Are there any tricks to installing stain grade base on a wavy wall. I’ve encountered several spots where it is 1/4″ – 1/2″ out of alignment. Is pounding the drywall with a hammer the best way to correct this? I just nailed the base tight, but you can really notice it. The HO commented on how bad a job the sheetrocker did, but I believe it is the framer who is at fault . The HO did the framing so I didn’t mention that. I just told him I’d do the best I could to make it look good. I’m sure other people have run into this problem, so I am wondering what the best method is to make this as unnoticeable as possible. Thanks.
MJ
Replies
I have wavy plaster on brick walls, and one that has bowed out a fair amount, so I'll tell you what I did for gaps. But if you have high spots, I'm not sure if this will work. If you shave the high spots back, I'm not sure how you deal with the edge where the wall meets the top of the baseboard. You might need to use some form of a cap molding.
The baseboard is about 8" wide single piece yellow pine with a detail (cove) cut into the top edge, stained and shellaced. The baseboard runs straight, and the gaps are first filled with that caulk saver rope stuff (poly something or other). I got several pieces in different diameters. I tried to leave the rope shy of the top by 1/8" or so. Next I caulked with brown caulk that matched the stain color as best as I could. Finally, I went back with wall paint and did my best to make everything look good. This basically entails painting in a manner that makes the trim/caulk combination look straight and even.
Good luck!
Probably too late but... Three or four pc. built up base. Basically start with a pc. of flat stock and nail it up nice and strait. Add a shoe mold at the bottom and some sort of cove molding at the top. Allow the cove molding to conform to the wall..
That is a very cool solution - I'll have to remember that one! (you should submit it to FHB).
I don't agre Tharrett. No matter how many pieces you put on, in the end, there will still be a 1/2'' bulge.
blue
In most cases it's the framers fault. Amateur framers don't know how to select the lumber and often nail it out of flush with other framing members. Some so called pros can be just as bad. The wall will always be wavy and may get worse as things dry out. The best way to suck in trim work is with trim head screws. The hole is larger to fill than a nail but you need the pulling power of a screw.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
You may be able to beat it back,1/2" is a lot.Take a piece of 4x4 or doubled 2x4 about 3 feet long. Place at high spots, tap it with a sledge. Then install base. If that doesn't work , you need backing rod and a case of caulk.
mike
I'd advise against shaving the wall, as the edge of the base will still disappear. Suck it as tight as possible with trim screws. You have two options from here; caulk the gap or float the wall from the base up a foot or two (a nice feather). If caulk, you could use paintable and then a good painter can cut in that edge so the caulk is wall colored. Looks fair to very good. Or match the caulk to the trim, which may be hard and or expensive. Why was Jesus a carpenter? Because he only had two hands and still worked miracles.
Float the wall flat down there. It seems like a lot of extra work but it's not. Use jc & plaster of paris, or find someone who knows how and is good. I encounter this situation all the time in my work and have for years, and this is the best solution.
Float the wall flat down there. It seems like a lot of extra work but it's not. Use jc & plaster of paris, or find someone who knows how and is good. I encounter this situation all the time in my work and have for years, and this is the best solution.
D-Ditto.
POP and JC is the only way to fix this and 1000 similar problems
Nail the trim only on the high spots and fill out the low spots.
And don't forget the masking tape.
Hello Jer.
YCF Dino
MJohn, you've received a lot of advice, none that I would take however.
In most cases, it's fairly routine to straighten out a 1/4" or 1/2" bow on the bottom plate of a wall. If my ten pound sledge won't move it, I walk back to the truck to get my 16#er. I don't think I've ever encountered an interior partition that couldn't be moved with that. If it's really stubborn, I'd use my long sawzall blade to slice the nails that are holding the partition in place. Of course the risk is cutting some of the mechanicals that might be buried in there.
Acutually, there are situations that would call for drastic measures, but I've never ran into one yet.
blue
"In most cases, it's fairly routine to straighten out a 1/4" or 1/2" bow on the bottom plate of a wall. If my ten pound sledge won't move it, I walk back to the truck to get my 16#er."
Spoken like a true framing contractor! Shoot, if you keep fixing the DIY'ers poor workmanship, you make him look good. I say make your work look good, and show him up for the hack he is. Maybe next time he'll hire a real framer! ...Uh-oh, here we go with that taboo subject again!
If people are seeming 1/2" gaps in the wall at the baseboard height on new work then you have some serious sh!i work going on because that's ridiculous.
The only way it could be the framers fault is if they're complete a-holes and nailed a 3-1/2" stud off the shoe 1/2". If he did it facing the inside of the house then you would have a 1/2" gap on the sheathing and siding creating a wavy wall inside and outside. Then the framer should go nail himself to a tree somewhere with the rest of the garbage framers who would do that...
I've never seen it before a 1/2" gap at the baseboared lines.........that's ridiculous because your only inches off the floor. What the hell is going on around here????????????
I can see a 1/2" in the middle of a wall because of a bad crowned stud but not at baseboard height.
There's no such thing as a perfect job in my eyes but 1/2" out at baseboard height is un heard of unless a stud cracked at the bottom and something wedged in between the crack somewhere and pushed the stud off the shoe or something........
I trimmed a house that I framed and saw a 1/2" gap at the baseboard one time and realized that there was a small piece of 1/2 sheetrock between the stud and the back of the sheetrock. Wasn't the framing.
I've seen that a lot where the sheetrocker nailed the bottom of the sheet with small pieces of sheetrock behind it. I'm sure not intentionally but it happens. So guys can't just blame the framer first. Even though I'm a framer and I've seen some Pretty Sh!tty Framers but it's not always the framers fault.
Joe Carola
Edited 8/11/2005 9:54 am ET by Framer
I agree that bottom plates should no way be a half inch out of line, and that fixing the problem is better than trimming over it. But the original post said the HO blames the sheetrockers, but the HO did his own rough framing. Sounds like the HO is a DIY and Owner-Builder (his own general contractor). In a situation like that, its often best to do what you're hired to do (run trim, in this case), without getting into fixing the previous trades' work. So the solution that allows you to run your trim as straight as possible with the given wall condition seems like the best one in this scenario.Btw, if its a plumbing wall, you might want to think twice about getting the bigger beater to straighten it out. Could create other problems. And if the wall is already textured with a blown-on texture, then floating it with mud could entail a lot of work not covered in a trim bid.If it were my house, or if I were generalling the job for a client, I would approach it from a "fix the problem, don't cover it" viewpoint. On a job where the general is not a professional contractor, and there is some blame being placed on subs who may not be at fault, again, I say do what you're hired to do as professionally as possible, without re-doing or fixng the previous trade's work. Its a judgement call, I guess.
I have to agree. A speedrocker probably left a outlet cutout behind. 1/2" is almost impossible even for the worst framer.
We haven't all worked behind the same sheetrockers or framers. Since the framer here is the DIYT HO, I lean to suspecting him first, but it is easy enough to discover by cutting out a palm sized hole in the SR where the BB will cover it. I like that blueeyed suggestion about the sawsall, BTW. That and a toescrew will so;ve a lot, but there will be nail popps in the already finiished wal when using a sledge, heck, maybe even with the sawsall! The suggestions about three piece base is how it has always been fixed historically. The places I reno are usually plaster - real, not veneer over sheets. It can vary 14" to 3/8" and a 1x8 topped by base cap trim will make most of that disappar to the naked eye. for this situation, it will be a combination of tact, sawsall, and refloating the wall, IMO
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Float the wall at least 20" with joint compound everywhere the base has a gap, if done nicely it will look very good and your base will be nice and straight.
The fundamental error here is not keeping everything at the same quality level. Trying to put good stain grade wood trim on sloppy walls is like trying to make Rolls Royce wheels fit on a Kia.
The right answer for wavy walls like this is that floppy MDF paint grade base they sell at HD. You could trim a pretzel with that crap, and not need too much caulk. Then watch Debbie Travis on HGTV and paint fake wood grain on it. ;-)
-- J.S.
Yassir!!!!