ᐅ Is it feasible for a layperson to install baseboards themselves?
Created on: 26 Aug 2020 21:36
K
kati1337
Hello,
we have hired a painter for the entire house, including wallpapering and painting. I have now asked what he would charge for the baseboards but haven’t received a price yet.
Is it something a layperson could realistically do themselves? A miter box and a Japanese saw can be bought for about €70 (around $75). On Amazon, there are complete kits with baseboards and corner blocks available for just under €200 (about $215), although I haven’t calculated if the length would be enough. However, a friend mentioned that installing baseboards is much more difficult than it seems at first glance. Especially cutting for the corners would be a really tough job.
Do you have any experience with this? I’m not extremely perfectionistic, but it should look neat. Would you recommend letting a professional handle it, or is it something one can try doing oneself?
we have hired a painter for the entire house, including wallpapering and painting. I have now asked what he would charge for the baseboards but haven’t received a price yet.
Is it something a layperson could realistically do themselves? A miter box and a Japanese saw can be bought for about €70 (around $75). On Amazon, there are complete kits with baseboards and corner blocks available for just under €200 (about $215), although I haven’t calculated if the length would be enough. However, a friend mentioned that installing baseboards is much more difficult than it seems at first glance. Especially cutting for the corners would be a really tough job.
Do you have any experience with this? I’m not extremely perfectionistic, but it should look neat. Would you recommend letting a professional handle it, or is it something one can try doing oneself?
H
hampshire11 Jan 2021 15:59We nailed the moldings and mitered the corners. It was quite easy using a meter stick, pencil, nail gun, and a miter saw with angle adjustment. I didn’t want to glue them onto clay plaster, so I nailed them instead. Both methods work equally well.
Start at one point and measure each next piece as you go. You don’t need to do much calculating.
Corner blocks make miter cuts unnecessary and simplify installation. However, I don’t find them very attractive. You mainly catch on them when the blocks are thicker than the moldings, creating a protrusion.
Your approach is correct—just start in the least important room. It will work out.
Start at one point and measure each next piece as you go. You don’t need to do much calculating.
Corner blocks make miter cuts unnecessary and simplify installation. However, I don’t find them very attractive. You mainly catch on them when the blocks are thicker than the moldings, creating a protrusion.
Your approach is correct—just start in the least important room. It will work out.
P
pagoni202011 Jan 2021 16:24Exactly. I would get an electric miter saw, which you’ll use around the house from time to time. If an angle isn’t quite right, you can fine-tune the cut. Eventually, it even becomes enjoyable and motivates you to take on more projects, maybe even in the garden later.
I might go for smooth surfaces, without any decorative profiles. If you have many moldings, you could also consider having MDF strips cut to your desired size from the sheet, with the top edge routed or rounded, for example. Then you can paint the moldings yourself however you like and nail them to the wall. It’s all easy to do yourself, costs less, and can be fun... maybe. We once sprayed moldings with gold leaf from a spray can… MDF makes it possible to try out new things.
Gluing wouldn’t be my choice, but I guess it can be done too.
I might go for smooth surfaces, without any decorative profiles. If you have many moldings, you could also consider having MDF strips cut to your desired size from the sheet, with the top edge routed or rounded, for example. Then you can paint the moldings yourself however you like and nail them to the wall. It’s all easy to do yourself, costs less, and can be fun... maybe. We once sprayed moldings with gold leaf from a spray can… MDF makes it possible to try out new things.
Gluing wouldn’t be my choice, but I guess it can be done too.
I mainly use glue because clipping is too complicated for me, and I don’t want to see holes or nails in the moldings. Since we have wallpaper underneath anyway, I’m not too worried about gluing them. There are special adhesives for this, but in a pinch, hot glue would probably work as well—there’s not much that can go wrong with that.
I’ll definitely go shopping and probably get started this weekend; you’re absolutely right. Just dive in. It can’t look worse than it does now. 🙂
I actually think mitred corners look nicer than the overlapping style, but I was a bit intimidated by the cutting.
edit: Oh, by the way, is there a basic formula for roughly how many meters (feet) of molding you need?
I’ll definitely go shopping and probably get started this weekend; you’re absolutely right. Just dive in. It can’t look worse than it does now. 🙂
I actually think mitred corners look nicer than the overlapping style, but I was a bit intimidated by the cutting.
edit: Oh, by the way, is there a basic formula for roughly how many meters (feet) of molding you need?
kati1337 schrieb:
There are special adhesives for this, but in a pinch, hot glue would probably be enough—what major damage could it really cause. Just helped a neighbor last weekend. Bought a $20 hot glue gun from the hardware store, a few sticks of glue, acrylic, and a cartridge gun... It looks great. We started in the storage room and then did the rooms that needed larger pieces first. See below.
kati1337 schrieb:
I actually think miter cuts look nicer than the block joints, but I was just a bit nervous about making the cuts. It’s just fiddly work. If it doesn’t fit at all, you just take a new molding piece and use the other one somewhere else. That’s why we started with rooms where you need long strips. We messed up the cut a few times, but we could still use those pieces elsewhere, so our waste was kept to a minimum in the end.
kati1337 schrieb:
edit: Oh yes, is there a basic formula for estimating how many meters of molding you roughly need? We measured everything roughly and then brought an extra 10m (33 feet). We needed to use one extra strip. The other 8m (26 feet) will be returned if COVID restrictions allow.
We have white baseboards. They were glued in place by my brother and me. We cut the miters ourselves, and where they weren’t perfectly precise, we concealed the gaps with white acrylic. We used cartridge adhesive from Hagebau as glue. Since it wasn’t enough, we simply continued with sanitary silicone. Everything has held up to this day, since August 2017.
Winniefred11 Jan 2021 18:23kati1337 schrieb:
edit: By the way, is there a basic formula to roughly estimate how many meters of molding you’ll need?What do you mean? You measure the total perimeter of your room in meters. Also, keep in mind that you might need a few extra meters to avoid too many joints at the end, for example around heating pipes, doors, recesses, etc.
Just start with that. Cutting miters is no problem for straight walls; the more irregular the construction, the more skill is required. I find outside and inside corners look good, but yes, they often don’t last forever and tend to collect dirt. It’s better without them, especially since they are also expensive.
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