Planning your mouldings

For most renovation projects, planning is the key to success and in this case, planning means knowing what style of mouldings you want, where you want them installed and how much it’s going to cost. Off-the-shelf mouldings are produced and sold in various standard widths designed to fit harmoniously into the décor. This means that while a 5-inch moulding may be suitable for a large living room, it will overwhelm a small bathroom. So, keep in mind that the smaller the space, the narrower the moulding.

Use our Planning Guide: Decorating with mouldings to mark and note all the necessary information.
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Knowing a little on the subject
Measuring your home
Drawing a plan view
Calculating your budget
Tips and advice

Knowing a little on the subject

Mouldings are sold in lengths ranging from 8 feet to 16 feet long and widths ranging from 1/4 to 7 1/2 inches. Before setting foot in the decorating store, consult our Moulding project and ask yourself the following:
  • How many rooms in the house need mouldings?
  • Will baseboards be enough, or do you plan to dress up the doors, windows and walls as well?
  • Will you be using wood, MDF or another material?
  • What finishes will you be using? Wood can be stained, oiled or painted. MDF or other composites need to be painted (unless they’re pre-finished).

Moulding materials

Mouldings are made of wood, composite materials like MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard), plastics, etc., with wood being the most commonly used material in Canadian homes.

Jointed and clear pine mouldings are the least expensive, but pine is easily scratched and dented, while hardwoods, such as oak, maple or cherry, are much harder and more resistant damage, especially around “high traffic” areas of the house.

Jointed pine mouldings, composed of spliced sections, need to be painted to hide the joints.

The uniform surfaces of full pine mouldings have no joints and can be stained and/or varnished.

Measuring your home

Now that you’ve determined the styles and finishes, you’ll need to study the rooms that you plan to renovate. There’s an old carpenter’s principle “Measure twice, cut once”, which we’ll paraphrase with “Measure twice, pay once”. Careful measurements to determine the right quantities and lengths will spare you extra expense and repeated trips to the store. Use our Planning Guide: Decorating with mouldings to mark and note all the necessary information.

Drawing a plan view

Now that you’ve taken careful measurements, its time to draw a floor plan.

Draw to scale. Although it’s a bit more involved, it will give you a better perspective of the work and the obstacles you may encounter. Remember to accurately position potential obstructions such as electrical baseboards, air vents, fixed bookshelves, etc, that need to be bypassed or cut out.

Enter floor level cupboards, closets, baseboards, shower and bathtub, etc., and indicate their dimensions

Calculating your budget

Now’s the time to transfer the information from the Plan View to determine costs. You can use the calculator on this website to determine these items.

Ask yourself, if this a do-it-yourself job or should it be entrusted to a specialist?

If you plan to tackle the job yourself, do you have the tools you need? Will you need to buy or rent?

Choosing the right lengths saves money and does a better job. If you have to cover a 14-foot length with baseboard, select one 16-foot moulding instead of two 8-foot lengths. In this way you’ll avoid a joint and a single 16-foot length is usually less expensive than two 8-foot lengths.

Certain power tools such as mitre saws and automatic nailers can be rented.

Ask an expert at your home renovation centre what type of saw, 8 ¼-inch, 10-inch or 12-inch, is best suited for your moulding job. Remember that a 10-inch mitre saw won’t cut through a 7-inch wide moulding in a single pass. You may have to buy or rent.

Tips and advice

Leave wood or MDF mouldings in the room where they’re to be installed for a minimum of 48 hours. This will acclimatize the material and help eliminate reactions (expansion and contraction) to room temperature and humidity after they’re installed.

If you can apply primer and finishing coats before installation, do it, as painting in place is usually more difficult and time-consuming. This way, you’ll eliminate the need to mask the surrounding, walls, floor, doors and windows. Even better, measure and pre-cut all your pieces (you may have to number them) before applying a finish to be able to sand away the rough edges or raised grain left from the saw blade.

Usually mouldings are nailed, or glued and nailed. Screws are rarely used. If you use glue, remember that the wall surfaces will be badly damaged if the mouldings have to be removed. Also, to avoid splitting, pre-drill hardwood mouldings before nailing.

There are numerous moulding manufacturers in North America and, although they produce the same moulding categories (o’gees, crown, cove, etc.), each individualizes its products by making small modifications to the basic designs or decorative patterns. The result of these slight alterations is that, for example, a crown moulding made by company “A”, won’t be an exact match of a crown moulding manufactured by company “B”. This is important when replacing a damaged moulding.

If you must splice baseboards, casings and cove mouldings, cut them at 450. This will help hide the joints. For casings, in the absence of base blocks and rosettes, cut the pieces at 450.

Rosettes and base blocks don’t need mitering. They abut with baseboards and casings at 900.

Sink the finishing nails into the material with a nail set and cover the holes with nail hole filler. Nail hole filler can be purchased in various colours to match the background.
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