Molding and Trim

Have ready

Clear the room so the walls are open to the floor, and take down pictures, curtain rods, and anything mounted low. Have the paint color and sheen ready if the trim is being painted, or a stain sample if it is not. The technician checks three things first: the existing profile, taken from a closet or behind furniture so it is not faded, the wall lengths and the floor-to-ceiling height at several points, because older rooms are not square, and how the corners were built, coped or mitered. The sample drives the order.

• Profile match
• Scarfed runs
• Caulk only at the paint joint
• Nail holes filled

The visit

We cope inside corners and scarf long runs so the joint does not open in January. The profile matches what is already in the house, or we run a new profile through the whole room. Caulk is only the paint joint at the wall, not the glue holding a bad miter together.

A 1/4-inch mismatch between new base and old base is the whole job, visually. We carry a sample or we cut one from a closet before we order a houseful of the wrong mold.

Permit

Trim work on existing walls is finish carpentry, so a town issues nothing and inspects nothing. The scope that changes that is framing: pulling a wall or cutting a new opening is structural and gets looked at by the town. A second set of rules applies in older housing stock, where disturbing painted surfaces falls under federal lead-safe work practices rather than a local permit. Those practices get discussed before any trim is pried loose.

On the Shore

Humidity and the swing between summer and winter are what open trim joints here. Wood takes on moisture and grows, then dries and shrinks, and a tight miter with no allowance cracks the paint at the joint. That is why the material is back-primed, including the edge that faces the wall, so it does not cup. The caulk at the wall line is a flexible paintable type, and the fasteners are coated so a rust bleed does not show through the finish a year later.

When we leave

The technician walks the room and checks that inside corners are tight, that scarf joints are flush and glued, and that the base sits on the floor without rocking. The caulk line at the wall is a clean bead, and nail holes are filled and sanded so they do not show under a satin finish. Paint touch-up is pointed out where it is needed. The care note is to let the caulk and filler cure before washing, and to keep the room at normal humidity.

Built with

The materials are primed finger-jointed or solid pine for paint grade, and poplar or oak for stain grade, with the profile matched to the existing trim. Scarf joints are glued with wood glue and pinned, and the coped inside corners are cut rather than filled. The caulk is a paintable flexible acrylic or siliconized acrylic for the wall joint only. Stain-grade work gets fasteners set and filled to match, not puttied and painted over. MDF is avoided in wet areas.