low, in the dim light, at least five feet away from where most adults keep their eyeballs when they walk in a room.
After a while you’ll be walking into you room and glancing around and saying, “Those are some darn nice baseboards if I do say so myself…”
Read all of my Baseboard Molding Posts Part 1 – Removing the Old Baseboards |
Thank you for this article. I tried coping, but just can’t get the hang of it. This helped to calm me down and realize I can do baseboards.
I’m glad this helped! Good luck on your baseboard project!
Yeah, simply cutting at a 45 degree angle and then filling in the slight gap with a little white caulk seems to be about 1000 times easier than trying to cope the edges… and ultimately you get results that are completely indistinguishable as far as I can tell. I do the same with crown molding: skip the coping, go for the simple cut.
That inside corner doesn’t look good at all! Please cope your inside corners for a tight seamless fit. I’m not allowed to use any caulk on some jobs.
Arthur:
Be fair, the photo is before I painted and cleaned up the corner. It does look a little sloppy in the photo, but it’s actually pretty good looking in my room. You also have to realize that in that photo I’m about 12 inches away from the corner, looking straight at it. Honestly, once a corner is caulked and painted properly you really can’t tell if it’s been coped or not.
And… Guy, if you’re reading a DIY home improvement site like this and you’re working on “some jobs” that require baseboard molding installation maybe you should consider a new line of work :-)
I wouldn’t recommend that any woodworking or carpentry professional try coping a baseboard when the old 45 degree miter and a little caulk and paint will give you the same result with much less frustration.
[...] Now that I have the trim up it’s onward to the final step: installing the new baseboard molding! [...]
How about the shoe trim, how did you install that? Is that liquid nailed to the baseboard and then the seam is painted?
Also what kind of complications does carpeting throw into the loop? Are baseboards stapled into the carpet? What do I have to do special when replacing baseboards on carpet? Will the baseboards touch the wood under the carpet or be elevated to be flush with the carpet?
I want to thank you for posting this. I have been trying to find a decent DYI site which lists baseboard replacing, to no avail… not even on This Old House. This was fun to read and EASY to read… which is even better. I was thinking “OMG I have to figure out how to cope baseboard”. This way, I am a LOT more confident that I can handle putting in new baseboard in my kitchen.
THANK YOU!
Adam: The shoe molding I installed just about the same way… I measured and cut it first, then I used put it in with nails. But if you JUST bang the shoe molding in with nails you’ll split it. You should take the smallest drill bit you can find and actually drill tiny holes in the shoe molding, then nail in small tack nails into the holes (hopefully the tack nails are slightly bigger than the holes)… You can use a countersink to put the nailheads below the surface of the shoe molding, fill in the holes with a tiny drop of caulk and paint if needed. And, yes, you can then put a line of caulk along the top and possibly bottom of the shoe molding if you need it.
For carpet… hmm… I don’t have any wall-to-wall carpet in my current home, but in my previous home I think I took off the shoe molding (but kept the baseboard molding on)…. put down the carpet (okay, I had someone else do that) and then I put the shoe molding back on, putting it low and tight against the edges of the carpet. The shoe molding should always be the last thing down. As for replacing the baseboards in a room with wall-to-wall carpeting you might run into a problem with the carpet’s tack strips actually getting in the way of easy baseboard removal. You’ll still be able to get the baseboards off and put them back in, but it might be a little inconvenient or even damage the edge of the carpeting (which can be hidden by shoe molding!)…
Amy: Thanks for the kind words. I have to get better about posting A LOT more photos and even videos. I’ll be honest: I’m now a baseboard/crown molding nerd and I pay attention to them wherever I go. I have yet to see coping that looks any better than a simple 45 degree angle as long as the baseboards or crown molding is painted. Even if it’s stained, you can get some stainable wood filler that looks pretty good. I’ve put various types of molding in a couple rooms now and never, ever saw the need to cope. I’m sure there is one, I just can’t figure out what it is :-)
And, hey, if any of you have photos of your molding jobs send ‘em to me and I’ll post them with any tips or trips you picked up!
Thanks for the help Tom. This is a great DIY guide for newbies like myself. I honestly feel that trim make all the difference to the look of a home. I will let you know in a few months how well this guide worked when I replace the baseboards in my new old house.
The baseboards from the kitchen and the living room meet, but do not line up evenly. Is there a trick to ease from one room to the next with the different floor levels (tile in kitchen and carpet in living room)?
Linda,
Hmm… how far off are they? If it’s just a half inch or so you might be able to slightly angle one of the baseboard up to meet the higher one and it may not be all that noticeable. Another option might be to purposely make the transition from one room to the next “fancier” at the baseboard molding level. Since you have carpet going into tile (I’m guessing it’s one large “room” divided into different areas with flooring), perhaps you could put a little decorative molding connector or centerpiece between the baseboard molding where the two rooms meet. If you go poking around at your local big box hardware store you’ll find lots of plain and decorative “pre-cut” baseboard and molding pieces that are decorative and can be painted. Some are wood, but some are also made of other materials… Let us know what you decide or send a photo, I’d love to help others with this issue because it probably crops up a lot.
Thanks for the tips, I agree that just cutting 45′s is sufficient on most jobs. I installed trim on new walls for the first time and i thought the 45′s looked great. One issue I had was that the trim would lean into the bottom of the wall where there was a gap between the drywall and the floor. It also happened to be vertically croked becasue I did not mud all the way to the bottom of the floor. The fix for thi was simple. I just put a 1 5/8 drywall screw into the wall behind the baseboard with the screw pretruding a bit. This pushed out the trim so that it was straight up and down. really helped on the corners. I suppose you could also use some other sort of shim. Thanks again for the article.
rather cope and fit tight. the lumber will shrink and so will the caulking. just my opinion. your friend alex.
Alex,
If you can cope well, more power to you! :-)
I tried multiple times to cut and cope my baseboard edges so they would fit together like puzzle pieces…and I never got the hang of it. I have turned into a baseboard and crown molding junky and I always (really, it’s obsessive) check out crown and baseboard molding cuts and joins whenever I go somewhere.
I honestly can’t say if I notice one method more than the other. Obviously, if the they’ve been painted over after being joined it’s almost impossible to tell what method was used.
As for shrinkage, yes, I agree. Wood and caulk can and will shrink over time. When I cut my baseboards at a 45 degree angle I do everything I can to make sure they fit tightly, but if I’m off by 1/16th of an inch or so I don’t scrap the whole piece of molding and start over. That’s where the caulk comes in :-)
The gap in my photo up there is a little larger than I would have liked. Some of my other baseboards fit together like clockwork. Really!
I also think the design of the baseboards or molding can determine how easy or difficult it is to cope. A simple pattern might lend itself to coping, while something relatively ornate could be tricky.
As derek said in comment 12 the screw trick is a great idea. Here are some tips for all you new guys to make this real easy. Living below new orleans ive done alot of remodeling after katrina. Always use a 3/8 spacer under the base boards to space for carpet. I do not use shoe molding in carpeted rooms as the carpet just tucks under the baseboard. Cut spacers from 3/8 dowels and place them every 3ft or so when setting baseboard in place. Cut 45′s but make sure you dont cut short. You can always trim some off. Drive 1 5/8 drywall screw into toe plate just under bottom edge of sheetrock. Have it high enough off the ground to where it touches bottom edge of sheetrock. MAKE SURE it drives in straight meaning perpendicular to toe plate. the screws shold be no more than three inches away from the corner. If against doot trim, I usually put screw at same height but very close to door trim. No more than 1/4 inch away. Heres how to set depth of screw. Drive it in until it protrudes about 1/16th above surface of drywall. Do this to both sides of the corner. Take your two test pieces of baseboard about two foot long and but them together in the corner with the 45′s together and see how it meets up. If any adjustments need to be made to kick the bottom of the joints in or out just drive the screw in or out to adjust. Another method which I use which is pretty fast is I pu my test baseboard piece into place and put a small machinist square on the face of the baseboard and read the bubble level on it. If its perfectly level along the face of the test piece that side is good to go. If not adjust screw in or out until it is perfectly level (plumb) meaning so the bottom is not cocked in or out. Do this to both sides of the corner with your test pieces and the joints will match up perfectly. Some will be so tight you will need no caulking at all and touch up paint will cover the joint line. This may sound like alot of work, but once you understand the method and get the rhythem I can set a corner in 2 minutes then just take my measurments and cut my base boards and drop them on the spacers and nailgun them in place very quickly. Most importantly, if your length of cut is correct (long enough) your joints will be perfectly square and super tight. No tilting in and out at the bottom. The 3/8 space should transition perfectly into rooms with tile as that is about thickness of it. Do a test piece if a carpeted room meets a room with tile and you can adjust your spacers so the carpeted room base is the same height as the tiled room base. Better to check then to lay all your base and find out it’s a different height. I’ve heard people going as high as 1/2 inch spacers under baseboard for carpeted rooms and the carpet should tuck under the base just fine if its thick enough. Your carpet guy should know how to do this despite if the space is 3/8 or 1/2 inch. Coping looks good but is not needed if you take the time and learn the method and cut pieces the proper length. Like I said my joints are usually so tight i just hit them with paint when touching up the nail holes. Linda read my section on spacer heights and your different rooms will match up. Also like author said from a couple feet away it looks flawless if you do a good job.
I was just gonna buy some cheap 8′ long sections. they look like wood but the guy said they are like a plastic. Anyways, they look fine to me and they are so much cheaper then the wood moldins. Can I just make the flush starting from one side and going to the other without cutting? And just use caulk in the seems??
Dan,
Yeah, there are lots of different “wood-alternative” materials that are used for baseboard and crown moldings and they all look pretty good these days, but it might look a little better if you painted it to give it some texture or color. I’ve found the non-wood stuff to actually be a little more flexible and forgiving than wood (I used some for crown molding in one of my rooms.
You could just slap the boards together and caulk the seams, but that line might be a tad bit more noticeable than angling the seam with an overlap. Of course, the other trick with baseboard seams is to try to work it out so all your seams are behind big, heavy pieces of furniture that you’re unlikely to move in the near future ;-)
My house has existing baseboards that I would like to keep. However, it needs trim around one doorway. How do I go about putting the old baseboards on to fit around the new trim?