How To Cut and Install Foam Crown Molding | This Old House

this is the master bedroom and we were thinking about putting crown molding up here as well yeah and i picked out this uh crown molding here which is obviously larger and a bit more ornate than what i used in the library and it's not made out of wood right this is actually made out of foam you've picked the egg and dart profile on here they have a lot of different profiles and what i like about this stuff it's very stable so it doesn't expand and contract and the joints won't open over time is it going to be harder for me to work with it than the wood no it actually goes up just like wood and it's not any harder let me get some tools and we can get started great all right that looks good our carpets all protected now there's a few different ways that we can install this molding we could nail it in place but we have to worry about this molding getting dented maybe from the nail gun or from a hammer and they would have a hole to fill you can glue it in place but then you have to worry about the excess glue spilling onto the ceiling or the wall would have to clean that off well we have a new system that the manufacturer sent us and i've never used it before it's actually a plastic clip the plastic clip will screw up against the ceiling and against the wall and on the back of the molding they supplied two little kerf cuts so when the clip is on the wall you actually push the molding into the clip and it holds it to the wall no nail holes to fill so let's get the brackets in place the manufacturer recommends the clips be spaced about 12 inches apart so i've marked the wall in 12 inch increments we can now screw the clips to the wall all right chill out and what i want you to do is take this clip and hold this part tight against the ceiling and this part tight against the wall and drive the screw into this hole right here but try to keep the screw level don't go up or down with it all right so you get up there we'll put the screw right on the end of the tip of the screw gun there you go this feather the trigger that's right a little bit at a time right in tight to the wall there you go all right ready for the next clip now the reason i'm having you put the blue tape below the bracket is because it's a locator now when we put the molding up against the wall we can't see the bracket so when i punch the molding into the bracket we're lined up perfect all right we're ready to start measuring for our molding and what i want to do first is i want to start on this inside corner right here and i want to find out if this corner is square so i'm going to use this square right here and i'm going to hold it against the wall now i can see that this inside corner is not 90 degrees it's out of square so what i'm going to use is another tool right here this tool right here will automatically bisect the angle now i put it in the corner open it up tight to each wall and then i tighten down on the clamp to lock it into position now i have the exact angle that i want to cut the crown molding so let's take the stool to the saw now i take one leg of my dividing gauge and i hold it tight against the fence of the saw i then move the saw over with my laser light i line up this line right here in the gauge and that's our center line and my angle will be bisected perfectly now we're ready to cut our molding now here's how it sits on the wall and here's how we're going to cut it on our saw now we have to think of the base of the saw as the ceiling and the fence of the saw as the wall now i've positioned these two blocks on the saw that will hold my molding at the right angle it will hold it flat against the wall which will make it flat against the ceiling now if i was to take this molding and hold it flat against the fence and make a cut that's a simple miter but a crown molding actually has two angles when i make this cut it's now a compound miter now i'm ready to make my first cut now i've already cut one angle for our molding now let's see what the other angle will be and it's the same so that's good so now i'll measure for the length and that is forty and three quarters all right now we're ready to make this cut right here we've already cut one of the angles on our first piece of molding with our saw still set at the same angle we'll cut our second piece of molding all right let's see how it fits all right the miter is good now you also notice that we cut it so we'd have a mirror image of the egg and dart detail on each side of the miter now before we snap it in place i want to run a thin bead of acrylic latex caulking right on that joint okay now let's push it into the corner snap in my first one all right now i'll hit them all in right above the blue tape okay ready for the next piece all right now to put this next piece up so i don't have to measure and how guaranteed to get the right length we're going to hold the piece upside down i'm going to measure the piece about an eighth of an inch longer than needed and we'll just spring it into place so it'll get a nice tight fit now the gap between the top of the molding and the wave in the ceiling right there i can fill that with a little bit of caulking after i fill it i'll just wipe it with a wet rag so the molding will fit around the register i actually cut out the bottom of it right here let's see how it fits it's pretty good now i want to mark the length for this outside corner so i've snapped this piece into position i take my pencil hold it on this wall here and mark the underside of the piece that's my length now i'll cut the piece all right now we're ready for the last piece let's see how it fits i want to get it tight into the corner now i want to line up the outside corner and it's important that it lines up it's tight and the pattern matches all right that looks good the egg and dart pattern matches perfectly on each side now i'm going to give you a little secret on why i started right here in this part of the room this is the only part of the room where we could not match the egg and dart pattern and we'll never notice it not in this corner well guys what do you think that's it it's phenomenal tom it really dresses up the room you've really done an amazing job well it makes a big difference i'm glad i could help

Channel: This Old House

Views: 458,776

Keywords: This Old House, Ask This Old House, DIY, Home Improvement, DIY Ideas, Renovation, Renovation Ideas, How To Fix, How To Install, How To Build, foam, crown, molding, pbs, org, 264, for, Video, Podcasting, Against, Clown, Demo, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, Rage, Walk, Avi, Demonstration, Game, Podcast, Steel, Episode, News, Tom silva, tom silva this old house, tom silva house, tom silva construction, tom silva tools, tommy silva

Id: jqjef8_ZW2E

Length: 8min 46sec (526 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2010