Finishing Baseboard Trim

Installing trim means you've already gotten through the toughest parts of remodeling a room. Installation of baseboard trim is something akin to icing on a cake and should be taken on as an enjoyable project that signals the end of what may have been a long, hard job. Along with wall and window trim, it's the finishing touch, the accent, the piece de resistance - and knowing this should help propel you easily toward its completion. But don't get in such a hurry that you don't take care to do it right!

Finger-Joint or Continuous-Grain

Before purchasing, decide whether or not you'll be painting or staining after the installation of baseboard trim. This can make a difference in the price of your trim. For baseboard that's going to be painted, you can buy the less-expensive finger-joint trim, which is molding created by joining and machining shorter pieces together to form one continuous length of trim. The seams are visible, but very effectively covered by paint. If you decide on staining the trim, however, you need to go with continuous-grained baseboard. This higher-priced baseboard trim costs more but results in an attractive continuity accentuated by the seamless grain of the wood brought ouA37t by stain. Do all painting and/or staining of the molding before installation.

Begin installation of baseboard trim at an outside corner, if one is present, in the room. Otherwise, start at the wall on the opposite side of where the door going into the room is located. Because this is the first wall people see when they walk into a room, you want this one to have the best-looking baseboard possible. If you run short for some reason or the other on the other walls and need to splice pieces, it won't be nearly so evident.

Angled and Square Ends

Use a power miter saw for installation of baseboard trim at inside and outside corners. A T-bevel can measure odd angles that don't measure what should be neat, 90-degree angles (but rarely are!) and when walls aren't square to floors, baseboard trim can be coped to fit with a coping saw. For the first section of baseboard trim, the cut is simple: Make both ends square, no angle cutting is necessary. It's the subsequent, connecting pieces of baseboard that need to be fitted at either corner of this piece. Those two pieces also are angled only at those corners with their opposites ends being square. The remaining pieces of baseboard are cut with angled ends meeting square ends until the room is finished.

Finishing Up

Use six-penny finishing nails to fasten the baseboard to the studs, which are usually about 16 inches apart along the wall. If you do not have a stud finder, tap along the wall and listen for the hollow versus solid sound that differentiates between a stud being there or not. To hide the nail heads or obvious indentations made by the nails, fill with wood putty to match the stain or touch up with paint, as needed.

Visit OnlineTips.Org for more on finishing trim, including wainscoting and how to use coping saws.