On The House with the Carey Bros. & Rebecca Cole. : Installing Crown Molding -> Weekly Project

Adding sculptured trim such as crown molding, door casing and baseboard can add a rich look to your home. And if you do-it-yourself the cost can be minimal. Crown molding is the sculptured trim molding that is normally applied to the wall where it meets the ceiling.

Even without modifying door molding or baseboard, the positive impact that crown molding can have on the appearance of a room is unbelievable. Imagine a light colored ceiling trimmed at its perimeter with an elegant crown molding stained or painted to match the room’s door trim along with low-key wallpaper or paint that’s slightly darker than the ceiling to cover the walls. The combination is every bit as beautiful today as it was over a hundred years ago. Victorian, traditional or contemporary crown mold adds a luxurious look.

In wide widths crown molding can be difficult to install because exact cuts must be made to insure gap free joints at inside and outside corners. What makes the installation of crown mold easiest is having the right tool. And the right tool in this case is an electric miter saw. The saw must be large enough to cut completely through the molding. For example, a 14-inch miter saw is required to cut 5 inch crown molding. And a 10-inch saw is used for 3 inch molding. If you don’t own a large miter saw the small rental fee can save hundreds of dollars in production time and eliminate waste due to poorly cut materials. Precise cuts are extremely difficult to achieve with a hand-miter or coping saw.

Even if you’re handy with a miter saw the cutting process can be easier when you follow a few simple rules:
- First, always remember to place the crown molding into the electric miter saw top side (ceiling side) down. Instinctively, you will cut each piece of molding properly. Why upside down? When the molding is upside down in the saw you are viewing an exact mirror image of what’s happening on the ceiling. It makes confirmation of what’s happening between the ceiling and the saw table simple. Thus, cutting the angle in the proper direction becomes a breeze.

Use a short scrap of crown to align the molding in the saw so that its placement on the saw can be traced onto the saw itself.

Once squared to the saw tightly hold the molding in place.
Next, use a fine-point felt-tip pen to clearly mark the top and bottom edges of the molding.
These marks will be used as guides to align each new piece so the every piece will be uniformly cut.
Warped or twisted material is almost impossible to align and therefore is almost impossible to cut properly.
Once all the piece are cut and mitered to length, the next step is to prepare the ceiling and walls. Grab the same scrap of molding used to mark the saw table to mark the ceiling and walls in the same fashion as was done on the saw.
- At each corner of the room place the molding squarely in place and scribe top and bottom marks on the ceiling and walls.
- Be sure to mark both ways at each corner.
- Next, use a snap line to mark a line across the ceiling and the walls by connecting the corner points.
- The space in between the lines on the ceiling and walls denote where the molding must be placed to remain square in the room and at the corner joints.
  Before nailing the material in place it is wise to locate and mark the wall studs and ceiling framing. The damage that is done by penetrating the wallboard to find the framing members can be done in the area which has already been marked with a snap line. Again, this is the area that will be covered by the molding. A very light pencil mark can be transferred outside the lines for quick easy cleaning and removal once the molding is in place.

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