Part 4, the final step, in the reno-storation of the front hall of my 1927 Arts & Craft bungalow is to add trim, including:
- Baseboards.
- Transition strip between hardwood and vinyl tile floors.
- Door casings.
- Picture rail.
The Baseboards. This likely looks like amateur hour but then, I’ve never pretended to be a pro. There are three slightly different floor heights in the hall, which makes baseboards tricky. It seems to me the pro solution is to rip everything out and make sure the floors are level but in an old house with multiple renovations, that isn’t practical. I understand the appeal but it requires doing everything at once, which I haven’t.
So, onward. The kitchen baseboards are 3/8 to 1/2″ higher than the hall floor, because ceramic tile was laid on cement board. Sections of the hall with vinyl tile are 3/8″ higher than the original hardwood.
For the two walls adjoining the kitchen, I added strips of wood underneath the previously installed baseboard. Recessing these ‘shims’ slightly allows a skim coat of drywall compound, to blend the transition between the baseboard and shim. Drywall mud makes the best coverup here, as it can be sanded to a flat surface. Caulking is good at filling corner gaps, not so good at making a flat surface.
For new baseboards, I cut the wood to length and set it in place, then realized only two sections need adjusting. The stretches that are either only on the hardwood or only on the vinyl tile can be a little different in height from each other. A difference of 3/8″ (floor height difference) on a 5 1/4″ baseboard is minimal. Technically, 7%. It would be obvious if the two pieces were side by side, but across the six doors in the hall, not so much. The plinth blocks are all a consistent height above the baseboard, regardless of whether they are on hardwood or vinyl.
That left two stretches where the baseboard ran from hardwood to tile. One, I ripped the 3/8″ off the bottom of the baseboard to fit it over the vinyl tile. The second section was on the long wall (14+ ft.). It almost didn’t need adjusting, looking more like a board to be fitted on an uneven floor (which it is) than a step between surfaces. Really long stretches of baseboard have some flexibility. Conveniently, there’s a dip in the floor in the vinyl section. Thus, planing off the bottom of the baseboard near the transition to hardwood and pushing like hell got the baseboard mostly to meet the floor. A tiny gap, easily filled with drywall compound was all that remained.
For the transition between the hardwood and vinyl, I found a bit of trim of perfect height and style at my favourite lumber yard. The slopping style should guide footsteps over the difference in height while the oak stained to match the floor.
The fitting of the door casings involved fiddling with a chisel and hand plane. I do the best I can to make the wood joints tight and then rely on caulking to make it perfect. In the past, I’ve said crown moulding caulking was a miracle substance, but like most miracle cures, it has limitations. Yup, it’ll make the job look awesome the next day, but in a couple of years, the caulking collects dirt and looks dingy. When the trim/wall joints match without caulking, they’ll last longer.
Not sure why, but finding solid wood beneath the drywall to attach the trim to comes easier now. Knowing to pre-drill to locate studs/footer/headers makes it easier, along with a sense of how the interior has been (re)-constructed.
With a minimum of fuss, the door trim and baseboards got cut, planed, shoved and/or chiseled into place. All the trim was pre-fit, finding solid structure to screw into before I finish the trim off the wall. Again, no pro with a nail gun, I use finishing screws (GRK) and look for the fasteners to pull the trim to the often curious, or built for some thing else, uneven wall facings I have to work with.
I just wanted this project to be done, so I painted the trim in 30oC, humidex of 40oC, weather. You know how the paint cans say, ‘use between 10 and 30oC’ and wonder who would use paint outside this range? I did.
I did it in the garage, because that’s where there was enough space. The priming step, which involves stinky, flammable primer, was good to take outside. Also, the garage was the only place I could make a mess painting a 14′ board.
I failed to blow up the garage and got good coverage with one coat of primer and one of semi-gloss paint, which I ascribe to the thickness of the paint.1 Paint was applied with a brush and a high-pile mini-roller. This left an interesting texture, not the typical finish of semigloss trim. A final coat was applied after mounting and filling the screw holes making the surface shiny.
Endless details, like filling the holes in the return, were managed. A couple of awkward spaces needed trim – under the front door, there was insulation visible. If that isn’t a rule, it should be: if you can see insulation, add trim. Also under the mirror (pictured here), which sat on top of the previous flooring, there was a bit of a gap. The 3/8″ square poplar, stained to match the floor, filled the space well.
The last step is the picture rail. No good reason it’s last, just that I didn’t purchase enough material to complete it with the rest of the trim. Did not manage to get 16′ lengths so a couple of the long stretches have joints glued before painting. Despite odd angles around the bathroom (128 and 140 degrees), mitring went well. The wood is so light that it test positioned with masking tape. Applying tape every two feet held it in place and allowed marking for cuts, rather than dealing with a tape measure that wanted to flop around like a fish seven feet in the air.
Based on what I learned from installing picture rail in the bathroom, construction adhesive applied to the back, tacked with drywall screws and finished with crown moulding caulking got it up. Would pin-nailing work (and be a lot quicker and easier)? I don’t want to find out the hard way the answer is no. The screws are great at pulling tight to the drywall, and only penetrate to the depth of the drywall. I have no idea what’s beneath the walls, could be wires, plumbing, heating ducts, and who-knows what else, so avoiding firing nails into it is a good practice.
Finally, it is done. After Part 1 – the ceiling and walls, Part 2 – planning the floor, Part 3 – redoing the floor, it’s ready to be two halls between a place to sit on winter mornings in the sun. One good thing about a project that takes almost a year, it’s ready in time for the next year.
1 Don’t know the chemistry, but have found that paint gets thicker in the heat/humidity. I speculate it’s because the solvent, be it water or otherwise, evaporates quickly, leaving more solids.