Trim question

[mschrank]

Getting ready to install new baseboard and door/window trim throughout the home.

This will be stained & poly coated...no paint. Generally, when installing trim that will be painted, it's customary to run a bead of caulk at the trim/wall seam to hide the inevitable gaps. The paint covers the caulk and makes for a very neat job.

But since I'm not painting the trim (only the wall), how do I hide the gaps? I first considered clear caulk, but that kind of defeats the purpose of hiding the gap. Do I just try to prevent a gap as much as possible and live with what I can't hide?

I was hoping to use relatively "massive" trim...no less than 5/8" thick and probably 4-5" tall baseboards, so it won't be as flexible as standard "colonial" or "ranch" trim.

Any suggestions?

[backpacker85]

Really, really thick wall paint? (just kidding)

If the walls are so irregular that the gaps are obvious, and since you're thinking about fairly substantial moulding anyway, you may want to try 2 or 3 piece builtup baseboards.

A separate piece of smaller trim on top of the main base board will be able to follow the wall contour and cover any gaps at the wall. In areas of hardwood flooring, a piece of quarter-round at the bottom will do the same for gaps at the floor.

Depending on how heavy and intricate you want the moulding to be, it's sometimes cheaper to build up your own as opposed to buying it in one piece.

Just my first thoughts, but there are many options available.

[cabinetman]

Since you are staining and finishing with a clear coat, install it to the wall and caulk. Wipe off carefully as close as you can. Try to keep the caulk line as straight as possible on the moulding.

If you try to use a much smaller moulding and force it to follow the wall, the waveyness will be very noticible. A good clean minimal caulk line is less noticeable on a painted wall with stained wood, IMO.



A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER - John Keats

[gabedad]

depending on the color of the stain - there are many diffent colors of caulk now. Check in HD caulk area but also tile area

[JimD]

Unless your drywall contractor was better than the ones for the houses I have owned, you are going to have a lot of gaps. I don't think there is a better alternative than to caulk and then wall paint the caulk. Leaving the gaps look terrible (I tried that and that was my judgement, anyway).

Jim

[mschrank]

Thanks for the replies. So I think I will use a clear paintable caulk. Keep as much as possible off the the trim, and wall paint to the seam.

Leaving the gaps look terrible (I tried that and that was my judgement, anyway).

Yeah, been there done that and it looks real shoddy. In the rooms I've already done, I pre-painted the trim & walls, then attached the trim. At that point, the LOML called it done and moved the furniture back in, so I never got around to caulking. Looks so amateurish that I want to start all over....someday

[Cheeky]

some caulk companies have around 100 colors to choose from. you most likely will have to order it though, because the stores usually only carry the 5 or so most popular stock colors. I've had good luck with matching up....you really can't tell.

If you're going to use paintable caulk, I think the GE Silicone II XST is the best right now (it really holds up and accepts paint nicely). It's availabile at HD. More expensive than the others, but well worth it IMO.



also, in the conspicuos runs of trim, I would run some blue painters tape on the trim as close as possible to the wall before you caulk. After you run your finger over the caulk, take the tape off and you will get a nice, smudge free bead.

I'm an extremely neurotic painter, so I would wait for the caulk to dry (24hrs), then retape that same area, and then paint the area where the caulk was applied (I hate errant cutting-in, and there's nothing like a nice clean line).