Tommy MacDonald is a professional woodworker and the host of Rough Cut: Woodworking with Tommy Mac. In addition to being a whiz in the wood shop, Tommy has an extensive background as a carpenter and builder. In true DIY fashion, he even built his own house. Tommy is taking a little time out of his week to talk about some common DIY problems.
The Problem
Whether you’re doing baseboard molding or crown molding in a room, inevitably you will have to address the corner. While there are a few molding experts out there who like to tout their ability to miter the 45 degrees and get the seam, well, seamless, Tommy stands by a better — and more common — approach.
The Answer
Tommy: You have to go with coping at the corner, all the way. The reason is this: although rooms are intended to be 45 degrees at the corner, they almost never are. When the walls are plastered and taped, they almost always go heavy in the corner, so you’re never looking at a plumb job.
When you try to do the 45 degree miter cut and join the pieces at a corner that isn’t 45 degrees, you get a gap and a seam that just looks worse and worse the farther away you get from a true 45 degree corner.
With coping, you get one piece in tight and then press fit the other. It’s much cleaner and it won’t look bad over time as the house moves, shifts and settles. You won’t have this unsightly gap. It’s definitely the way to go.
Join us next week for more DIY solutions from Tommy Mac!
