|
Crown Molding
Crown molding can be extremely frustrating for DIY'ers. Once you become familiar with the crown and basic physics of cutting it, it becomes easy fairly fast. Most people have trouble with cutting crown because they have trouble with the concept of cutting it upside down on the saw. I know it sounds strange, but when cutting crown molding you bed it on miter saw with the bottom of crown up and resting against saw fence. There are many profiles of crown but generally, the small detail is the bottom of the crown, so this would be placed up against the saw fence and the top would be down against the saw table. The crown shown in the attachment is shown with bottom up and is a typical crown profile.
I will be attaching photos of everything I discuss as time permits, so check back with this site at your convenience. Also please forgive my punctuation etc. as I'm a carpenter and keyboards are not my forte, but I can help you begin to understand basic carpentry techniques.
Crown molding can really spice up a room and add value to your property. It gives an immediate pop to any room, especially when it is done properly and all that takes is some practice and determination. Personally it is much harder for me to type out this information than it is for me to install crown.
Okay, lets start with the basics. Crown is simply a ceiling trim piece. It is bedded between the ceiling and the wall which provides depth and dimension. It can be installed as one piece or several pieces together to really give some dramatic detail.
Crown can be cut on a miter saw laying flat or bedded. For now we will concentrate on bedding the crown on the saw, because once you understand the principle of bedding the crown, you begin to really grasp the tricks of using this molding. I will be adding photos, as I said earlier, of each process I discuss.
Let's start with a simple square room. You can join the crown in the corners by cutting a 45-degree angle on each piece and butting them together, or you can square off the first piece on both ends and then work your way around the room left to right and cope the next piece over the first. Coping means that you would cut the crown on that same 45 degree angle, but back cut the angle so it lays over the top of the squared off piece. I know this sounds strange and complicated but once you have perfected this technique, it can be applied to many different types of trim, like base, shoe molding, etc. I will attach photos of these type of joints and it will become much clearer to you as we go along.
COPING
This seems mysterious to a lot of people, but it is a fundamental skill that is easy with some practice. Once you get a feel for it you will always be confident in your joinery, because the room you are installing the trim in can be crooked as hell. This technique can solve a lot of grief because once you learn it. it doesn't matter if a room is perfectly square. If the room is out of square and you simply bevel the inside corners at a 45-degree angle, the miters will not fit, but when you cope one piece over the other it can make life much easier.
Remember that coping works for many types of molding such as base, shoe molding, chair rail and backer, etc. It's an easy effective method for joining inside corners.
As I said earlier, I'm concentrating on explaining how to cut crown by bedding it on the saw instead of cutting it on the flat, because I think that once your mind wraps around the concept of how crown works and understand how it beds, then you can really quickly get a grasp on getting it on the wall without 6 tubes of caulk, wasted time, and wasted money.
Let's start with installing the crown in a ten-foot square room. Measure your first wall and cut the crown nice and snug, square on both ends. Nail this piece on the wall making sure that it is bedded properly. <see pic> Nail it off all along the piece but do not nail within 2 to 3 feet of the ends. This will allow you to tweak them later. They may need to be tapped up or down to improve your finished joint. More on that later. By the way, before I go on I must tell you that a lot of these methods are adapted to the individual's preferences. I know a lot of carpenters that have their own way of doing this stuff, but ultimately the tips I'm trying to give you are universal techniques. For example, some people cope their corners by pushing the coping saw away from them. <see pic> I prefer to use a pulling motion with coping saw; it's faster and more accurate and the other way to me is just goofy, but that's a personal preference; the results are basically the same.
Whenever your eyes glaze over just refer to the pictures. I'll add as many as I can as time permits. Okay, back to the room. You should have one piece nailed on wall bedded between the ceiling and wall, and as I said no nails within 2 feet of either end. Next, measure the next wall really snug. When measuring, always measure really snug. As the crown is forced into the wall, it will help tighten the corner where your cope joins with your first piece. Once you are competent that you have a good TIGHT MEASUREMENT, bed the crown with the bottom up on saw fence see pic and cut your inside bevel on left end of board. see pic Then back cut the crown along the short point of the bevel. see pic Just take your time on this or even better take a couple of scrap pieces of crown and practice this technique. The first few times you try this, it will be maddening and you will want to stick the claw on your hammer into your forehead, but once you get it, you'll always have it and this stuff will be child's play for you. But it will get you flustered and irritated at first. Simply follow this routine right around the room and on the last piece, measure really nice and snug and cope your final piece on both ends, commonly referred to as a double cope.
The reason you want to go left to right is because in my opinion, it easier to cope in this direction. see pic
Crown can be a real pain in the ass, but there are very simple things that make it much easier. Every crown has what I refer to as a sweet spot. By this I mean that every crown is just a tad different, and if you can find that sweet spot or where it seems to want to bed and get a nice joint then you can simply mark that spot on your miter saw and bed it there consistently. Then all your joints will come together much better. see pic
Virtually all crown has a squared-off part along the top and bottom. The squared- off part on the top should rest flat and tight to ceiling. If you are bedding the crown right then the bottom squared-off point will be tight to the wall. I know from many hard years of doing this stuff that by simply bedding the crown a little high on your miter saw, or in other words rolling it up, it can dramatically increase your results. I'm telling ya this works see pic Just rolling the crown up or down even by minute amounts can really change the angle and bevel of your cut. see pic
Just practice it a little and you will begin to understand the bedding process. The most important thing here is that just rolling the crown up or down really affects the tightness of your inside corner. see pic
There are many types of crown that don't have a bottom or top. They are the same on both ends. see pic These you just bed and cut them as described earlier. I started with crown on this site because over the years I've met so many people that were frustrated and frankly about to go insane because they were trying to run crown without any idea of how to do it. It becomes really easy if you just get your mind around the physics of how it beds in between the wall and ceiling. Also once you can cope crown, coping anything is a piece of cake, such as base, etc.
When you come to an outside corner in a room, it is the opposite of an inside corner, obviously, and the outside corners are where it can get dicey only because the are very visible and caulk can only help them so much. It is much easier to hide sins in inside corners than outside corners, because they are far easier to caulk. Outside corners need to be really nice and tight to achieve good end result. To me, a badly done outside corner is a real eyesore. see pic
A lot of what I think frustrates so many people with crown is they just don't get the concept of which way the crown should be bedded on the saw and the direction that the crown needs to run to make the coping process easier.
Try cutting an inside corner and an outside corner on scrap to get a feel for it before you try to put it on the wall. Crown is expensive, and you can waste a lot of money and end up with a bad job really easily. Hopefully the pics, etc. can get you started.
Crown can get really nasty when you are trying to put it in small rooms, such as bathrooms and powder rooms, because the smaller the pieces you are trying to join the harder it gets simply because you cannot bow it in like you can longer pieces. see pic
For this reason you really need to practice the above before you run crown in small spaces. If you get anything out of what I've gone over I hope it is that crown is not mystical and anyone can do it with a minimal amount of practice. Trust me, if you've never done it, it will test your resolve but eventually you'll realize how easy it really is. If I were to run that 10-foot square room, I would charge at least 75 dollars just for labor, and the materials would be about the same depending of course what kind of crown you want to run. It would take me as long to get the tools off the truck as it would to run the crown; probably 30 minutes tops, so you can really save a lot of money doing it yourself.
A lot of the fancy large moldings you see in houses today are simply crown with a few pieces added. You follow the same order and the same process; there are just more pieces so it appears to be a much bigger piece of trim.
Speaking of tools, I really, really recommend using a pneumatic finish nailer to apply the crown. Hand driving nails in crown can be a costly, miserable, horrific undertaking. Please just rent a saw or borrow one and a compressor and nail gun to do this work. Just trust me on this; it is so worth the money. Hand driving nails in crown is a %*&^ (I was advised to edit that word by the Supreme Editor), and almost always does not look as good in the end.
Personally, I'm a big believer in using the right tools for a job. I do this for a living, so it drives me absolutely nuts when I'm trying to get a job done, and the tools I'm using are not able to get it done. If you are just installing a basic standard size crown, you don't need a monster saw to get it done, but it helps. You could theoretically cut crown in a plastic manual miter box, but please rent a power saw that will get it done, borrow one, or just dip in the budget and buy one if you plan on running crown.
There are many saws on the market, and the prices for them are all over the map. I would strongly recommend at least a 10-inch compound miter saw. Dewalt makes a decent middle of the road compound miter saw. I use a 12-inch dual compound radial type saw. A compound miter saw means you can tilt the saw at a bevel, and turn it at an angle. [see pic]
The simpler saw only tilts one way which, for people that use them every day is a hindrance.
[see pic]
Now cut a 45-degree angle with the side against the fence being the long point of your angle.
[see pic]
Once you have done this, this piece can be nailed up. Butt the square end into the corner, which should be on the left. REMEMBER, DON'T NAIL CLOSER THAN 2 FEET OR SO OF THE END. This allows you to manipulate the corner up or down later. Trust me, this will help you later. Nail the crown down the length of the board into the studs and ceiling rafters as you go. Once again, stop nailing as you get a couple of feet from the end of the board, which should be the end with the angle you cut earlier. Get in a habit of working left to right. It helps in the coping process. Next, measure from the right corner of wall you are on to the longest point of the angle you cut previously. This measurement should be a good tight measurement, you can always cut it again but you can't stretch a board, so just get in the habit of measuring tightly. Eventually you'll get a feel for how tight you need to be measuring these walls on cutting the angle I just described.
[see pic]
Also, you will want to add some glue or caulk the angle before fitting the joint, and try to cut this angle where it lands in the middle of a stud in the wall or a ceiling rafter, so that you will be able to get a bite with your nail. This will help pull and hold the joint together. It would be a good idea to practice this joint on some scrap crown as well. I will try to add some video on making this joint as time permits. This all sounds kind of confusing, but with a little practice and by studying the pics and video included, you will begin to understand the concept. If you can learn how to make these types of joints, you will end up with a much better and professional looking job, than if you simply butt the ends together. On the next wall, cut the insider corner on the left end of board, backcut that angle with a coping saw as described earlier. When you do this make sure to backcut it a good bit because the more you do the tighter the fit. Next put the same angle on the right end as you did on first piece, then push the coped end into corner laying it over the top of the squared end of your first piece.
[see pic]
Nothing to it! I'm kidding. This will not go right for you the first time, and if it does you got lucky and the next joint will be a total mess. But after a few tries you will start to get it. You will find that if your inside corners are just not looking right, then experiment with moving or rolling the crown up or down and you will begin to see how that dramatically changes how they lay together against the wall. This is the reason you don't want to nail within a few feet of the ends of the boards or corners. The ability to still tweak them can save you a lot of grief. If for example, when you make the inside corner and the joint is open on the bottom, simply take a small block and tap both boards up a touch and this will close that gap. I like to make a small pencil mark under bottom of crown on wall so when I tap the pieces up together, I can see just how much I have moved them. Just experiment with this process, and after a bit it will start getting clearer to you. Continue this process around the room. The last piece will obviously be coped on both ends, but the mechanics of it are the same just make sure that this last piece is measured very snug. As you force the crown against the wall, that will help force the joints in the corners nice and tight. By the way, if you are having problems with these joints or anything else I cover on this site, simply contact me by email with your question or problem. Include a picture if you can of the problem and I will respond as soon as possible. Also if you find the information on this site helpful, please refer others to this site who are interested in trying to do this stuff or saving money on projects by doing it themselves. With a little practice you will never have to pay someone 75 bucks an hour to come do a job for you that ultimately you can do yourself just as good or even better.
The process I've just described is basically all their is to running one piece crown. You are bound to run across some outside corners or 22-degree corners.
[see pic]
|
