Home Improvement | Green Home Improvements | Home Improvement Tips

We’ve had a few days of warm weather here on the East Coast lately and my wife and I have been running the ceiling fans in most of our rooms to keep the rooms cool without having to turn on our central air conditioner quite yet. Even though its been relatively mild outside we have a few rooms that get a lot of sun and warm up rather quickly.

I was sitting in my office last night and commented that even though the fan above me was on medium speed that it didn’t feel as though it was cooling the room very well. It was at that moment that I realized I had forgotten to switch the fan direction from “warming” to “cooling.”

You see, most ceiling fans will go in two directions: clockwise and counter-clockwise. Most ceiling fans sold these days have a small switch right “above” the blades (between the fan blades and the ceiling, on the “stem” of the fan) that control the fan blade blowing direction: right or left. Some fan manuals call these directions “forward” and “reverse” but I can never remember which direction is which. This fan direction switch is a pretty important feature because the ceiling fans will move air differently for each direction. You usually just need to flip the switch on the fan to change direction, but remember to use the same safety methods you used when you were cleaning your ceiling fan.

You can tell which way you fan is blowing by turning it on low and watching which way the blades spin. If the fan blades start moving to the right, then your ceiling fan is blowing clockwise. If the ceiling fan blades start moving to the left then your ceiling fan is blowing counter-clockwise. Simple so far… but which direction do you want for most fans?

Ceiling Fan Spinning Counter-Clockwise: Makes a room cooler by blowing the air downward. When the fan is spinning in a counter-clockwise direction you should feel a cool breeze coming down and around the room.

Ceiling Fan Spinning Clockwise: Makes a room warmer by creating subtle updraft which pushes the warm air near the ceiling down along the walls and into the room. When the fan in spinning in a clockwise direction you should not feel as much of a breeze.

Need to remember on the fly? Here’s a phrase that helps the memory: Counter-Clockwise Cooler (You just need to remember there are three C’s when it comes to ceiling fans!)

Stay cool this summer!

Technorati Tags: ceiling fan, cooler, warmer, clockwise, counter-clockwise, direction

This is kind of an optional step, but trim around a doorway really helps tie a room together. First you’ll have to remove the old baseboard molding and you’ll want to use the same methods for removing any trim that might already be around the doorways of a room. My doorways didn’t have anything, so I decided to put some trim around them.

For this project I’m going to paint my trim and molding white. I do this for a couple of reasons:

1. White trim and molding “brightens” a room. I find most stain to be too dark for my tastes.

2. It’s much easier to “hide” mistakes and blemishes with paint than stain. I’m an amateur at this and I tend to make mistakes. Paint helps me hide those mistakes.

3. Paint-grade trim and molding is actually a little cheaper than “stain-grade” trim and molding. With stain-grade molding the assumption is that you’re coloring the wood, but the wood grain and compositions will still be visible. With paint-grade trim and molding the assumption is that you’ll be completely covering the wood, so it doesn’t have to be quite as beautiful of a cut. If you’re going to paint your trim you will also find that you have a few extra options in materials you can use. You’ll likely be able to use wood or some of the various plastic or composite materials now available. I’ve used just about all the different types and I have to admit the composites are nice because they are a little lighter and more flexible than your typical piece of pine.

4. All the other trim and moldings in my home are painted white.

Measure twice, cut once. To be extra sure of measurements hold the trim piece up to where it’s going to end up going against the wall.

Why should you put trim around the doorways before continuing with the baseboards? Because your baseboards will most likely terminate at all the doorways around the room, so you need to know if they’re going to end right at the doorway or if they’re going to wrap around or simply terminate at the trim of the doorways. I like terminating at the trim of doorways because I think it has a finished look and because all the doorways with doors in my home do it this way.

You can use almost anything for trim around a door, but you might want to stick to patterns and designs that are meant for baseboard molding. For my doorways I decided to use a simple 2 1/2″ wide baseboard molding that had a gentle tapering to it. I put the tapered end against the opening of the doorway and put the thicker end facing away from the door.

Before you put your trim up do yourself a favor: paint it first. Yes, you will end up cutting off painted pieces, but if all the trim is already painted when you put it up you’ll only have to do touch-up painting afterwards and you won’t have to worry about accidentally painting the wall or the floor or the cat or anything else. I actually put my wood trim pieces on a couple of saw horses in the garage and paint them when they’re lying flat. This helps to eliminate drips and helps things dry evenly.

When putting trim around a doorway you’re generally going to have three pieces: a left side, a right side and a top. The pieces fit together pretty simply, with a 45 degree cut on the ends of the two side pieces and a piece across the top with two 45 degree cuts. You have a couple different options for cutting trim, but using a miter box and a handsaw or simply using an electric miter saw are the two easiest ways to make sure you get the right cuts. I’ve done it both ways and the electric saw can make a cut in about 1 second while the miter box and handsaw will take you a while to line everything up and make sure it’s all in place before you sit there and run your saw back and forth 20 times.

A miter saw makes short work of cutting trim at a 45 degrees angle.

As with all wood projects the devil is in the measuring. Measuring carefully and deliberately is the key here. I measured each piece a couple different ways. I first took down a tape measurement of the floor up the very corner of the left opening of my doorway. Then I did the same with the right side. I do this because I’ve found that the even though things look perfectly level and even in a house doesn’t mean that they are. In this case the right side of my doorway was about 1/8 inch higher than my left. After taking that measurement I brought in a piece of trim and laid it up against the left side of the doorway, exactly as it would be placed. I used a pencil and put a mark right where the top of the doorway met the side of the doorway. I then measure from the end of the board to the mark. If you’re good it should be exactly the measurement that you got when you measured from the floor up.

I do all this because I have found myself rushing through measuring projects before and inevitably I’ll be off a 1/4 inch somewhere along the line because I either wasn’t paying attention or didn’t bother remeasuring. I go by the old adage of measure twice and cut once… Trust me, it’s very difficult to uncut wood!

Don’t beat up your trim with hammer marks. Countersink the nail so that it is below the surface of the trim.

Now that you have a mark or measurement on the piece of trim you’re going to use I suggest you add another 1/16th inch to the whole thing. Why? Because whenever you cut wood you really are “removing” the wood along the line of the saw blade and most saw blades end up taking out about 1/16th of an inch of wood. Think about it this way: if you have an 8 foot piece of wood and you use a saw to cut it half you will NOT end up with two four foot boards. You might instead end up with one board that is four feet long and one that is 47 and 15/16 of an inch long. That missing 1/16th of an inch is lying on the floor as pile of sawdust. The lesson I’ve learned: I often slightly “overmeasure” because I can always go back and sand or even plane off a slight layer of wood.

You’ll then use your miter saw or miter box to cut from the mark you measure on the trim (which should be the “thinner” side of the trim that facing the doorway) and cut “outward” to the thicker side of the trim.

Above: Gap between trim pieces before being filled in with joint compound.
Below: Gap after being filled in but before being painted.

Once you’ve cut your left side you may want to nail it up. For trim I simply use tack or paneling nails. I do not generally hammer nails straight into the trim because I have awful luck with splitting wood. I almost always drill a hole with a 1/16th drill bit and then hammer my nail into that hole. Most doorways have studs around them so you probably won’t have much trouble getting the trim nice and tight against the wall. For the moment put on nail in just to keep the trim there. You may eventually have to move it slightly.

Do the same with the right side. You should now have a left side and right side piece of trim attached. All you have to do now is measure and cut the top piece. I usually take a few measurements for cuts, cut one side of the top piece and then actually lay it against one of the side pieces. I’ll then mark the other side, cut and lay it in place. If things don’t quite line up you can now sand or move the pieces around slightly to try to get them all fitting together tightly.

Once everything is in place just go ahead and drill a few holes and drive small nails into the holes. I pound the nails in until they’re real close to flush. I then use a counter sink to drive the nail head down “into” the trim so that I leave a little hole that can be filled in later.

I’m going to tell you something that most experts won’t tell you. I’m telling you this because I’m not an expert: Don’t worry if the pieces of trim don’t line up with one another perfectly. I usually try to line up the outside of the trim so it’s nice and square but if you have a few gaps between that can always be “covered up” and it’s pretty easy. If you have gaps you can just use a little joint compound to fill them in. Smooth the compound out and when you touch it up with a coat or two of paint the gap will be practically invisible unless you’re looking for it. Do the same with the nails holes: just fill them with some joint compound and paint over them when dry.

Don’t get me wrong: this does take a little practice. I generally use a finger to smooth the compound into the crack and even it out. Don’t be afraid to get your hands a little dirty. After it’s all dried just go ahead and sand it smooth and apply a coat or two of paint. I’ve found that I can replicate the “texture” of rolled on pain by using a sponge brush dipped in a touch of paint. I just tap the sponge brush against the trim a couple times leaving a thin layer of paint that has some bumps with it.

Now that I have the trim up it’s onward to installing the new baseboard molding!

Technorati Tags: doorway trim, miter saw, molding, countersink nails

Baseboard molding, the wood trim that lines a room where the walls meet the floor, is an often an over-looked part of any room, but it can really make a big difference in the overall look and feel of a room. Baseboards not only serve as a decorative function, but they also protect the lower part of the wall from being damaged as furniture legs, little feet and even toys are bumped and slammed against the walls over the years. The baseboards in my fifty year old home are dented and chipped and even rotted out in a few places, so we figured we’d replace them with new molding that was also a little more modern-looking.

Use patience when prying off old baseboards or you’ll end up with a hole in your wall.

The first step to installing new baseboards in an older home is obviously removing the old baseboards that were probably installed fifty years ago and have been painted over about 100 times. Removing the old baseboards is a pretty straight forward process, but there are a couple things to be careful of when you do it. For this project I’m going to remove the baseboards in my dining room and I’ll put in a few photos of how to do it.

Let’s first talk about tools. You’ll need a hammer and one or two small pry bars. Really, you can’t imagine all the ways a simple 8-inch pry bar can be used around the house. You may also find a razor blade or knife to be useful to cut through the many, many layers of paint you may find. You’ll probably need a tool to remove nails, though most hammers and pry bars will work fine in this case. Using gloves and goggles is a pretty good idea for this part because you’ll be dealing with exposed nails and possible bits of paint and wood debris flying in your face.

If you’re removing the old baseboards in a full room you’ll probably want to start with one of the shorter pieces in the room. Look at the baseboard you want to remove and see if it’s “painted” to the wall or floor or another baseboard. If it is then you might want to take that razor and carefully move along the edges of the baseboard where it it is painted to something else. For my baseboards someone had long ago painted down the wall and right over the boards, so I had to run a razor along the top of the baseboard to separate it from the wall.

Yes, I know it’s only paint but you’d be surprised at how tightly things can be held together with paint. I didn’t do this step in another room and when I tore off the baseboards I ended up ripping up part of the wall because the paint was so old and so thick that it simply “stuck” to the boards and pulled off the top layer of sheet rock in a rip that went up about 8 inches before I got smart and cut it free.

Now comes the fun part. Take your pry bar and jam it between the baseboard and wall on one end of your baseboard. If it’s a tight fit or simply can’t go between, don’t worry. Place the sharp end of the pry bar right between the wall and baseboard and then take a wack or two at the end of the pry bar with the hammer. That slams the pry bar between the wall and baseboard piece. Now you should be able to wiggle the pry bar forward and backward a little bit and your baseboard will begin to loosen.

Just pull the pry bar out, move down the baseboard another six inches to a foot and repeat the same thing, all the way down the line. You’ll begin to get an idea of where the nails in the baseboard are. In my experience baseboards are usually nailed into the studs of the wall and then sometimes down at an angle into the floor below. Be careful about prying the baseboards with too much force. Your walls are a lot softer than the steel pry bar you’re using and it’s pretty easy to accidentally poke a hole right through it. Trust me on this one… I still manage to pop a hole in my wall at least once in every room I replace the baseboards in.

After prying the old baseboard off the wall, be careful around the exposed nails.

Sometimes it helps to have two pry bars as you move down, one pry bar to push in one spot and another one a foot or two away to also push the baseboard off. In my home the carpenters seemed to like attaching the baseboards with one or two large nails at each stud and then they used a few small tack nails around the ends and corners. Thankfully they did not use caulk or Liquid Nails or any other sort of adhesive behind the baseboards. In my mind there’s rarely a valid need for the stuff and it almost always rips your walls apart when you try to remove anything put up with it. My brother-in-law bought a home where Liquid Nails was used to put up paneling in one room. After he had removed the paneling the sheet rock was so torn up and ripped by the Liquid Nails that he ended up just ripping out all the sheet rock and starting from scratch rather than trying to repair them.

Just keep prying the baseboard off with the pry bar. Sometimes the baseboards will pop right off, but sometimes you may need to use your hands and simply use some brute force to pull it off. I’m a big believer in the “inch it out” method of pulling one area out a few inches, doing the same a foot down and going until I have the whole baseboard pulled out a few inches from the wall. This way I can see where the nails are what is really holding it to the wall. Eventually it just comes down to yanking the darn thing off.

Be careful of the exposed nails, and realize that you may have left some nails in the floor or wall. Bang then back in or remove them so they don’t stick out and pose a hazard for the new baseboard molding you’ll put up later. And watch for the nails in your removed baseboard. I’ve come darn close to poking myself more than once, which is why I wear gloves all the time now. Driving rusty nails into your hand is not a fun experience.

That’s pretty much all there is to it: cut the paint, bang in the pry bar, pry away, and then repeat a foot down the board. Be careful! It isn’t particularly hard work, but it is something you want to take your time with because there is the potential for banging up your walls, your floor and even yourself pretty good.

Now that you’ve taken off the baseboards we’ll want to start thinking about putting new ones up!

About two weeks ago my wife and I were sitting in our dining room when I noticed that one of our 45 year old original baseboards was cracked. I should have kept quiet, but I mumbled to myself, “Hmm, I guess I should replace that baseboard…”

The first pyramid was built when the Pharaoh’s wife asked for a stone bench to be moved ‘a little to the left.’ The rest is history…

My wife quickly replied, “If you’re going to replace that one board, couldn’t we pick something a little more modern?”

“I guess we could, but if I rip out these old thick baseboard some of the unfinished wood beneath might show.”

“Can you put shoe molding in here?” my wife asks.

“Sure,” I answered. “I can put in shoe molding and just end it right at the two doorways.”

“But aren’t we thinking about putting trim around the doorways?”

I sighed, seeing where this was going, “Yes… we’ve been talking about doing that for years, though.”

“So, why not do them at the same time you replace the baseboards?”

I could have but I marveled at how we had gone from the simple job of replacing a baseboard to replacing all the baseboards to installing shoe molding to putting trim up around the doorways. I had gone from a 20 minute job to an 8 hour job in a matter of second.

And that’s the project I’m in the middle of now: trim around the doorways, baseboards around the floor and shoe molding to finish it all off. The room already has crown molding, or I’d probably be doing that, too.

Over the next few weeks I’ll post photos and show you some of the tricks I’ve learned for installing all this interior wood. I’m no expert, but I’ve done it enough to know what to expect and how to get the basics up and done. After I’ve gone through all that I’ll back track and write up how you can install crown molding!