In a room I created in my house I installed the rounded, or bullnose, drywall corners. What is the best way to install baseboards for these outside corners? A mitered corner will project a bit far from the corner with dead space behind it and the rounded corner. A three piece construction with two 22.5 degree miters involving a small center piece will look better but I not sure how to measure where to cut and construct it so that it is centered and symetrical. I’d be grateful for ideas and opinions.
Cenzo
Replies
Basswood had some good posts awhile back. Might want to do a search.
Is it that time of the month again?You need these. But that was 4 steps ago.
I appreciate the info, but I don't know why people often need to send attitude with it though. Like a lot of people, my life does not revolve around construction and remodeling, but with a little more time, some research, and careful planning I can execute a project with professional quality results. The Joe Pro Carpenter dudes need to get over themselves.
The post previous to mine are assuming that you haven't already finished the corners. If you have and they are radiused all the way to the floor then their suggestions are of no value unless you want to rip out what you have and redo it.
If you want to do the two 22 1/2° with a small piece in the center all you have to do is take your two pieces with 22 1/2° miters on them and hold them on the adjacent walls, bring them together towards the corner, when you get them where you can see just a tiny bit of space behind the short of the 22 1/2° then that's far enough, now measure how far it is between the two longs of the two pieces ( does any of this make sense?) it should be about 1" or there abouts.
You should probably use a zero clearance fence when cutting these little pieces or they will fly all over the place.
These are about as simple to make as any other miter on a corner, just smaller pieces!
I personally dont care for radiused corners and dont really think there is a good way for them to be finished but here is one way of doing them, there are others that may look better to you.
View Image
Doug
Edited 7/13/2008 9:04 pm ET by DougU
DougThanks for your reply. You are right, I already installed the rounded corners to the floor. Next time I won't. But be that as it may, how do I accurately measure the two long lengths so that the center piece is the minimum length, centered, and as close as possible against the corner? It is a standard rounded corner with a radius of 1/2 inch. For instance, do I cut baseboard 1/4 inch short of full length? You would certainly want to have the small pieces a uniform length, otherwise it would look weird (I have five rounded outside corners in this room). Thanks.Cenzo
There is also another way, which we installed on one job we did...Rather than doing the 22.5 degree miters, there are rounded corner pieces, pre-manufactured, available for just such a dilemma. It seemed to save time, and looked fairly smart.
Are they rounded plinth blocks or do you buy them with a matching baseboard? Thanks for replying. Much appreciated.
Ours matched the profile of the baseboard, so it just blended in.
Cut 7 corner pieces to identical length.Make 2, 12" long test pieces(R,L) with the corner piece attached, "hook" it on the corner and take your measurements."Like a lot of people, my life does not revolve around construction and remodeling, but with a little more time, some research, and careful planning I can execute a project with professional quality results. The Joe Pro Carpenter dudes need to get over themselves."IMHO, spending a bit more time on research and careful planning on the front end, will get you closer to professional results and help you appreciate those around you.Attitude is everything.
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.- Fyodor Dostoyevski
Cenzo
how do I accurately measure the two long lengths so that the center piece is the minimum length
I think others touched on it, make up a "test" piece. Have a piece about 12" going both ways from the corner and the small piece attached, fit it to the corner and then all you have to do is measure to the far wall/corner/casing/whatever and pull your tape to the test piece, see where the measurement is on your test piece and that's what you need to cut to.
Yes, I would want all the rounded corners to be the same, I would cut ALL of them at one time, I always do for a house that has radiused corners anyhow.
Some of this is just trial and error anyhow but once you get the feel for where the long pieces go on the radius you wont even need the test piece, you'll be able to just hold your tape up to the far wall and measure to the point on the radius where it lands.
I use CA (super glue) to join the small pieces on and then come back after I know the glue is set before putting any nails in it. This is a good place for a 23g pinner. If you don't have one then just be careful nailing with a 18g cause you shooting into pretty small pieces and blowout is inevitable!
I already installed the rounded corners to the floor. Next time I won't.
This is something that I don't get about radiused corners, why would anybody add the square corners at the bottom? if you didn't want radiused corners then you shouldn't have put them in! NOT you per se' but I see this same thing mentioned every time someone asks about base on a radiused corner. This is simple carpentry 101 and if you cant make these cuts then you probably cant make a pair of 45's for an outside corner. This whole situation only adds maybe one hour in time for a whole house of radiused corners.
I hate those store bought pieces as well. Hell what's next, baseboard on a roll like duct tape, just peel it off and stick it to the wall cause we cant cut around a simple radius!
Sorry about the little side rant! :)
Doug
"Hell what's next, baseboard on a roll..."You mean like this?
http://crown-molding.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=202BruceT
YUUUCK! I'm sure I'll see the roll-on baseboards in new housing developments (whenever they start building new ones again.) I'm not sure what is worse, the plain, cheap, thin 2 inch junk that gets slapped over the sprayed-on joint compound or roll-on baseboard.Regarding baseboards around rounded corners, using scrap to test things out I came up a pretty easy solution.1) the small piece, with a 22.5 degree miter on each end, needs to be 7/16 long on the inside length.2) for measuring the adjacent lengths, subtract 3/4 inch from the full length (as if it ws a 90 degree corner. Hold a straight edge projecting from the perpendicular side to ascertain this.3) If the adjacent boards are inside corners on the other end, make them blunt end, as opposed to coped, to give you a bit of fudging. The overlaping cope wil give you about 1/8 inch forgiveness.
The length of the short side will be proportional to the radius of the rounded corner.tan 22.5∘= (short side/2)/radius..
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"After the laws of Physics, everything else is opinion" -Neil deGrasse Tyson
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If Pasta and Antipasta meet is it the end of the Universe???
Start with the piece on the rounded corner, use short scrap test pieces for the long sections. When the corner fits good fill in the long pieces.
And lighten up you could've gotten a lot more attitude than that. These guys here have shared some of the best information that I've ever seen, no need to be a so sensitive.