Crown Molding Repair

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LuckyAbby72

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Hi,

I had crown molding installed last year (early summer 2014) and the crown moulding has shrunk and expanded with the changes in weather, humidity, etc. I posted a comment earlier this year and some of you offered me some great advice so I'm back again to seek your advice.

My contractor came back once to repair the gaps in the crown molding, but the wood has expanded in the heat and the gaps are showing in the crown molding seams again. Some of the caulking has been pushed out of the seam and it's created a rough 3D edge along the seam so now I have empty gaps and rough edges along the seam where the caulking was forced out.

From my limited understanding, gaps in the crown molding are going to be an ongoing problem with the changes in seasons (house humidity is fine) so this is something that I am going to have to eventually deal with on my own once the job is out of warranty (that should be interesting because I'm the least handy person ever lol).

My questions are:
(1) Is it "fair/reasonable" to call the contractor for a second "call back" to
repair the caulking again given that the job is under warranty until the end of October? Personally, I think it is.

Note: Installing the crown molding was part of a major main floor home reno so the contractor made a good money off of the job.


(2) If the contractor refuses to do a call back and I have to do the repair on my own, should I:
  1. Sand the seam lightly where the caulking has formed a rough edge. If so, what grit of sand paper should I use?
  2. Push caulking into the gap using a caulking gun
  3. Smooth the bead of caulking with a wet finger
  4. Leave to dry
Is this the correct procedure? Would I have to prime and repaint the crown molding in that area so the caulking repair isn't visible? Unfortunately the most visible gap in the crown molding is smack dab along the main wall when you walk into the living room so it's very noticeable and cannot be ignored.

Thanks in advance for talking the time to read my post. Any advice related to this caulking repair would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Are the gaps and budges in the corners or where two sections are joined straight?

Did you watch them put up the crown? Did they miter the corners or do a cope cut? Did they miter when they spliced two lengths together in a straight line?

What material is the crown made from?

You need to fill the gaps with a caulk that will stretch I would think and then paint.
 
Hi Bud,

The gaps are showing where two pieces of moulding were joined together at the mid point of the room. I don't know why they didn't use one piece of molding along the length of that wall. I didn't watch them install the crown molding because it was part of a major main floor reno so I was living out of the upstairs bedrooms while the main floor was totally gutted. I'm NOT very handy so I wouldn't have known if they were doing it properly or not --- I hired them expecting them to know what they were doing :) I have no idea what type of cut they did-- it's not straight. I've already had one callback and the gaps were filled with a DAP caulking, but it has cracked again with the change in seasons (my furnace company assures me that the house humidity is fine). I have attached photos below. Thanks for your help!
 
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PHOTO TAKEN AUG 2015 - This is the current state of the crown moulding. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the seam is rough (caulking was forced from the seam when it expanded) AND there is a gap.

crown molding in living room Aug 2015.jpg
 
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Should I be requesting another call back given that the job is under warranty until October OR should I just try to fix it myself and avoid bickering with the contractor? (see "notes" below)

In my opinion, it's a valid callback, but I just wondered what people in the business thought.

Note: There was no love loss by the end of the job. An estimated 8 week, 6 digit reno turned into a 22+ week job which I paid in full despite being unhappy with the painting (the easiest part of the job!). The business owner didn't complete any of the work himself. He runs the business (ie. presents proposals and collects the cheques) and I later found out that he often has 20+ jobs on the go at once. In fact, he only stopped by the house twice during the entire 22+ week reno because I requested it and HE'S NEVER SEEN THE FINAL RESULTS. Near the end of the job, I asked him to stop by the house for the second time to address some concerns with the painting. When he saw the shoddy work that I was referring to, he screamed and swore at me in frustration (because his crew wasn't there) and stormed out of the house in anger because he "Wasn't making any f-ing money on this job". Needless to say, he's in it for the money and he doesn't care about customer service or the quality of his work.

I suspect that he won't be happy to hear from me if I request a call back for the crown molding, but I'm not responsible for his happiness. I want to hold him accountable for the job that his employees did without his supervision and if that requires him losing a bit of "time and money" to correct the job, than so be it. Is this unreasonable?
 
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Wood will swell a little with moisture, alot of moisture to be noticed. Expanding lengthways seldom.
Is this the top floor of the house with roof trusses above?
 
It's on the main floor along the common wall of a semi-detached house (a wall that connects to my neighbour) so it's not even along an outside wall. A new (flat) ceiling was replaced during the reno (the old stucco ceilings were removed) so I can't see how moisture could be a problem. My furnace company has checked the furnace and assures me that the humidity level in the house is right where it should be.

I live near Toronto, Ontario so we get a lot of fluctuation in temps and humidity with changes of the seasons, but it puzzles me that the seams would expand and contract so much. I never would have installed crown molding if I knew that this was going to be an ongoing problem.

Two questions:
1. Request a call back or try to fix it myself?
2. Is the procedure that I outlined above correct? If so, what grit of sandpaper should I use?

Thanks for your advice. It's a frustrating situation to be in when you know so little about home repairs. I appreciate your comments!
 
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It's not a moisture problem, is what I think.
It's on the main floor, does that mean there is a floor above?
Material the molding is made of, wood solid, wood finger jointed, composit like mdf, sterifoam with paper cover?
 
Hi Neal,

Thanks for replying. Yes, it's a two storey house. It's the crown molding on the main floor plus one seam in the upstairs hallway that had caulking issues. Since the first (and only) callback, the crown molding upstairs seems fine (one seam has a bit of a 3D profile since the repair, but there isn't a major gap. I can live with it).. My main concern is the seam in the living room (photo above) because it's smack dab in the middle of the room and it's very noticeable. Directly above it, there's a bedroom. The ceiling in the living room was replaced and I know there are wooden beams and stringers between the floors so I don't think it's caused by the squeaky hardwood in the bedroom (repairing that wasn't in the budget). The caulking issues are primarily on the main floor (the one seam in the living room is the one that looks terrible and drives me crazy).

To my knowledge, the crown is solid wood. It was pre-primed white (if memory serves me correctly) and it came from Home Depot (I think)
 
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It looks like it was installed correctly with a miter lap joint.

From what you have told us I would go ahead and try and handle the repair myself and I would go forward with giving negative reviews of the builder at every opportunity.

The rubbery caulking that’s in there might not sand that well. I would lightly scrape off the ridge with some kind of a scraping tool or very carefully with a single edge razor blade even. Then sand with a fine grit sand paper. If you go shopping for sand paper they sell variety packs with a couple sheets of each. That’s what I would buy and start out trying a medium grit and work my way down, you may not need any new filler just prime and sand and prime and sand until it looks smooth and then prime and paint the whole trim work.

It’s not a hard job and once you start I think you will get comfortable in doing it.
 
I got that. I want to know what caused it first so if something can be rectified before the fix, maybe you only fix it once.
The upper floor problem may be do to the roof structure moving, as they do and may be ongoing.

It is not unreasonable for you to drive him nuts and spoil as many days for him as you wish or can muster
Most GC use contracors to do the actual work, but quality control and time and cost estimates are his job.
 
No GC needs to swear at a costumer and tell them he isn’t making any F-ing money on their job and walk away. At that point I would be done working with him and put the rest of my efforts into making sure no one I came in contact with would be working with him also.

In my homes I have owned I have had quite a few reoccurring cracks and such like this. Homes even well built ones have some movement with seasons and its very hard if not impossible to keep them perfect. I personally think if you are seeing it in the trim but have no cracking issues in the drywall or plaster there wont be much you can do except touch it up from time to time until you forget about it or it stabilizes.
 
Thanks for your feedback Bud and Neal. I think I'll stop by the showroom to discuss it with the owner, just because I can. I'm sure some of these "call back headaches" were built into the cost. I'm not expecting that he'll step up and do the repair, but I want the satisfaction of calling him on it. I'll do it on his turf so he's less likely to pitch a fit if there are other customers in the showroom.

I agree that his temper never should have flared, but it did and I won't forget it. After the screaming incident, I gave him the weekend to cool off and I went to his showroom to discuss it with him. In short, I told him that he was out of place, it was unwarranted and bad customer service, and that his anger/frustration was misdirected at me instead of his employees. He did apologize and sweet talk (because he was waiting for the final cheque) and he claimed that he was frustrated because his company was "going through growing pains". Quite frankly, I could care less. Growing pains are his problem, not mine. Whenever you do home repairs, there are always hiccups along the way, but his unprofessional attitude and lack of interest in the finished job definitely tarnished my opinion of him and his business. I can assure you that I will NEVER recommend his company to others and I'll gladly show people photos to justify why they shouldn't go with his company (do you know a painter who doesn't use frog tape because it's too expensive even though painting was part of a six figure project? I bet not). Once I'm out of warranty, I will write honest reviews about my experience, too. It's actually a shame because he has good taste, uses good manufacturers, makes a fabulous computerized presentation when he presents the quote, but he falls short on executing his plans because he has too many jobs on the go, he's greedy, and his staff are spread too thin so they try to cut corners to meet unrealistic timelines. I can assure you of one thing. He didn't lose money on my job and most likely on his other jobs either. He has all of the toys to prove that he pulling in a lot of money (a million+ dollar home on the waterfront, a Maserati, convertible, etc). He's not a struggling businessman so he cannot use that excuse.

If you're still reading lol.......Thanks again to you both for your suggestions. I appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge and advice. It's reassuring to know that there are people in the industry who have good integrity and are willing to share their knowledge in these types of forums. Thanks again to you both for your help!!
 

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