Beginners Guide to Installing Crown Molding

Steve Maxwell — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 10:00:00 EST

Canada's handyman, Steve Maxwell, discusses EZCrown... Of all the ways trim can make the inside of your home look better, crown molding delivers the most bang for the buck. It had fallen out of favour for decades, but the 1980s saw the beginning of a resurgence in crown molding popularity. These days crown is at least as popular as it ever was, and not just because it looks great. Crown is also easier than ever to install if you prepare yourself with the right tools and know-how. Follow these real-world tips and you’ll enjoy excellent results even if you’ve never installed crown molding before. Crown Molding Tip #1: Get a good chopsaw Also called miter saws, chop-saws make it fast and easy to complete the kind of smooth, precise, angled cuts every good crown installation requires. Once adjusted correctly, a chopsaw allows anyone to make cuts as quickly and as well as any professional carpenter. The best chop-saws for crown installation have two features. First, they spin a 10-inch or 12-inch diameter blade on rails that slide back and forth for wide cuts. A big blade with sliding action means crosscutting capabilities up to 12” wide and beyond. And second, the best crown molding chop-saws tilt both left and right from vertical. This is called “dual bevel” capability and it really helps with crown installation. Taken together, saws that can do both sliding and bevelling are called “dual bevel sliding compound chop-saws” and there’s a reason almost no one installs crown moulding without one of these tools on their side. Nothing else works as well, especially for beginners. Crown Molding Tip #2: Use an anchoring system Apart from using a chop-saw, this is the most important advantage you can give yourself when it comes to installing crown well. If you’ve never installed crown molding before you’ll probably be surprised to discover what the most challenging part of the job is. Finding and making use of a solid support surface underneath the drywall to hold nails is essential to anchor crown molding properly, but it’s trickier than it looks without some kind of help. The reason is because house walls are almost never framed with crown molding installation in mind. In fact, some kinds of houses don’t have anything at all below the wall surface that will hold nails, and that’s where you need a solution. The best system I’ve seen so far for making it fast and easy to anchor crown molding is called EZCrown. Invented by Florida dentist Athas Kometas, this economical system uses a sheet metal base with angled wooden nailing blocks mounted to it. Fasten the sheet metal to the wall and ceiling, then nail the crown molding to the wooden blocks that are part of the EZCrown system. It’s simple but highly effective. So how does a mounting strip make things easier? One advantage comes from the fact that you can mount anchoring strips anywhere along its length, or using drywall anchors if there’s nothing solid at all under the wall surface. The crown molding itself is mounted with precisely located and oriented nails driven into the mounting blocks, but it’s easy to drive them properly when using a mounting strip. Crown Molding Tip #3: Choose a paint-grade installation If you’re new to crown molding, you’ll want to make installation choices that are as easy as possible. And in the world of trim, there are two approaches for any situation: stain grade (the more difficult) or paint grade (the more forgiving). Stain grade installations use high-quality solid wood finished with a transparent or translucent finish, allowing wood grain to show through. This creates a beautiful look, but it also means that filler cannot be used to cover up loose joints. The filler would look terrible because it won’t be hidden by stain so you only get one shot at cut accuracy. You need to get the cuts perfect for stain-grade trim installations to succeed, and this is why the paint-grade option makes more sense for beginners. Paint-grade crown molding, by contrast, is more forgiving than stain-grade because you can fill less-than-tight joints with latex caulking. Paint over this filler after it has dried and the results look great. Crown Molding Tip #4: Sand crown molding before installation No matter how smooth a piece of wood seems when it’s bare, it can always benefit from sanding before finishing. When it comes to crown, mill marks are the main reason why. All trim is made by machines that have rotating planer blades and invariably tiny repeated marks are left behind on the surface of the wood by these blades. These might not be noticeable at first, but finishing brings out these imperfections unless you get rid of them first. Sanding crown molding my hand using 120-grit sandpaper is one option, but something called a sanding mop is better. It’s a rotating abrasive disk for a drill or drill press, made with narrow fingers of abrasive material. These fingers smoothen the trim but without rounding over the all-important crisp corners and edges. You wouldn’t think something like this would work, but it really does. Crown Molding Tip #5: Consider corner blocks When Athas Kometas invented the EZCrown mounting strip system he did something else to make crown installation easier. The optional corner blocks that are part of the system eliminate the need to complete any kind of angled corner cuts. The butt joint on the end of the crown simply butts up against the pre-installed corner block. You get an elegant result that’s simpler to succeed with than anything else because no angle cuts are required. One of the nicest things about doing your own home improvements is the ongoing satisfaction it delivers. As nice as it is to increase the value and saleability of your home, you can’t beat the sense of satisfaction you’ll get every time you glance up and see some excellent crown moulding well installed by your own hands. Steve Maxwell is co-author of The Complete Root Cellar Book. Get how-to and self-reliance answers directly from Steve at www.SteveMaxwellHowTo.com.

CROWN MOLDING MADE EASY... Confessions of a DIY Weekend Warrior by Dr. Athas N. Kometas

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 14:05:00 EST

Crown Molding Made Easy Confessions of A DIY Weekend Warrior by Dr. Athas N. Kometas As a dedicated DIY weekend warrior, the details of construction have always fascinated me. Understanding ‘the why’ and ‘the how’ things are done consumes my mind. I’ve done pretty much every kind of home improvement project from bathroom to kitchen remodels, to reinventing a room, so I decided to challenge myself with crowning my ceilings. I had heard installing crown molding was a difficult undertaking. And I wasn’t disappointed. I quickly found out there were no real systems on the market that helped you, just books and YouTube videos to make sure you didn’t make the ‘huge mistake’. I remembered a chapter that I had read in Jay Silber’s book Decorating with Architectural Trimwork. Silber’s technique involved cutting individual wood triangular blocks with the correct spring angle and attaching those blocks to the ceiling/wall interface every 16”. The blocks would then be nailed to the double top plate with two long finishing nails. It made sense, but having an older block house in Florida, I knew that the external walls would have minimal wood backing. And I was right in that I found a 1” X 2” horizontal furring strip close to the ceiling and a vertical 1” X 2” every 16” that didn’t even come close to the horizontal one. The interior walls mostly had a single top plate. Attaching these blocks would be difficult as I quickly realized that the wall framing rarely lined up with the ceiling framing. In my house, the ceiling trusses are at 24” intervals and the walls were at 16” intervals. Where the walls were parallel with the trusses, there was no wood ceiling backing at all. I remember thinking ‘It’s no wonder why the drywall tape was starting to separate!’. I soon realized that installing crown molding would simply hide a poor drywall job. I began by attaching the triangular blocks to the vertical 1” X 2” furring strip at 16” intervals. Then I discovered that the vertical 1” X 2” was often missing towards the ceiling. I started to wonder about my sanity in undertaking this project. Then, after a great deal of frustration, I started attaching the blocks to the ceiling joists and the horizontal wall furring strip. That worked until I hit the first overhead dormer. Nothing was easy because the ceiling of the room had 3 dormers above it and there were missing ceiling framing in three 8’ sections. What became extremely apparent was that my house had minimal consistent wood backing to attach anything to whatsoever. I knew I had a choice to make. Either nail the block to the wall framing (on the interior walls) with nothing to nail to the ceiling; or nail to the ceiling joists if present and not to the wall framing. I own this home…so I wanted these blocks to be securely fastened. Relying on one flimsy nail did not make sense since I was putting up some pretty heavy crown molding. I realized that the blocks had to be secured to the walls and ceiling and decided to pre-drill all the blocks in a perpendicular manner. I decided that where I had marked the vertical wall or ceiling framing, I would confirm the wood backing by drilling through the predrilled block into the framing and, without moving the block, drill through the other pre-drilled hole into the drywall. In this drywall hole I placed my drywall anchor. With a #6 2-¼” furniture screw slightly protruding from the back of the block, the drywall anchor was easily centered. The other hole in the block received the #6 screw into the framing. Generally, where the trusses were parallel with the wall, there was no ceiling backing, so I used drywall anchors. The evolution continues. The upstairs of my home is built as part of the truss on 24” centers. This was too far apart for the molding I was using. Using my pre-drilled blocks, I just decided to place the blocks where I needed them and then use two drywall anchors and forget about the framing. In some areas, I went 12” on center with some of the blocks attached to the truss system, and with the remainder I used only drywall anchors. By the time I got to the last room in my house, I realized that I should not be cutting triangular blocks at all, as the wall/ceiling corner of the block often pushed the block one way or another due to poor drywall finishing. I should have used a truncated block that has no corner at the wall/ceiling juncture. Since I had finished my house, it wasn’t until a year later that I was able to refine my truncated block technique. I have a large 4-bedroom home with 6 dormers which adds significantly to the irregular framing issue. It also has extensive outside corners and plenty of coped inside corners. I know that some carpenter’s place the crown quickly without wood blocks and shoot finishing nails at angles, sporadically hitting backing. I didn’t want to ‘pray’ that the ‘adhesive’ caulk would take care of everything. Moreover, as a homeowner, I did not want to have to re-caulk and paint every few years because the adhesive caulk was asked to act both as a nail and a filler. Since I am not a classically trained finish carpenter, I knew that there had to be a better way. What if the truncated blocks were already attached to a truncated frame? The entire frame could easily be placed into the ceiling wall interface and fastened using drywall anchors. I wouldn’t even have to worry about finding any studs at all. The only consistent thing in most homes is a single top plate, so I decided to attach to it. Then I would simply attach the crown molding. So that’s what I did. The following describes the first ever ‘crown framing assembly made easy’ technique. And the beginning of the EZCrown Molding Installation System™. Truncated Frame and Block with Ceiling Member Pre-Drilled for Lead Drywall Anchor The frame is truncated, eliminating the problems with the ceiling/wall juncture irregularities. The frame has holes in the ceiling and wall segments so that it is easily secured by drywall anchors without even having to search for wall studs or wood backing in the ceiling. The frame can also be secured to the top plate which is almost always present. 4 Foot EZCrown Framing Sections The frame block assembly comes in 4-foot sections and is extremely lightweight. Using the EZCrown system, one person can now install crown molding. An additional bonus is this frame is ideal for placing crown in all masonry condominium construction. All you need is a few tap cons! The frame is easily cut with tin snips. I made the frame 4’ (actually 46-⅞”) and because each covers 5-1/2 linear feet, eight are what is required for a 10’x10’ room. 5-¼ Inch Crown 6-¼ Inch Crown The EZCrown Molding Installation System™ accommodates crown molding from 5-¼ " up to 7-¼”. The spring angle must be 45°/45°. The wood blocks are every 14” on the frame. As the system uses anchors to secure the frame, there is no need to find any studs or wood backing in the ceiling. Just fasten the frame to the top plate! All the necessary fasteners are included.

INSTALLING TRIM Five Tips for Great Results

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 14:55:34 EST

Installing your own trim, moulding and baseboard is one of the most useful do-it-yourself home improvement ventures you can take on. It’s also a bedrock skill for woodworking in general. Whatever your motivation, here are five trim installation tricks that make all the difference, both for furniture projects and houses. Be sure to watch the two videos at the end, too. I think you’ll find them useful. GREAT videos are included.

Everything You Need to Know About Crown Moulding Sizes Dimensions

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 17:30:00 EST

Crown molding will lift any room in your home, drawing your eyes up, making the ceiling feel higher. They also give the space balance and proportion by establishing a decorative transition between the walls and ceiling. Crown moldings offer an easy way to add a wow-factor and resale value to your home.

7 Types of Crown Molding for Your Home

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 16:20:02 EST

Crown molding dates back to ancient Greeks and Romans. Its decorative and functional trim is usually found where the top of the wall meets the ceiling. Today, you’ll see crown molding in all styles of homes. This article focuses on the different materials crown molding can be made from.

CROWN MOLDING Put These Five Tips Into Practice Enjoy Better Faster Results

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Sat, 09 Jul 2022 10:12:13 EST

If you’d like to install crown molding at your place, this article can help you do it better. You’ll learn tips that I’ve found helpful over four decades of working with wood, including a recent innovation that solves one of the main challenges of installing crown molding well. After reading the crown installation tips below, check out the Q&A’s later in the article.

SANDING BETWEEN COATS The 1 Most Important Wood Finishing Step

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Sat, 07 May 2022 11:55:00 EST

If you are staining your crown, this is a great tutorial...

Tips and Techniques for Finishing Trim

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 07:11:53 EST

Achieving a flawless finish is all about proper prep, taking the correct steps, and applying the right product with quality tools.

14 Expert Tips for Tight Miters

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 18:20:00 EST

Pro tricks for air-tight joints.

What To Know About Miter Saw Blades

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 12:18:49 EST

Miter saws are popular tools among professionals and DIYers for good reason. They let you precisely cut a variety of materials, helping complete work quickly and safely. Using one makes installing EZCrown even easier!

How Much Does Crown Molding Cost

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 07:10:00 EST

Crown molding isn’t necessary, but it does an amazing job of elevating the appearance of a room. And EZCrown allows you to easily and quickly do it yourself.

Must Know Shortcuts for Trim Carpenters

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 11:36:18 EST

Learn better ways to cut and install casing, baseboard and crown molding, tricks for hanging doors and avoiding bad transitions, and other secrets of the trim carpentry profession.

How Can I Stop Cracks Where Ceiling Meets Walls

Steve Maxwell — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 18:25:39 EST

Some real-world tips on crown molding from Canada's handyman, Steve Maxwell. "The best way I know of to easily and securely fasten crown in any situation is with a simple product called EZCrown. Invented and sold by a Florida dentist, EZCrown also makes it simple and secure to fasten crown the ceiling only.

Working With Steel Studs Metal Stud Framing

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 07:37:35 EST

EZCrown Molding Installation System works the same way with wood, block, or metal frame homes. All quick and easy.

Easier Crown Molding Installation

Steve Maxwell — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 06:50:00 EST

Easier Crown Molding Installation Put these five into practice and enjoy better, faster results If you’d like to install crown molding at your place, this article can help you do it better. You’ll learn tips that I’ve found helpful over four decades of working with wood, including a recent innovation that solves one of the main challenges of installing crown molding well. Installation tricks coming up immediately, but check out the Q&As later in the article. Crown installation tip#1: Decide on crown molding width This might seem obvious, but no one can accurately decide on the ideal width of crown for a given room without trying samples in place. As you’re shopping for crown, buy one length of several widths and styles, then have someone hold them up at the ceiling while you see what it looks like. Besides varying widths, the different profiles of crown can have a big effect on the look of your room. Don’t cut these test pieces and you’ll be able to return them to the store later, when you pick up all the crown you’ll need for the entire job. Crown installation tip#2: Decide on painted or stained crown molding Choosing a finishing approach might seem like a strange thing to think about early on like this, but it’s essential. That’s because it’s much more challenging to install stained crown rather than painted crown. Filler is one reason. Paint-grade crown allows the use of latex caulking to fill gaps invisibly before painting, so a tight fit on joints is much less critical than with stained trim. No filling is possible with stained trim of any kind, so you’ve got to be spot-on with all joints. Cost of materials is another issue. Crown molding destined to be stained needs to be milled from high-quality solid wood, which is much more expensive than the MDF or lower-grade woods that paint-grade crown is made from. Crown installation tip#3: Obtain two essential tools A miter saw (also called a chopsaw) offers the single biggest advantage you can give yourself when tooling up for crown installation. The ability to accurately cut trim at precise angles is key. Unless you like frustration, don’t even attempt to install crown without a big miter saw at your disposal. Some kind of cordless nailer is a huge advantage when installing crown, too. Sure, you could secure crown with hammer driven nails, but that’s a lot harder than it looks. Why? The simple reason is that it takes two hands to drive a nail, leaving no hands to hold up the crown. Air nailers of the sort you’d use for crown installation are not made because it’s physically tiring to drive such small nails, but rather that an air nailer needs only one hand to operate. In addition, air-driven nails don’t knock the crown around like hammer blows do, so accurate joint alignment is much easier. Crown installation tip#4: Mark your walls for nail location ahead of time This sounds simple enough, but it rarely is simple without help. That’s because underlying residential wall frames rarely offer all the wood you need for securing crown with nails. Sure, there will probably be some hidden framing wood available for nailing into, and this should be marked and made use of whenever possible. But since all crown is held in place with finishing nails or brads driven into the underlying wood frame below the drywall, drywall alone can’t help. That’s where an invention by a Florida dentist helps a lot. Athas Kometas didn’t like the way crown molding installations were often a hit-and-miss affair, all for lack of underlying nailing surfaces. That’s why he invented something called EZCrown. It’s a combination sheet metal backing that holds angled wooden nailing blocks. The sheet metal is easy to anchor to the wall, in turn making it easy to nail the crown molding to the angled blocks. Click below to meet Athas by video (he’s an interesting guy), and to see EZCrown in action. Athas’s favorite method of marking stud locations are those narrow sticky notes made to mark specific spots in books. These stickies cling well to the wall, but peel off easily without leaving marks behind. You should try them. Crown installation tip#5: Consider corner blocks The trickiest part of crown molding installation is getting the joints tight, and this is why corner blocks were invented. They sit in the corners, eliminating the need to make angled cuts on trim. Simple square cuts are all that’s required. Sure, you still need to get the length of a given piece of crown correct, but this is a lot easier than getting a complicated compound angle correct as well as overall length. Crown Molding Q&A If you’re new to crown molding, learn some useful basics with the most common crown molding questions people ask. What is the purpose of crown molding? Crown molding (also spelled “moulding”) is a specific type of interior trim that’s typically found where ceilings meet walls or on the top end of cabinets. Crown molding adds a lot of elegance and refinement to any room. It gets its name from the fact that it’s always installed up high in a room or on top of elegant furniture. Crown molding is always angled, too. This makes the profile details easier to see and appreciate while standing on the floor. Is crown molding outdated? No, far from it. Crown molding is a classic trim detail that’s been used for centuries in many parts of the world. And though crown fell out of favor in most places during the 1960s and 70s, it began to come back in the 80s. Crown molding may be more commonly used today than at any other time in history. It’s easier and cheaper to install and looks fabulous. What is the average cost of crown molding? This varies a lot depending on the width and shape of the crown chosen, and whether or not the installation is made to be painted or stained. You can expect to pay $5 to $25 per running foot of crown molding installed. What is the difference between molding and crown molding? Crown molding is just one specific type of molding used inside homes and buildings to make the space look better. There are hundreds of different kinds of moldings in the world. Crown is just one. Molding like this is also sometimes called “trim”.

How to Use a Coping Saw to Cut and Cope Molding Video

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 10:35:00 EST

This is the easy way to get tight-fitting joints on inside corners. Discover how to create perfect, tight-fitting inside joints on chair rail molding. The same techniques work for crown and base molding. Learn how to use a coping saw and you can make difficult-looking trim joints with ease. Tackle any trim project with the skills you’ll learn in this video.

Tips and Techniques for Finishing Trim

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 10:40:00 EST

This article has some great DIY tips & tricks on how to repair and finish trim around your house (whether it’s baseboards, window trim or crown molding). If you are going to spend the time and money - even using EZCrown - it is critical that your crown molding is finished properly andinstall it securely.

Mill Your Own Wide Crown Moulding Free Plans Download

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 08:30:00 EST

The process Steve Maxwell explains is fast and the profiles you get are crisper and more intricate than what comes off a lumber rack. You can also make use of wood species beyond all that ordinary pine and oak stuff. And if you ever choose to sell your house, explain to prospective buyers the benefits of your particular shop-milled crown molding, and the mystique may even let you talk up the price a bit, too.

Must Know Shortcuts for Trim Carpenters

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 10:35:00 EST

Finding and marking wall studs and ceiling joists for modern crown molding or ceiling trim installation is tedious. But not if you use EZCrown Molding Installation System! EZCrown makes installing crown molding or ceiling molding a quick and easy process.

All You Need to Know About Crown Molding

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 10:15:00 EST

It’s the crowning glory of interior design: stylish overhead ceiling molding that adds architectural character while producing a visual separation between the walls and the ceiling. Sometimes called cornices, crown molding dates back to ancient Greece, where craftsmen and builders chiseled ornate moldings from travertine stone or molded them from plaster. https://www.bobvila.com/articles/crown-molding/

Crown Molding Cutting and Installation

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 08:20:00 EST

This three-piece system for installing crown molding removes all sorts of potential problems typical to crown molding. Of course, it is faster, easier, and cheaper if you use the EZCrown system.

14 Expert Tips for Tight Miters

drkometas@gmail.com (Athas Kometas) — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 07:09:06 EST

Pro tricks for air-tight joints.

The Simplest Method Youll Ever See for Marking and Cutting Radius Trim

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 09:48:30 EST

Marking and cutting radius trim can be tricky, and mistakes can be costly. This expert has a super simple method.

Tips and Techniques for Finishing Trim

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 09:31:29 EST

Finishing Trim...Achieving a flawless finish is all about proper prep, taking the correct steps, and applying the right product with quality tools.

Mitered Joints Make a Tiled Shower Niche Shine

jeff@jeffreyptaylor.com (Jeff Taylor) — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:43:53 EST

All you need for tight-fitting miters in tile is an angle grinder and a steady hand.

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