Thanks for your info. We are doing the exact same job but cannot seem to get the crown moulding right in the corners, nor can we find corner pieces that match up with the moulding. Do you have any pointers on how to cut the corners. We too have only a miter saw.

Thanks again.

Serena Russell

Hi Serena,

The corners are really hard to cut- that is why we bought pre-made pieces that you just nail into the corners. This way, all you have to do is cut the moulding so that it fits between the two pieces- no angle cuts required. We found the corners pieces at Lowe’s Hardware and I’m sure Home Depot might have them too- or they can order them.

If you’re cutting the moulding to fit together in the corners, just be sure that you cut at 45 degree angles on both pieces. Be SURE not to cut too short or you’ll waste a whole piece of moulding. Your miter saw might “lean” to either side to allow you to cut at 45 degrees.

Hope this helps!

For Serena,
you can get a miter saw kit at Home Depot which has a miter saw and a plastic block that has any angle you may need pre cut. It's a lot easier than a protractor and goes for about$17. I'm sure other home stores have similar products.

For Serena,
you can get a miter saw kit at Home Depot which has a miter saw and a plastic block that has any angle you may need pre cut. It's a lot easier than a protractor and goes for about$17. I'm sure other home stores have similar products.

I'm installing crown moulding and borowed a compound mitre saw because my mitre box is not deep enough .any tricks or hints you can give me? Thanks so much,Mike

I tried cutting crown moulding on a compound mitre saw and it's not meeting properly.Any help will be appreciated. Thanks, Mike

The crown in the pictures above is upside down

only ONE problem mate,,you installed the moulding UPSIDE down

carpenter 20 years

Oh well, it's upside down. I didn't know the difference then and it makes no difference to me now. I'm not a carpenter and having a web site doesn't make me an expert. Hopefully others who read the comments will take note. Thanks for the correction.

It's only upside down in Australia, it's right side side up in America mate.

How do you cut moulding when there is a peaked ceiling and the moulding comes into a level corner?
/
_____/

Inside corners, crown is tricky. cope one board to fit a flush cross-cut . If walls, ceiling are a bit out of square you need to adjust the cut. 46,47, 44,43 degree or so. Test with a small piece(s) one flush (sq. cut) one 45 or whatever, (45 cut in the saw at the angle that it will be on the wall, however, cut upside down.(ceiling on bottom /table of saw, wall on fence.)coped. Each corner will be off or different then the others. No wall or ceiling is sq. 90 . Buy extra moulding and practice with small pieces for a day.

My load of crown just arrived today. I'd rather hire a pro to install it but, I'm too stubborn. I have lots of tools including a compound miter by Delta. This is one job I don't look forward to. I'll probably have to resort to the cut small and often till it fits. Thank God for painters' putty too.

Wish me luck.

Not to sound stupid, but you didn't crack any of the moulding with the nails or the screws? How tall/high are your ceilings? I'm on the verge of doing the same thing after taking a "class" at Home Depot.

Don’t worry about sounding stupid, I’m the one who put the moulding on upside-down and posted it on the Internet. Cracking the moulding is a risk, but it’s pretty tough stuff. Don’t swing too hard and use skinny nails.

Really though, if you need to use screws, drill small holes in the moulding first and don't tighten the screws too much. This way the stress on the moulding will be lessened. I’m trying to talk like a carpenter again. If I’m wrong, I’m sure someone will correct me soon enough. Good luck.

~Lee

Also- Anthony, a pneumatic or power nailer does wonders... and the ceilings are pretty normal height- 8 feet.

Hi!

We installed crown moulding in our bathroom and used caulking to fill the gaps as well. Unfortunately, it has all dried and pulled away from the sides and looks horrible. Any ideas if I should try to scrape it out first, then reapply my caulking - or just leave it there and shove some more in the cracks? I will admit it was not "painter's caulk", as I didn't know that existed. Do you think that would be any different?

Thanks for any suggestion!

Tammy

Hi Tammy,
I would say that you should definitely try to clean out as much of the old cracked caulk as possible before re-applying.

Actually, a trained eye would see in the pictures that we used tub and tile caulk for the moulding- which worked fine for us. You might even try that yourself as it may be better for moist environments like a bathroom.

Thanks for the advice - we did actually use the tub and tile caulk and that is what has cracked and pulled away from the wood & walls. Maybe it wasn't applied properly?? It looked great for a month or so, and then just started little by little pulling back. Should I have sealed it maybe with something? Also to note: This bathroom isn't used for showers at all so I don't think it is steam or humid conditions causing the problem.

Thanks!

We are planning to put the new crown moulding against furdowns built out of 1x2 sticks covered with sheetrock, floated and covered with wallpaper. The moulding is pre-finished to match our new cabinets. The ceiling where the furdowns meet is sheet rock as well. Across the ceiling there is an occasional joist that could be used for attachement. In the other direction, the furdown never lines up with a joist. We are thinking about glueing the moulding, but not confident about what kind of glue, how to hold in place while glue sets, or any other techniques. Any suggestions?

help!!! I bought about a year agoooo, some 10 inch styrene crown moulding that is ornate. I've been calling around for a mitering box because all i could find was the 6" ones at home depot. I could make my own using 2 pieces of wood and slicing 45 degree angles in it. my problem is - how to begin?? I've done the old try to miter both sides of the boards (putting 2 45 degrees together - forget it! ) someone told me to start at the corner with the flat edge to the corner and cut only one edge of another to meet the flat one in the corner.....does this make sense? Is it really tooooo hard? I've put the corner squares and connected trim to it before and it turned out pretty nice - I put them right side up!haha so I THINK i can do it - I'm just scaird.

Ava, Buy a power miter saw.

I am installing small MDF crown moulding and am looking for pictures of how tomake the cut for the corners. Can you help?

Thanks for the pictures but I am not using corner mouldings, I would like the crown to meet in the corners without the corner mouldings. Do you have any pictures on how to do this?

Anthony shouldn't pretend to know what he's talking about- it's upside down in America too. Chances are, Angela, that even if you saw pictures of how to cope your corners, it would still prove a frustration to you. Paid carpenters are generally not even allowed by their foremen to install crown until they have years of experience with other types of trim. However, your best bet would be to go to a woodworkers supply store and attend one of their classes. This will save you a lot of money in ruined mouldings if you can learn by doing from someone who KNOWS what they're doing. Do not try to miter your inside corners. In 20 years, I've run into only two crown moulding profiles that could not be coped. (For any other carpenters out there; yes I too thought that anyone making the preceeding statement was insufficiently skilled. There are, however, some mills that produce crown whose horizontal profiles pass the 90% point from the vertical. Coping them leaves a conspicuous hole where those aspects of the profile meet). Mitering almost always requires extra work such as shimming to get a professional looking result. Tub and tile caulk isn't even very good around your tub and tile. Best to use a painters caulk like the DAP acrylic latex. Make sure that it is labeled as paintable. Your local paint store should be able to steer you to the right product. Lastly, consider hiring a professional for this particular job. I've recently torn out two crown installations attempted by ambitious homeowners who finally gave up in frustration. Hiring a pro from the outset would have saved them a lot of hair pulling and time, as well as the cost of the mouldings that couldn't be salvaged.

The proscription for coping inside corners only appies to 90% corners incidentally. Inside corners of 45% or 33% must be mitered. With a lot of struggle, these angles can be coped, however the crown will appear to veer off to one side as it rises from the corner-very homely look. Good Luck.

I too am a homeowner leaning toward installing crown molding myself. I recently put up chair rail and didn't have too much trouble with the mitering. Is it really that much more difficult to install the crown if one has a helper?

We plan to install crown moulding but our walls(red) and ceilings(white) are both textured. Any advice?

Kathy and Lynn,
Despite what some have said, we didn't have too much of a problem doing it ourselves (with very little experience). In fact, we did it in another room with similar success and both rooms were not level or perfectly square.
We took the easy way by doing the corner pieces instead of trying to make the moulding meet perfectly in the corner.

Sorry Lynn, I can't help much with the textured walls- not sure what to tell you...

Lee, thanks so much for the encouragement. You were right on. The project was not at all difficult and it came out just beautifully. For me, the caulking at the end was the most painstaking but I am very particular so it had to be perfect. Thanks again.

I bought new kitchen cabinets and
my brother installed them. Crown
moulding came with them, but we
don't know how to attach them to
the cabinets, which means we don't
know if we have all the pieces.
Help!
Thank you. Sandy

Hi Sandy,
I wish I could help more, but I'm not sure what you need. If the moulding came with the cabinets, it should fit at the top seamlessly. Before putting up the cabinets, try to fit the moulding onto the top so you know where they will rest. Then, be sure you leave enough room for the moulding when you install the cabinets.

I image it's best to do the moulding after the cabinets are installed, but I'm no expert.

One piece of advice that I've learned to live by: measure twice- cut once.

If you need to install crown moulding on a textured ceiling, simply soak the texture with water, using a spray. Then carefully scrape the damp texture off the ceiling using a putty knife. If you use a 3" knife and guide it along the wall, you should end up with a very straight border ready for primer/paint and the moulding.

Wish I would have seen this BEFORE I tried to install my own @#$%^ crown moulding!

Firstly, I've been a carpenter for over 15 years and I personally prefer the cove edge of the crown to be at the top (upside down). On another note in regards to texture ceilings, running two piece (base first and crown slightly down 1/2 - 5/8ths from texture.) This method creates a nice shadowline that is quite appealing without removing any texture. Bottom line, I like my crown upside down...I don't see a problem with it, I ran it that way in my house. I say whitewalls in on tires too if that matters at all....

Hi, I would like to install crown moulding on my boring white cabinets. Is this possible? And how do you go about it, do you need special Cabinet crown moulding? thanks

I am doing some crown mouldings (for the first time), and I found this useful: http://www.hardwood.org/display_article.asp?ID=306 ...As it turns out, my moulding is 38/52 (I had no idea), and I would have never figured out the proper cut angles. It is still tricky, but you just have to think before you cut. I've read about "coping", and read (here?) not to miter inside corners, but I did, and they look great. I used a cheap 1" electric nail gun ($39 at Sears) and just tacked the mouldings as lightly as possible to start. That was a good idea, because I did have to adust one - I just pryed it off, pulled the nails and put it back such that it met up properly - I still haven't "finished" this first room, but I can tell it will look great - I have some very *slight* tolerances, but some wood putty and caulking will have them practically perfect.

I am planning to install crown moulding in my livingroom this weekend.The room is 20 x 14..Can anyone give me an idea of what this will cost. thanks( estimates are fine)

Any tips for getting a nice flush look on the walls/ceiling that has bows and joist depressions? I usually cut the moulding at the high spots and make very minor adjustments to the angle cut. This usually works to minimize gaps to the wall or ceiling. But recently I can across a spot that had a wall bow and a ceiling bow in the same spot. The result is a twisted moulding. Any tips or tricks?

I've done a handful of crown moulding projects and I love the cope look on inside corners. It just takes some practice and patience.

Any tips for getting a nice flush look on the walls/ceiling that has bows and joist depressions? I usually cut the moulding at the high spots and make very minor adjustments to the angle cut. This usually works to minimize gaps to the wall or ceiling. But recently I can across a spot that had a wall bow and a ceiling bow in the same spot. The result is a twisted moulding. Any tips or tricks?

I've done a handful of crown moulding projects and I love the cope look on inside corners. It just takes some practice and patience.

Lee:

I'm going to attempt to install crown moulding myself also using the blocks. Just curious, did you use a nail gun and/or adhesive? Did you put it in place with adhesive first?

Hi Debbie,
We did use a nail gun, but did not use adhesive. The best I remember, we held the moulding in place by hand and nailed as we went.

Debbie,

Make sure you always nail into a stud if you can. Before I nail, I use a stud finder and lightly mark the wall slightly below where the moulding will go. Pencil will wash off later. On a couple walls, the ceiling joists run perpendicular to the wall and you can mark and nail into the joists as you would into a stud. On the other two walls, the joists will run parrallel to the wall and you won't be able to nail into them. You can take your chances along these walls and just nail into the ceiling. I'd use a little adhesive where the moulding meets the ceiling before nailing in. "Liquid Nails" works well.

I just did moulding for the first time, and angled corners weren't that tough. I'll pass a secret given to me that makes it easy. Don't place the moulding on the miter saw flat. Rather, angle it as it would be angled on the wall, only upside down and backwards. All you have to do is turn the saw to 45 degrees and cut. No worries about mitering angles, etc. I found this way to be simple and IT FIT. Try it out first on a couple 1' pieces and test them on your wall corner. That way, you'll know for sure that it'll work. Always add 1/8" to all wall measurements and cut back if you need to.

Hi Can anyone help. How do you handle wall that are 28 ft long. How do you have each piece flow smoothly to the next.

Sandy,

I had to do this too because I couldn't find moulding longer than 15' for a large room. Some people make joint cuts to adjoin the two pieces. I just made the two ends square with my miter saw, and it looks fine. Make your own cut... the manufacturer's cuts aren't always square and smooth.

Adjoin the two pieces in an inconspicuous spot, not over a door, or high traffic area. Remember to avoid cutting the moulding too short. I cut my corner cut first and then made square cuts on the other end until it fit perfectly with the piece already nailed to the wall.

After you nail in the moulding, apply a little joint compound with your finger to fill in the crack and make it seemless. When it dries, sand it smooth.

Thanks for the help Glen!

When I did my first (of 2 or 3 total) moulding projects, people told me to be sure to cut the moulding at 45 degrees (with a mitre saw) where it ran together in the middle of the wall. I think this can give it a more finished look.

I would imagine the difference between the two methods (90 degree cuts vs. 45 degrees cuts) is neglegible unless you're a pro.

I'd go with Glen's advice above. The compound or caulk can fix a ot of mistakes.

My best advice is to measure twice and cut once. :)

I have a compound miter saw.I want to cut inside and outside miter corners,tell me in a child's language what degrees I need to set me miter and bevel cut to.

I have a compound miter saw.I want to cut inside and outside miter corners on crown mouldings,tell me in a child's language what degrees I need to set me miter and bevel cut to.

I know its a little late to the topic but as far nail causing cracks in the moulding;

Put a little bit of caulk around the back area where the nail is going thru and then Pre-drill the nail holes...and then put a little bit of caulk around the back area where the nail is going thru and you shouldn't ever crack the moulding when nailing to a wall.

I just finished with the cuts on the moulding but am haveing a heck of a time with filling the gaps. PLEASE HELP!!!! I have painters caulk but it is not looking to good.

You are free and that is why you are lost.

FIRST OF ALL I GIVE YOU A LOT OF CREDIT FOR TAKING ON ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT PROJECTS IN FINISH CARPENTRY. YOU WERE WISE TO BUY THE PRE-CUT CORNER PIECES TO AVOIT THE NIGHTMARE OF TRYING TO GET A PERFECT MATCH ON AN INSIDE CORNER, BUT THE REAL TEST OF SKILL IS GETTING A MATCH ON AN OUTSIDE CORNER. I'VE BEEN A FINISH CARPENTER FOR 30 YEARS NOW AND THERE ARE A FEW TRICKS TO CROWN MOULDIN, BUT MOST OF IT YOU DO BY "FEEL" AFTER THE FIRST 20 YEARS. GUESS YOU KNOW THE CROWN MOULDING IS UPSIDE DOWN,,, BUT DONT WORRY, A FEW CUSTOMERS PREFER IT THIS WAY. BUT IT IS UPSIDE DOWN FROM THE TRADITIONAL POSITION OF THAT DESIGN. YOU CAN CHECK OUT MY WEB SITE IF YOU WANT, BUT I BUILT IT MYSELF SO DONT EXPECT TOO MUCH, AND KEEP UP THE WORK, THATS HOW WE LEARN,,, DAN ANDERSON,precisionwoodcrafter.com

Is it just my family, but I think the crown molding looks better upside down. We install our entire first floor upside down because it looks better.

we have been trying to install crown moulding in our apartment and have run into problems with sizeable gaps where the moulding does not sit flush against the wall because of uneven ceilings, etc. we also have several places in the apartment where the moulding will have to be installed where a brick wall meets the drywall ceiling. my boyfriend and i are master carpenters by no means. would it be a better idea to hire an installer? and could anyone give me a rough estimate on what an installer might charge?

How do you cut a crown moulding on a round outside corner? I have tried an outside corner attachment but it did not look good. I would like to cut a small piece of the moulding to fit the round outside corner. Do you have any suggestions?

its upside down!!!

Im about to install crown molding for a friend and would like to know how do you bid fro it? By board foot or would it be best to bid by the hour, and how much and hour would I charge?

Hey everyone there is a COOL tool called the "cutncrown.com" do a search anyway it will let you cut all angles of crowns just like a pro !!!! Gonna try it myself if all goes well I will let you know.Chuck

For inside corners of crown u must set your miter to 22.5 degrees and bevel at 45 degrees

It,s not upside down if it,s your house and that how you want it. Looks great to me, I think you did a wonderfull job. Upside, gotta love it.
s Kendo