Things You'll Need:
- Coping saw, miter box and saw, finish nails, caulking tubes and wood putty.
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Step 1
Want to install new baseboards, but worried about getting the corners to match up right? How to cut them so they fit without spending a bundle on a table saw?
This is not the easiest job when it comes to carpentry, but you can do it with a few inexpensive tools — and a lot of patience! -
Step 2
What it will cost? Trim molding varies from $.60 cents a foot for basic baseboards to $2.25 a foot for hardwoods or moulded shapes, and you’ll need to buy at least 10 percent extra to allow for waste. How long it will take? If you’re a beginner, you’ll almost certainly have to redo several cuts until you get the hang of it. Figure at least a half-hour for every corner in your room. To install baseboards in a 15x20 foot room, a professional carpenter would charge $75, excluding materials, so figure you’ll save $.75 cents for every foot of baseboard you install yourself.
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Step 3
Let's get started. Begin at an inside corner and work toward an outside corner. For inside corners, set one piece of trim square into the corner and cope the other piece to fit over it. To figure out how to cut the joining piece, hold the two pieces at a 90-degree angle and trace the profile of the piece to be covered onto the piece to be cut, then cut along the line with your coping saw. This is the hard part, so practice with scraps until you can make cuts that fit.
For outside corners, use the miter box and your hand saw to make 45-degree cuts in both pieces. Remember, one piece is right and the other left, so think it through before you cut and switch from one 45-degree slot to the other for each cut. You might think all your walls and corners are perfectly square and true, but installing baseboards is a surefire way to prove they’re not! Before painting or staining, use
caulking or wood putty to help straighten the joints and fill in gaps. Use a fine sandpaper to blend the putty into the wood.
