Thicker baseboards and how to remove tar paper

[oaktree]

Thank you much, everyone, for the ideas. I will tell you guys what ends up working best!

[phil]

Seriously? Even mitered joints that have gapped look better than butt joints in the base board. I can't imagine.[/quote]

miterd joints look fine while they are still tight. wood shrinks more across the grain but it does change dimension along the length of the board too. It is slight but if you have 20 foot baseboards and they change length even just 1/16th your miters will open up or be forced to bow. I guess that's why they didn't normally miter them. the 1/4 round could have a coped joint but i don't think it normally was because it is time consuming and requires some hand work for each joint. the 1.4 round has less mass and lots of nails so it doesn't move around the same. with butt joints, if the board moves it isn't very noticeable.

none of my original baseboards were mitered, you could poll the others but I think if you delve in you'll find there is a reason for it. it also holds one of the boards against the wall.

Others with original basboards ? if you actually look are yours mitered or butt joints ?

Phil

[kelt65]

Others with original basboards ? if you actually look are yours mitered or butt joints ?

I think the type of house you have may play a role. Everywhere I've read indicates it could go either way, but I just don't think butt jointed base boards have a very fine appearance. I can't imagine a very fancy house being like that. Perhaps the gaps would simply be filled in as they developed. I'm not sure I've ever seen mitered baseboard gaps, but then I've never thought about it to examine them closely. Why would flat sawn baseboard gap at all? The grain would expand and shrink vertically along the wall, not between them. I think the mitering was mostly viewed as a pain and just ignored.

I tried to find some pics showing inside corners in some museum level maintained buildings ... very hard to find on the google. Maybe I'll take a camera to a few sometime. But my experience has been only modest type houses had butt joints.

[1850Farmer]

none of my original baseboards were mitered, you could poll the others but I think if you delve in you'll find there is a reason for it. it also holds one of the boards against the wall.

Good job Phil! I'm a carpenter by trade, for more years than I can remember and I NEVER miter square stock baseboards. I always coped base cap, crown & shoe, it takes a bit more effort but miters will open.

[Don M]

none of my original baseboards were mitered, you could poll the others but I think if you delve in you'll find there is a reason for it. it also holds one of the boards against the wall.

Good job Phil! I'm a carpenter by trade, for more years than I can remember and I NEVER miter square stock baseboards. I always coped base cap, crown & shoe, it takes a bit more effort but miters will open.

Yep, I was just going to say the coped joints is what was usually done.

[oaktree]

This makes a lot of sense! I will make sure to do this the right way when I install my new baseboards. Thanks so much everyone!

[matchbookhouse]

My house has original baseboards. The quarter round at the bottom is mitered. The flat portion above that is butt-jointed, and the curved top portion is mitered against corner blocks. Even though my house has drastic changes in humidity from summer to winter, there's never been any movement in any of the joints.

[kelt65]

Phil

I think you're right. I must have been looking at well coped butt joints. Unfortunately I normally see uncoped butt joints which is actually what I think looks terrible.

[phil]

My baseboards are just straight plain boards with only a roundover so coping doesn't apply, but they aren't mitered.

[Texas_Ranger]

I think officially you'd have to dispose of the floor with the black goo as toxic waste because it's full of organic hydrocarbons, at least that's what I keep reading from Germany. Some US states might be more relaxed but for your own peace of mind I'd have an air sample tested.