Trim and Casing
Door and window trim, molding, and casing.
MDF Baseboards vs. Pine Baseboards
MDF stands for medium density fiberboard. Fiberboard is that crap wood that is essentially an amalgam of sawdust, wood chips, and binders. Imagine a dried-up bowl of oatmeal. That’s a good representation of MDF. Positing MDF baseboards against pine baseboards is pretty easy: MDF blows. That’s not to say that installing pine baseboards is... »
Easy Crown Molding vs. Hard Crown Molding
Crown molding is also one of the fastest ways to “class up” your house. You can slap up crown molding in a room in one weekend, paint it the next weekend, and voila, the room looks 100% better. The reason why crown molding is hard is because: 1.) Crown is expensive. ... »
Baseboard Design
Any homeowner worth his/her weight in sawdust already knows that baseboards are a great way to spiff up any room. And baseboards fit right in with my credo of: fast, easy, and (can be) cheap. But how are baseboards designed? What’s their basic makeup? And what’s all this about single-piece baseboards vs. built-up baseboards? Refer to... »
Remove Baseboards to Install New Flooring
Before installing new flooring, you’ll need to remove the baseboards. It’s not as simple as it seems. While poorly removed baseboards will not necessarily ruin your life, they sure as heck can ruin your walls. If you have plaster-and-lath walls, you might end up with giant pieces of plaster falling down. Really. Why Removing Baseboards... »
Locknail Your Window Trim
Here’s a simple tip that took me forever to realize, but it’s so easy: locknail your window trim to help it hold together better. Let’s back up a second… When you are installing mitered trim on your windows, you often run into the problem of these d**n 45 degree angle joints not holding... »
Butted Door Casing: Where Head Meets the Side, Plus a Little Extra
Cut the door casings at 45 degrees so they meet at angles; OR, Cut the door casings so they have a butted casing plus rosette design; OR, A true butted door casing style, which this article is all about. No weird angles or expensive rosettes to buy here. Just cut the two vertical side pieces of... »