Crown Molding Secrets pt 1 - What they don't teach you...

hey everybody and welcome back to the channel i've had a lot of requests for videos regarding crown molding so in this video it's going to be kind of a hodgepodge i finally had a house that had a lot of crown to run that wasn't in a coffered ceiling or something like that so i took what video i could you're going to have all kinds of tips and techniques in this video from setting up how projection works the tools you want to use how to hang solo how to do outside corners how to fit miters on inside corners a lot of different things i'm just going to throw a lot of tips together in this video and hopefully you'll enjoy it before we even get started i'll just address the question of why i'm mitering versus coping personally i can hang crown either way miter or coped in this case i had a five and a quarter crown with a double bead top and bottom so this was an unculpable crown so i had to miter it so in this video you're not going to see me coping anything it's all going to be mitered inside corners one of the most common questions i get from guys is how do you hang crown alone and i think it's something that intimidates guys more than it should it's really not a big deal to hang crown molding alone all you need is a finished nail and that's it all i use is a 10d finish nail tacking in one end on the chalk line where the bottom of the crown will be rest one end of the crown on that nail fit the other end and then go to the other end and work that that end of the piece the hole that is left over from your nail will get covered by the bead of caulk that goes along the bottom of the crown and it's no big deal you don't need any fancy fancy third hands or crown clips or anything like that just a simple 10d finish nail is all it takes there is kind of an art to crown molding and knowing which pieces to install first to make life easier but in general it's really not too difficult with a little bit of experience you can actually get pretty good at hanging crown and it's pretty satisfying here's a peek of the room i just got done installing so that you can see the results are clean and crisp and i'm not full of crap everything went together really well it's not too difficult but there are definitely some tips and tricks that will help along the way and we'll cover that in this video to do a really good job installing crown molding it really does take a multi-faceted approach you have to know how to measure accurately have a well-calibrated saw know how to cut it at the saw correctly understand projections understand order of operations which pieces to install first so hopefully by the end of this video you'll have a better idea of where to begin on installation let's talk a little bit real quick about your tool belt setup stuff you're going to want to have for running crown i do carry quite a bit of stuff whenever i'm running crown on my tool belt so first things i got my shims here for my corners fitting mitered crown these work really well i'll talk about that more about that in a different part of the videos on crown this is the offset block this measures the projection down that my crown will be on the wall so i'll go up i'll stick this up against the wall mark the bottom and then i can chalk the lines from from this block i also use this block to hammer things sometimes you need to put this under the corner where the crown is and you can hit both pieces up at the same time works really well or if a piece of crown is not wanting to go to your chalk line because of a butt joint or drywall issue you can put this block up and kind of hammer it into place and that works really well franklin stud finder best stud finder got a handful of biscuits in here number 10s use biscuits for butt joints slash scarf joints chalk line with a hook this is a kojima blue chalk uh you gotta have your laser which i always have that anyways everything else in there is stuff i normally always carry glue bottle sandpaper for your scarf joints and outside corners and protac protractor for small pieces on outside corners i also use the big i don't have it out here anymore i use a couple of larger digital protractors also and then two hammers i do like to have a rubber mallet for uh banging things around also that way i'm not putting too many dents in things but that's pretty much the basic setup for crown [Music] right now with crown you have what is called different spring angles and that is the angle that the crown sits on the wall this crown is what would be called a 45 45 spring angle it's going to have the same projection off the wall and down from the ceiling as you can see here i nailed a couple pieces together this simulates the ceiling this simulates the wall the projection is equal to the front here and down from the ceiling to the bottom here that's a 45 45 spring angle you might ask well why aren't they all 45 45 also commonly i believe would be a 38 52 degree spring with different ceiling heights you want to change the spring angle let's say for example for a 9-foot ceiling a 45-45 spring angle would be ideal where you want to change it is let's say i had an 18 foot tall ceiling and a foyer the more i level that crown out as i look up the more of that crown i'm gonna see so for a taller ceiling you want that spring angle to change and level out so that as you look up you can actually see more of it if you go with a spring angle on a really tall ceiling that is very steep as you look up you're not going to see much of the crown so taller ceiling you want to level it out now let's say for example i have a mantle in a house i'm essentially staring straight on at that mantel so i wouldn't want to select a crown that was designed for a really tall ceiling because it's going to be flattened out like this and then my eyes i'm looking at it i'm not seeing a lot of the profile so for that i would want to select a crown that's got a spring angle that is steeper so that as i look at it at eye level i'm seeing more of the crown now here as you can see i have special custom miter wings where i have a crown fence designed for this type of work and i set my crown in so that my projection to the top of the crown is equal to my projection from the fence to my stop one of the most important thing is you want that to stay consistent throughout the process of installing the crown so oftentimes i'll take this measurement which is three and three quarters both ways and i'll rip a piece of scrap that will bridge the entire length of my fences and the crown stop and i can insert that piece push my stop up against it tighten it down and now i know that my crown stop is running perfectly parallel to my my miter saw fence then i'll just write on the back crown and i'll save that in case i need to take this off do something else and then put it back on and go back to installing crown i can ensure that my my angle that i'm cutting this stuff at is the exact same whenever i set it up again now once i have my miter saw set up and i know what my projection is i want to take my projection from the ceiling to the bottom of the crown which is three and three quarters and i want to create a block that i can use to mark the ceiling whenever i get ready to install the crown and i'll chalk a line all the way around the room at the base of the crown molding that way i can sure that ensure that the bottom of my crown is staying straight the whole way around the room now something that i've learned is i don't like to take the full projection so if this is three and three quarter there's a problem with that because what's actually going to happen in the corner is there's going to be a drywall mud buildup right here in the corner where the drywaller has mudded this corner and it's actually going to be slightly lower right here than it is out here so if you go around the room and you mark that full three and three quarter you're actually going to find that your line is going to be about a sixteenth of an inch below this crown here in order to make your joints come together well so whenever i cut my block which you're going to see more of in a minute i take a sixteenth inch off this block and that allows my chalk line to be exactly dead on with the bottom of that crown it's just something that i've learned and figured out whenever i figure out what my projection is i subtract the 16th and cut my block to that measurement so in this case i'm 3 and 11 16. so guys something to remember as production trim carpenters we're always trying to keep our footsteps down to a minimum and keep our movements as efficient as possible and with crown molding there's actually a lot of room for wasted steps and wasted movement wasted trips up and down the ladder and that's probably not truer anywhere than whenever you're laying out your room so we're about to go up on the ladder we're going to mark mark the projection down on the corners using our gauge block which is going to mark the bottom of the crown at the same time we're going to be taking measurements from the corners that we're standing in whenever we're up on the ladder because there's no reason to be up there marking come down and then go up again to get measurements the other thing we're going to be doing is we're going to be putting a nail on one side of the corner and that's going to do two things it's going to give us something to hook our chalk line onto and it's also going to give us something to set the end of a piece of crown on as we're installing by ourself all it takes is a little finish nail like this to hold the end of the crown up there's nothing fancy about it you just have to do that while you're up on the ladder and i'll show you what i mean as i climb up this ladder first thing i'm going to do is take my gauge block i'm going to put it up into the corner i'm going to mark both sides of the corner that's step one step two i'm going to take measurements while i'm right here of both of these walls i'm going to i'm going to write the measurement up here or you can write it on your cut list you can write it up on the the top of the wall where it's going to get covered with crown and then you can easily see it from the floor now the next thing i'm going to do after i've marked the corner i've taken my measurements i need to put a nail in one of these walls and that's going to give me something to hook my chalk line to whenever i chalk these lines and it's also going to give me it's going to serve two purposes the second purpose is whenever i go to install this crown i can put one end of the crown and rest it up on that nail while i work the other end so you don't need two people to install crown molding it is absolutely not necessary there's no reason one guy can't install crown molding by himself now as far as what nail should you use i like to use a 10d finish nail and the reason is whenever i put hook my chalk line on the end of this i can go to the other wall snap the line and then i can just kind of jerk it and my chalk line will fall right off the end of this nail now if you're using a nail that has a head like a framing nail that will help whenever you're installing the crown to prevent the crown from sliding off the nail and falling down however you're going to have to come back up the ladder to unhook your chalk line i find it's easier just to use a finished nail and i don't have problems with that so that's what i recommend one other thing which side of the corner you put the nail on uh depends on if you're coping or not so if i'm coping the crown i want to put the nail in whatever side of the the work piece is going to have the square cut on it and i want to be able to work the cope end into place first so in this case if i was installing a coke piece right here i would want to put my nail on this wall that way i could rest it on this side and then i could work the cope on that side and come back to this side that's how i prefer to do it if you're mitering your crown you can put it in whatever corner you want it really just depends which way you're going to work around the room it's really crucial to have a good laser tape whenever you're running crown whether you're doing it alone or with somebody else i really believe you'll get your best measurements with a quality laser this is the one i recommend i'll link it in the notes below i've had multiple different lasers of this same model and they've all performed really well it's really important to get good precise consistent measurements to have an easy execution whenever you're installing your crown and one of the biggest hindrances to that will be using a tape measure over long lengths and struggling with bends and kinks and all that fun stuff with a tape measure now i do use a tape measure on short measurements i find that my eye i just trust a lot more and i'm very precise on those short measurements but for long measurements you can't beat a laser tape now before i came down the ladder on this corner i hooked my chalk line to my finish nail over here i'm going to carefully move over to this corner so that my chalk line doesn't come off that nail i'm going to mark this corner and snap my line now this is the part where using a traditional finish nail comes in handy because whenever i want the end of my chalk line to come down all i have to do is crank it in a little bit give it a jerk and the end of my chalk line will come right off that nail whereas if you're using a regular framing nail it's going to be more of a pain to get that end of your chalk line off [Music] now at this point all the way around this room i've got measurements reading written at the top of the wall i've got my nails in i've got my chalk lines chalked all the way around if you want to write your measurements on a notepad whenever you're up on the ladder that's fine honestly i'm always you're you're messing with nails hammers chalk lines projection blocks and all that stuff i almost find it easier just to write the the measurements up on the wall then after i come down i'll stand here and i'll write all my measurements down all at once doesn't really matter whatever works for you you

Channel: Insider Carpentry - Spencer Lewis

Views: 167,167

Keywords: insider carpentry, finish carpentry, festool, diy, dewalt, crown molding, crown molding installation, how to cut crown molding, cutting crown molding, crown installation

Id: n6CIaw_9TRQ

Length: 18min 25sec (1105 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020