Baseboard Trim

[Jdeal1]

Why is this happening like the trim is coming off the wall?

 

[Snoonyb]

Insufficient nailing and poor caulking application.

 

[Jdeal1]

So how do I repair?

 

[Snoonyb]

I would locate the studs, either by the tap and sound method or with a stud finder. When I use a stud finder, I first place a strip of easy peel tape and as the studs are located, they are marked on the tape.

I would then remove as much of the caulk from the displaced area as possible, and then push the base against the wall ton ensure a close fit, and additional nailing both near the top and bottom of the base, just above the base shoe.

As often as not, there may already be nailing that restricts a tight fit, and can cause the base to not fit tightly. Generally, a hammer and a block of wood can overcome this.

 

[Eddie_T]

Also if t's drywall there's a gap between it and the floor. A low nail into the sole plate can tilt the trim.

 

[Sparky617]

Also if t's drywall there's a gap between it and the floor. A low nail into the sole plate can tilt the trim.

Also if the drywall is installed horizontally, the correct way, and the trim is relatively narrow it can tilt because of the taper on the drywall.

 

[DFBonnett]

Sometimes the void between the wall and the baseboard was filled with compound which cracks after a while. Sometimes this is caused by seasonal expansion of the baseboard due to humidity. Hog out the problem area then caulk with an adhesive caulk (I preferred Phenoseal) then repaint.

 

[Eddie_T]

For a while architects designed houses with no trim at the bottom of drywall. I don't know if the drywall was installed vertically to avoid butt joints and tapered bottom edges or not. A friend of mine had such a home and added base trim to protect the edge from damage due to furniture and vacuum cleaners. Hospital design in that era was the same though the wall panels were prolly not drywall. I noticed in hospitals that damaged edges were occurring and vinyl trim later added.

I didn't hang my own drywall but if I had I would have hung it vertically in order to avoid butt joints plus easier lifting. Butt joints can present problems when installing countertops. A friend had problems when he added granite counter tops in his kitchen. I don't agree that horizontal drywall is the correct installation.

 

[Sparky617]

For a while architects designed houses with no trim at the bottom of drywall. I don't know if the drywall was installed vertically to avoid butt joints and tapered bottom edges or not. A friend of mine had such a home and added base trim to protect the edge from damage due to furniture and vacuum cleaners. Hospital design in that era was the same though the wall panels were prolly not drywall. I noticed in hospitals that damaged edges were occurring and vinyl trim later added.

I didn't hang my own drywall but if I had I would have hung it vertically in order to avoid butt joints plus easier lifting. Butt joints can present problems when installing countertops. A friend had problems when he added granite counter tops in his kitchen. I don't agree that horizontal drywall is the correct installation.

Hanging drywall vertically only works if your framing is perfect. This rarely happens. It might align perfectly on once side of an interior wall, but it won't on both sides due to the outside corners. Hanging it horizontally puts one long joint down the middle of the wall at an easy height to finish. Using 12' sheets can eliminate butt joints in many situations. It is for this and many other reasons that the pros hang most drywall horizontally. I'm finishing my basement right now and I did have a few sheets vertically, if a single vertical sheet covered the entire wall, I'd hang it vertically, I had a few places were that was the case. But using 12' sheets was much easier than doing a bunch of vertical seams floor to ceiling.

 

[bud16415]

If you can get 12’ sheets or longer home and into your project without damage then going horizontal is not a bad idea if the sheets can span wall to wall.



If you need to make butt joints here is a product I like.

 

[Eddie_T]

If your theory is correct how does one install paneling? Paneling has to be more accurate than drywall because you can't mud the joints.

 

[Snoonyb]

We'd add or sister a stud, when installing over framing, and use adhesive when the wall was finished.

 

[Eddie_T]

We'd add or sister a stud, when installing over framing, and use adhesive when the wall was finished.

Before adhesives came along I just trimmed the first panel to make the fake joints align with studs. But my point is paneling is vertical as is 8 ft drywall neither should present a problem to the installer unless he's just lazy.

 

[Snoonyb]

YEP, the talent, is being smarter than what you are working on. Yeh know, those inanimate objects, can get the best of YA.

 

[Sparky617]

If your theory is correct how does one install paneling? Paneling has to be more accurate than drywall because you can't mud the joints.

Typically when installing paneling, you'd install it over drywall. As paneling from the 1970s is really thin and quite easy to break if you leaned into it between studs. Alternatively, you could run strapping horizontally around the room to give you something to nail into at the edges, or install a stud or a piece of strapping at the seams that didn't land on a stud. You CAN do it on the cheap just over the studs, but it isn't a best practice.

IT isn't a theory, professionals install it horizontally for the reasons I outlined above. I've had to go in on volunteer projects and clean up messes from people that hung the sheet rock vertically and/or parallel to the ceiling joists. They ripped the drywall down the tapered edge to get it to hit the framing. So they accomplished NOTHING by running it vertically. They made more joints, and more of them were butt joints. You will sometimes see professionals install it vertically in commercial spaces with steel studs and higher than 8' ceilings. Typically, they'll insert a stud at the edge of the sheetrock, very easy with steel studs. Many times in commercial spaces they're installing a drop ceiling.

When I hang sheet rock I work to eliminate as many joints as possible. In my basement project walls I had 5 butt joints in a rather large room through the use of 12' sheets also 54" wide sheets since I had 9 foot high walls in much of the basement. 12'x54" were a pain to transport, but I got them all home in my shortish bed pickup without breaking one sheet. For normal width 12's I just lay a couple of 2x4x12s in the bed to support what is hanging out over the tailgate. Fortunately I had good access to the walkout basement to get the sheets into it. Moving 12's can be a PITA in a remodeling situation.

 

[Eddie_T]

I can do a room with no butt joints by vertical installation. I don't rip drywall just score and snap.

 

[Sparky617]

If you score and snap the tapered edge off of the long side of a sheet of drywall you'll create a butt joint. That's what the knuckleheads that starting drywalling a house before me did. When you have an interior wall with an outside corner on one side of the wall and an interior corner inside the room, the framing can't match up for both sides without adding studs. Butt joints while harder than tapered joints aren't rocket science. Adding extra framing at the cost of lumber these days is not cost effective or cheap. But you do you.

 

[Eddie_T]

I place butt joints at corners which don't get the same visibility (long view) as mid-wall joints. I didn't scab anywhere. I understand what you're saying because working with carpenters and drywallers is a whole 'nother story. You run into 'we've always done it this way'. I planned my cuts when I drew my house plan. The studs were aligned to be modular on the outside of the house as my most costly building material was redwood siding (vertical panels).

I hired a housebuilder and his son to roof the house. The son measured my rooms and told the dad that I would have to use drywall as no room measured right for panelling. Since I did all possible work myself I could engineer and make the most economical cuts. A comment made about my scrap pile was that 'there wasn't a piece of wood in the pile large enough to make another sawcut on'. Drywall scraps were minimal too.

 

[mabloodhound]

With sheetrock is hung horizontaal the finished seam is less noticible to the eye. Whereas the verticle butt joints become obvious wehn the finished paint is done. No matter how good a taping and feathering job the butt joint still shows. Unless you use a product that creates a taper at the butt joint.

 

[Snoonyb]

I, in 45yrs., of both commercial and residential, have never used a butt joint, when hanging board vertically.