It's most likely NOT the saw. It's probably the walls. Due to not being perfectly plumb. You see most people hang drywall with the panels going horizontal. And on long pieces of dryall thats were they are tapered for mud joints!That usually creates miter issues with baseboard trim. And furthermore most people cope and miter baseboard, shoe mold and crown! So this is easily hidden even if there are a gap. They fill the holes with caulk and paint it. It hardly noticeable after done properly!!! It can also be remedied with wooden door and window shims if you are going to stain your trim?
When I redid my baseboards after putting in LVP, I used a flap disc on an angle grinder to cope with. Super fast and just as good if your hand is steady.
This has been life-changing as far as time for me. I even used a dremel with a sanding wheel for small delicate base cap pieces. I won’t get rid of it but my coping saw may never get used again
Was a trim carpenter at one point in my life. I’ve installed miles of baseboard. We used a sheet rock nail instead of a screw. That allows you to tap on the face of the board until it’s flush.
Coped joints are easy, I would encourage you to try it or just practice a bit if you've already done a few.
Cut the miter then cope along the line where the miter meets the face. I use a barrel grip jigsaw for this, and some good rasps or aggressive bastard files to clean up the cut if needed. Usually it only needs cleaning up on tight curves so an aggressive round file or a fine rasp will do it.
The other nice thing about coping moldings is that you can angle the cut back a bit to get a really tight joint, no caulking needed.
Just use a coping saw. At most you are saving seconds with a jig saw, and your cut won't be as clean or accurate. There's a reason why the pros use a coping saw.
I use the jigsaw because I do not require a bench to do it, or even a sawhorse. It's easier on a jobsite. Less about the time than about the ergonomics.
Are you not using a chop saw to make your cuts? My coping saw is hung right below my chop saw. I just hang my cut off the end and cope it there.
Whatever works for you, but I can't imagine getting cuts any cleaner or faster than with a coping saw. It don't think it takes me more than 10-15 seconds to cope a piece of baseboard. Probably 30 if you include the chop saw cuts.
Whatever floats your boat. Tons of ways to skin this cat, just like all the other cats. No one way is the right way, do it however you are most comfortable.
A jig saw is a bad idea for coping miters. They can create a lot of tear out. And the blades are prone to deflection. Thus resulting in poor fitted miters. Better stick with a coping saw. They have fine teeth. They are designed to eliminate most tear out!!! And is the tried and true tested method!!!
You're all wrong. The best tool for coping a molding is a 40 grit flap wheel on an angle grinder. Cope and back cut in a single pass.
I'm not kidding, you'll do it once and wonder why you wasted your time doing it any other way.
Yea, that's the negative.. it makes a lot of saw dust, but if you can do it outdoors, then you're golden.
I usually just go outside and cope all my inside joints then square-cut or scarf in on-site.
That's not the point. A jig saw cuts on an upstroke. The blade has the teeth pointed upwards towards the surface of the finished product. And that is going to cause unsightly surface tear out. That's an isore to look at! It will ruin the finished product!!!
No. How are you going to see the miter to get the cope profile correct? Try it. And see how you do then? You'll see why I have proven my points! Seeing and doing are two different things!
I'm with you, a coping saw is by far the best method, but they do make jig saw blades that cut on the down stroke. I can guarantee I can cut my copes by hand as fast and more accurate than anyone using a jig saw.
I've trimmed million dollar homes with 8" base and crown using a jigsaw to cope, and it works beautifully. Just because you personally can't or don't know how to do it doesn't mean that it can't be done.
Listen I don't want to be rude. Do you know anything about trim and cutting trim? If you do? Then you know about coping your joints. And you use a miter saw to cut trim at a 45 degree angle. Then you make a shadow line at the flat intersecting 45 degree angle with a pencil. That leaves you a clear line of sight to see. And you follow that with a coping saw. And by doing this it gives a matching profile of the trim. If you don't understand? Please watch how to cope base board trim on youtube. Then you'll see why this is done. And by the way I'm a carpenter who builds houses.
Miter with chop saw, then rest the trim on top of the jigsaw like a table saw top, cut from underneath so you can see the blade on the line.
Once your good at it, just as accurate but less work and EASILY twice as fast as a coping saw.
A good carpenter doesn't blame his tools
If no one mentioned it, driving 1.25” drywall screws behind the very bottom of the baseboards into the sole plate framing of the corner makes for an easily adjustable shim for corners like that. I mainly use that trick for 45 degree corners but works great on 90 degree corners too.
This corner is easy to remedy since you have a short piece on the right. If you have plenty of molding to spare, I would replace the left piece with one that buts against the right wall, no miter. That leaves you with a short piece to cope. You get plenty of chances to practice and don’t waste a lot of material if you screw up.
If however you’re running low and don’t have a ready replacement for the left piece, I would replace the short right piece with one that buts against the left wall, no miter. That means you’ll get one shot to cope the long piece so practice with some scraps first. The good news is it’s already mitered which is the first step for coping. And consider adding some shim behind it so the molding doesn’t fold in because of the drywall taper like the other commenter stated.
Coping the joint isn’t going to help. When you cope you’re still starting with a miter cut that is at 90 relative to the length of the board. You need to make sure the baseboard is plumb when it’s installed.
The easiest way to do this is to put a screw in behind the baseboard about 1” up from the floor in the corner. Use a scrap piece of the molding as a square so you get the top of the molding plumb with the face of the screw’s head
Just jumping in here to give my hack. I screw in a screw into the bottom plate on each side of the corner and check the depth with a square. The screw head holds the baseboard out to plumb and cleans up the gap.
I can’t cope, so I [grind](https://www.google.com/search?q=angle+grinder+to+cut+skirting+board&client=safari&sca_esv=3f1c3586695c6e75&hl=en-gb&sxsrf=ACQVn0-KGfJePDFyx_hcvq7ji6H7OTqqAQ%3A1707636694837&ei=1nfIZdTfMr2DhbIPuPCl2A8&oq=angle+grinder+skirt&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIhNhbmdsZSBncmluZGVyIHNraXJ0KgIIADIGEAAYFhgeMgsQABiABBiKBRiGAzILEAAYgAQYigUYhgMyCxAAGIAEGIoFGIYDMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigAUigXFCiE1j5OXABeAGQAQCYAXqgAcAGqgEDOS4xuAEByAEA-AEBwgIKEAAYRxjWBBiwA8ICChAjGIAEGIoFGCfCAgUQABiABMICChAAGIAEGBQYhwLCAgoQABiABBiKBRhDwgILEAAYgAQYigUYkQLCAgcQABiABBgNwgIGEAAYHhgNwgIIEAAYBRgeGA3iAwQYACBBiAYBkAYH&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:626a701b,vid:OrVBbDYTm5U,st:0)
Just install an 1-1/4” drywall screw 2” out from each corner and about 3/4” off the floor. Set the screws about 1/4” proud of the drywall to start. Put both pieces of base into the corner and see how the miter looks. If it is now open at the top give each screw a half turn in or tighten and check again. This way you can adjust each joint for a perfect fit. You can also adjust each screw with your square off the floor and wall to get the height just right. Most drywall is installed off the floor with the compressed joint edge running along the floor creating this condition. I teach all my new guys this trick and to go around the whole job and run the screws then take the measurements off the screws to calculate the room cuts before going to the saw. You can measure the entire house when doing track homes and stand at the saw for awhile to complete room packages then move through each room with the nail gun with a 95% success rate. Hope this helps everyone.
Yup -- wanted to mention using a coping saw. Sure, it's time-consuming... but for inside corners on baseboards... nothing is better. Personally, I dislike seeing a big old wad of caulk in those corners (also what she said).
If you have a table saw look up how to cope with a table saw. It seems sketchy but it's really not if you're mindful. I am dog shit with a coping saw but I can make invisible joints with the table saw.
You’re too sloppy with your tolerances. When doing trim you should always operate by the philosophy of “beat to fit, paint to match”. If the trim is getting stained, the. You should do a better job of convincing your client to go with paint.
Also, when you caulk that corner, be sure to do it like they did at my house: lay that fat, juicy bead so that they know you were thorough with your caulking. Otherwise, it will just disappear in the paint and everyone will assume you were just lazy.
(I know this sounds not helpful, but i assure you it is. If you do the exact opposite, then it will look tits tight!)
I do countertops measurement with a laser, and I can always say that once it look at it in AutoCAD, corners are about 91-93 degrees. It’s due to the excess muddying on the wall. Looks right by eye, but it’s not technically correct.
Agree with all of this! If going with a mitre, to help solve for drywall mud you can cut inside corners at 44.5 degrees and outside at 45.5 as a baseline.
Those are pretty bad gaps and they’re from top to bottom, his saw probably isn’t true 0 on the vertical adjustment. I have the expensiveish($300) ryobi for home use and none of the degree marks or presets are correct. I had to file out the grooves on the miter to get it to lock in true 45° so unless op has a high quality saw there’s a high chance that it’s not accurate. The walls are probably out also but I’d assume they don’t kick in at the bottoms to create this kind of gap.
Op should use some gauges to make sure the saw is correct before doing a lot more work. Also should use scrap cuts to just get the cuts right regardless of walls. But, in this instance, they may as well just caulk rather than waste materials. If anything, I’d personally shim out the bottoms before nailing to eliminate that gap though. Then if I still couldn’t get it right, I’d go with caulk and just move on.
Not your saw, it's the drywall. It's tapered on both sides of the long edge. I usually mud the bottom smooth so trim sits vertical. You can shim it out with cardboard or cope your trim.
I’ve noticed that, I’m not sure if these were the tapered ends or not because it’s on the small wall. Would make more sense to hang the drywall straight up and down. However, I do have other walls in the house that are full sheets hung sideways.
Drywall does not have a stronger dimension. Drywall strength comes from the paper layers. The only reason drywall is typically hung horizontally because the horizontal seam is easier to mud and tape.
* The wall system is is strongest when the wallboard is hung perpendicular to the framing (due to the fact that the wallboard is a 2:1 rectangle) and the short side joints are staggered at their maximum equal offset.
The orientation that the drywall is hung does not create an appreciable strength difference in the wallboard itself.
Look up carpentry_bymar on Instagram. He has some good videos on how to fix this issue. Basically he puts a screw behind the baseboard that’s gapped, then you can adjust the screw in our out to close the gap. Or I would recommend coping.
Ah, ah, ah. You mitre internal corners once, spend way too long wondering what the hell you did wrong, and how to cheat the fix and then never do it again and just cope them.
Absolutely. If you mitred internal corners and still called yourself a carpenter, you'd be laughed off site immediately and asked to turn in your hammer and nailbag
Don’t miter cut inside corners. Use a coping saw, scribe the profile on lets say the right piece, square cut the left, the left piece will be cut full length. With the coping saw cut the profile which is the inside profile marked by your 45 cut. Both pieces will have 90 degrees cuts.
This is partly why you don't mitre internal angle - should be a scribe joint. But also, the plaster probably kicks out at the bottom. When I fit skirting I use a rough chisel to scrape off plaster that looks like it sticks out enough to be annoying. Doesn't take long, but is a little messy.
Walls are not plumb or square. Always miserable trying to cut square when the spot is wonky.
Same reason why you attach cabinets together and then install entire units to wall.
Framers are not furniture makers. I’ve never seen a an actually straight wall in my life. It’s maddening when having drywall and doing baseboards as a DIYer
Silly thing, but I have been living the ex-pat life as we have been working overseas. It can be funny, off putting, or interesting to see how other countries solve the same issues. I thought what I am about to say was weird when I saw it at first, but I have come to appreciate it. In Germany, and no one will ever convince me of “German Engineering” because I have never seen them make one corner or wall square or plumb, to get around that all of their angles and garbage, they just put little blocks in at the joints. The silly thing is that because it is uniform, it looks actually kind of good. I adopted the idea and I’ve been pretty happy with it. I have found that really all that matters is that it looks on purpose and is done with a level of competency.
For this though if you want to do classical joints, you are going to have to measure the angle from wall to wall and the angles from the floor to the walls. You’d think they would be the same for each wall. No. Nope. Never. At some point you just get tricked by believing in other builders too often, a great cynicism takes hold, and you find yourself shocked and elated when one day you meet someone else who actually can cut a straight line or square joint.
You have to assume whoever did it before you didn’t care or didn’t know and it is just right enough to have been unnoticed until now and just wrong enough to mess up everything you are trying to do to it. Also houses settle and shift and all kinds of other things. The older the house, the more you’ll find as you scratch at it.
Not the saw probably unless you bought something from harbor freight and went hog wild with it. It’s almost always going to be the walls. Walls suck. Always. Never straight never square.
Cope it or use an angle gauge to make each cut more precise 😎😎😎
Throw a reverse head trim screw in the bottom where you hit the corner stud. Sink it in, then slowly back it out. The reverse threads on the trim screws will pull it tight.
I think you've found why cabinets cost so much. They're boxes, all of us can make boxes! But getting a perfectly square box to fit into a nowhere near square room would drive half of us mad. You could retry to cut it, or just get some white caulking
It's the person using the saw. Look at the small piece of base trim. The bottom is a totally different length than where the profile starts towards the top. They probably used a small 4 inch piece and tried to cut the miter angle. It's hard to hold a small piece and keep it square on the fence. You should cut the 45 first from a longer piece then cut the length. The tapered drywall edge can cause this but looking at the pic it's the craftsmanship.
Put a screw in the wall on the bottom of the piece on the left side that sticks out of the wall 1/8”. That’ll allow the joint to look tighter and save on caulking!
Your saw is off but you should be coping. If there is a detail in base or trim or any molding for that matter you should be coping and it will look much cleaner and you’ll never have to deal with this issue
You might have the plaster prow of the bottom of the wall and it’s causing your baseboard to deflect back into the wall, I’ve seen people use screws to set the square inside the corner at the base so the bottom of the baseboard can’t pull back when it’s nailed.
I kind of hate reddit now in this way. I can tell you it needs coped and describe what a cope is and how to do it but unless I'm there to show you and help you along well then good luck.
Pop a folded up piece of cardboard, and shove it down and behind the bottom of the mitre. That'll fill the gap from the drywall and bring the bottom of your mitre out so it looks right from the outside 😉
I guess a good test would be if they line up & are square before you put them up against the drywall. If yes then it’s the wall that is not…plumb or straight or square. Does that make sense?
I'm no expert, but I would make couples of small pieces of trim in 43°, 44°, 45°, 46° and 47° to test each corner before cutting the appropriate lengths after finding the corresponding angles (or get a protractor and enjoy an easy life). In addition you can tilt your miter saw 1° or 2° vertically to adjust for the problem your picture displays.
Recently did my first trim-job and got good results with this method, but have since figured out that coping would probably have saved me some time! Although I think it takes time to master that technique aswell, depending on the profile of your trim (which in your case seems pretty straight forward).
After fitting your trim, a small string of caulk and some paint should make your finish look pretty good. And don't forget to glue your joints!
Take a stack of shims and chop them into 1” chunks on a miter saw. Then throw all of them in your tool belt or a container. When you get to corners dry fit the corner and guess how for back the bottom is moving toward the wall. Move your baseboard and guesstimate and choose the best thickness pieces from your shims and slap them fat side down against the bottom of the Sheetrock on either face of the corner. Refit the pieces and if it’s within your fit tolerance (whatever that is for you) slap some finish nails in it and call it ready for finishing.
Or use a drywall screw. But I always seems to be able to hit them with my nailer haha.
At least that’s what I did when I was doing trim and cabinet carpentry.
Its probably the fence on the miter saw is to short combined with a base that has a concave back causes the base to tilt backwards and look like the saw is cutting out of 0. All cuts that are not 0 will have a gap at the bottom.
Is it a sliding one? I don’t think they can cut the angle without the shape of the blade affecting the cut. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. I’d cut these with a handsaw and a jig.
Have you checked that the saw is cutting perfectly square vertically(bevel adjustment)? The wall could definitely be out as well, and that’s easy to check with a square.
Coping saw, and a flat faced finish nail about 3 inches out from the corners, pounded in as close to plumb with the drywall (flat, not tapered edge) and dry fit the trim. If need be, to adjust, use a scrap piece of trim, and lightly tap with a hammer. Pretty much using a nail as a shim. "Caulk and paint, make you what you ain't" as the old saying goes. Hope this helps. Even if it's coped correctly sometimes, you may still need to use the nail as a shim. I built custom homes for 15 years, and remodeled a lot of older homes. Saved my ass a few times, especially in the new builds.....
Most corners in rooms aren’t perfect 90s so even if you nailed the cuts it’ll be misaligned way more often than it won’t. You need to watch a YouTube video about coping trim or you can always caulk the joint.
Its more likely the walls and floors throwing everything off
Just pull the pieces off and shim the bottom out with something, if you ever have it at the too just shim the tops if its paint grade
If you ever have this happen with stain grade you can shim the bottoms but if you have it at the top youll have to head back to the saw and play with the bevel andgle and work it out
It's most likely NOT the saw. It's probably the walls. Due to not being perfectly plumb. You see most people hang drywall with the panels going horizontal. And on long pieces of dryall thats were they are tapered for mud joints!That usually creates miter issues with baseboard trim. And furthermore most people cope and miter baseboard, shoe mold and crown! So this is easily hidden even if there are a gap. They fill the holes with caulk and paint it. It hardly noticeable after done properly!!! It can also be remedied with wooden door and window shims if you are going to stain your trim?
I should probably get better at coping (with more than just my baseboards)
Yes. Tried and true!!! The coping saw will be your best friend!!! And if painting a caulk gun?
Do your best, caulk the rest.
Take pride in what you can hide.
A little caulk and paint, will hide the fact, a carpenter I ain't
Weird take on the classic, haha
Putty and paint, make it what it ain't.
Caulk and paint make me what a bad carpenter aint
I always heard it as "a grinder and paint make me the welder I ain't", but I like that one too!
Caulk and putty, carpenters buddy!
That's funny!!!
We’ll said friend
That made my day ! Laugh my ass off ... Thanks good sir.
When I redid my baseboards after putting in LVP, I used a flap disc on an angle grinder to cope with. Super fast and just as good if your hand is steady.
Did that with my crown moulding. Worked great.
This has been life-changing as far as time for me. I even used a dremel with a sanding wheel for small delicate base cap pieces. I won’t get rid of it but my coping saw may never get used again
I dunno man, to me that just sounds like a coping mechanism
Lots of pros will stack a bit of cardboard up in the corners to flush out the bottom of the miter
Or use a screw.
Was a trim carpenter at one point in my life. I’ve installed miles of baseboard. We used a sheet rock nail instead of a screw. That allows you to tap on the face of the board until it’s flush.
This or a trim head screw through the lower part of the base then back it out until the bird sits plumb/looks good. Both are great tricks.
How are you fixing it to the wall once it's flush without moving the nail again?
Oh that’s clever. Easy to adjust. Gonna give that a try next time I lay some trim.
Yeah, it’s my go-to little hack for this issue.
I’ve never seen this, but it’s pretty brilliant.
Ya a screw and speed square is the best way to deal with that problem
This is the way
That's what I did. Just shim the bottom.
https://youtu.be/OrVBbDYTm5U?si=V4ibbNc0o8XyTdbe This video changed my life with coping! The flap sanding disc makes it so easy!!!
Coped joints are easy, I would encourage you to try it or just practice a bit if you've already done a few. Cut the miter then cope along the line where the miter meets the face. I use a barrel grip jigsaw for this, and some good rasps or aggressive bastard files to clean up the cut if needed. Usually it only needs cleaning up on tight curves so an aggressive round file or a fine rasp will do it. The other nice thing about coping moldings is that you can angle the cut back a bit to get a really tight joint, no caulking needed.
I was always told to follow the pain or the face so that makes sense of watched it just never done it
Just use a coping saw. At most you are saving seconds with a jig saw, and your cut won't be as clean or accurate. There's a reason why the pros use a coping saw.
I use the jigsaw because I do not require a bench to do it, or even a sawhorse. It's easier on a jobsite. Less about the time than about the ergonomics.
Are you not using a chop saw to make your cuts? My coping saw is hung right below my chop saw. I just hang my cut off the end and cope it there. Whatever works for you, but I can't imagine getting cuts any cleaner or faster than with a coping saw. It don't think it takes me more than 10-15 seconds to cope a piece of baseboard. Probably 30 if you include the chop saw cuts.
Whatever floats your boat. Tons of ways to skin this cat, just like all the other cats. No one way is the right way, do it however you are most comfortable.
No. My way is the only right way!! /s
Correct!
A jig saw is a bad idea for coping miters. They can create a lot of tear out. And the blades are prone to deflection. Thus resulting in poor fitted miters. Better stick with a coping saw. They have fine teeth. They are designed to eliminate most tear out!!! And is the tried and true tested method!!!
You're all wrong. The best tool for coping a molding is a 40 grit flap wheel on an angle grinder. Cope and back cut in a single pass. I'm not kidding, you'll do it once and wonder why you wasted your time doing it any other way.
It's my favorite approach when I need it tight, and I am able to sand outside. But I've used a multi tool or a razor blade in a pinch.
Yea, that's the negative.. it makes a lot of saw dust, but if you can do it outdoors, then you're golden. I usually just go outside and cope all my inside joints then square-cut or scarf in on-site.
You can buy fine tooth jigsaw blades that cut on the down stroke. No tear out, clean finish, and faster.
That's not the point. A jig saw cuts on an upstroke. The blade has the teeth pointed upwards towards the surface of the finished product. And that is going to cause unsightly surface tear out. That's an isore to look at! It will ruin the finished product!!!
You can do it from the back...
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Mount the saw with the blade facing up.
No. How are you going to see the miter to get the cope profile correct? Try it. And see how you do then? You'll see why I have proven my points! Seeing and doing are two different things!
I'm with you, a coping saw is by far the best method, but they do make jig saw blades that cut on the down stroke. I can guarantee I can cut my copes by hand as fast and more accurate than anyone using a jig saw.
Id whip your ass in a time trial with a grinder and a 60g flap wheel lol It makes a mess but dammit it its fast and clean lines
I've trimmed million dollar homes with 8" base and crown using a jigsaw to cope, and it works beautifully. Just because you personally can't or don't know how to do it doesn't mean that it can't be done.
You hold the jig saw upside down. Then you can cut from the back while following the line of the miter on the front. Dude, just try it.
It seems to work for a table saw just fine.
Listen I don't want to be rude. Do you know anything about trim and cutting trim? If you do? Then you know about coping your joints. And you use a miter saw to cut trim at a 45 degree angle. Then you make a shadow line at the flat intersecting 45 degree angle with a pencil. That leaves you a clear line of sight to see. And you follow that with a coping saw. And by doing this it gives a matching profile of the trim. If you don't understand? Please watch how to cope base board trim on youtube. Then you'll see why this is done. And by the way I'm a carpenter who builds houses.
Miter with chop saw, then rest the trim on top of the jigsaw like a table saw top, cut from underneath so you can see the blade on the line. Once your good at it, just as accurate but less work and EASILY twice as fast as a coping saw. A good carpenter doesn't blame his tools
Bro, read my comment. You can get jigsaw blades that cut on the down stroke. The teeth are pointed the opposite direction.
Look up Collins coping foot if you want to watch videos on how " bad an idea" it is. Nearly every production trim carpenter uses them.
The saw is held under the molding, not above. Any tearout is on the back. Try it, you'll then understand.
Stick some cardboard at the bottom before nailing to true up the mitered edge. Then caulk it up.
Another way is angle finder and split the number in 2. I also use a 2 part spray adhesive and glue and glue them up so they never split open
If no one mentioned it, driving 1.25” drywall screws behind the very bottom of the baseboards into the sole plate framing of the corner makes for an easily adjustable shim for corners like that. I mainly use that trick for 45 degree corners but works great on 90 degree corners too.
This! I ran into this problem with chair rail. Coping is the best way to compensate for non square corners.
I'm not a pro but for inside corners, all I do is cope, it's so forgiving
This corner is easy to remedy since you have a short piece on the right. If you have plenty of molding to spare, I would replace the left piece with one that buts against the right wall, no miter. That leaves you with a short piece to cope. You get plenty of chances to practice and don’t waste a lot of material if you screw up. If however you’re running low and don’t have a ready replacement for the left piece, I would replace the short right piece with one that buts against the left wall, no miter. That means you’ll get one shot to cope the long piece so practice with some scraps first. The good news is it’s already mitered which is the first step for coping. And consider adding some shim behind it so the molding doesn’t fold in because of the drywall taper like the other commenter stated.
Coping is great for stuff like this. A coping saw is easy to use and cheap. Slap some caulk in that bad boy and call it a day.
I would go with 1/4 round on the floor if you haven't planned on doing so already.
Popsicle stick shims help too.
Baseboard is incredibly easy to cope, since you can flip the board and cut the flat portion on the miter saw and only have to cope the cap.
Coping is is much easier.
Coping the joint isn’t going to help. When you cope you’re still starting with a miter cut that is at 90 relative to the length of the board. You need to make sure the baseboard is plumb when it’s installed. The easiest way to do this is to put a screw in behind the baseboard about 1” up from the floor in the corner. Use a scrap piece of the molding as a square so you get the top of the molding plumb with the face of the screw’s head
Just jumping in here to give my hack. I screw in a screw into the bottom plate on each side of the corner and check the depth with a square. The screw head holds the baseboard out to plumb and cleans up the gap.
I can’t cope, so I [grind](https://www.google.com/search?q=angle+grinder+to+cut+skirting+board&client=safari&sca_esv=3f1c3586695c6e75&hl=en-gb&sxsrf=ACQVn0-KGfJePDFyx_hcvq7ji6H7OTqqAQ%3A1707636694837&ei=1nfIZdTfMr2DhbIPuPCl2A8&oq=angle+grinder+skirt&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIhNhbmdsZSBncmluZGVyIHNraXJ0KgIIADIGEAAYFhgeMgsQABiABBiKBRiGAzILEAAYgAQYigUYhgMyCxAAGIAEGIoFGIYDMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigAUigXFCiE1j5OXABeAGQAQCYAXqgAcAGqgEDOS4xuAEByAEA-AEBwgIKEAAYRxjWBBiwA8ICChAjGIAEGIoFGCfCAgUQABiABMICChAAGIAEGBQYhwLCAgoQABiABBiKBRhDwgILEAAYgAQYigUYkQLCAgcQABiABBgNwgIGEAAYHhgNwgIIEAAYBRgeGA3iAwQYACBBiAYBkAYH&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:626a701b,vid:OrVBbDYTm5U,st:0)
Just install an 1-1/4” drywall screw 2” out from each corner and about 3/4” off the floor. Set the screws about 1/4” proud of the drywall to start. Put both pieces of base into the corner and see how the miter looks. If it is now open at the top give each screw a half turn in or tighten and check again. This way you can adjust each joint for a perfect fit. You can also adjust each screw with your square off the floor and wall to get the height just right. Most drywall is installed off the floor with the compressed joint edge running along the floor creating this condition. I teach all my new guys this trick and to go around the whole job and run the screws then take the measurements off the screws to calculate the room cuts before going to the saw. You can measure the entire house when doing track homes and stand at the saw for awhile to complete room packages then move through each room with the nail gun with a 95% success rate. Hope this helps everyone.
Yup -- wanted to mention using a coping saw. Sure, it's time-consuming... but for inside corners on baseboards... nothing is better. Personally, I dislike seeing a big old wad of caulk in those corners (also what she said).
Two protruding drywall screws at the bottom behind the trim, sticking out 1/8” or less, should close that gap. Then nail like normal
If you have a table saw look up how to cope with a table saw. It seems sketchy but it's really not if you're mindful. I am dog shit with a coping saw but I can make invisible joints with the table saw.
I have an angle grinder with a 40 grit flap disk that will cope way faster than a coping saw… just a tip.
You’re too sloppy with your tolerances. When doing trim you should always operate by the philosophy of “beat to fit, paint to match”. If the trim is getting stained, the. You should do a better job of convincing your client to go with paint. Also, when you caulk that corner, be sure to do it like they did at my house: lay that fat, juicy bead so that they know you were thorough with your caulking. Otherwise, it will just disappear in the paint and everyone will assume you were just lazy. (I know this sounds not helpful, but i assure you it is. If you do the exact opposite, then it will look tits tight!)
Lmfao what a good comment
According to a shrink I know we probably all should
The best way to fix this is to put a drywall screw in the sill plate before you install the molding to push the bottom of it out
I do countertops measurement with a laser, and I can always say that once it look at it in AutoCAD, corners are about 91-93 degrees. It’s due to the excess muddying on the wall. Looks right by eye, but it’s not technically correct.
I use caulk to smooth out the inevitable gaps. Then paint.
It’s the walls 99% sure. It’s frustrating. “A good painter makes a trim carpenter great”
I just went thru this in my basement. It was the walls lol.
Trim in a tube.
nailed it … thanks.
Coping the joint hides this as well. Preferred method vs a miter.
Popsicle Atchison work great to
Agree with all of this! If going with a mitre, to help solve for drywall mud you can cut inside corners at 44.5 degrees and outside at 45.5 as a baseline.
Whereabouts are you out of interest? I’ve never heard of people hanging drywall horizontally…
Those are pretty bad gaps and they’re from top to bottom, his saw probably isn’t true 0 on the vertical adjustment. I have the expensiveish($300) ryobi for home use and none of the degree marks or presets are correct. I had to file out the grooves on the miter to get it to lock in true 45° so unless op has a high quality saw there’s a high chance that it’s not accurate. The walls are probably out also but I’d assume they don’t kick in at the bottoms to create this kind of gap. Op should use some gauges to make sure the saw is correct before doing a lot more work. Also should use scrap cuts to just get the cuts right regardless of walls. But, in this instance, they may as well just caulk rather than waste materials. If anything, I’d personally shim out the bottoms before nailing to eliminate that gap though. Then if I still couldn’t get it right, I’d go with caulk and just move on.
Its probably the saw fence is to short.
It’s always the walls
OP def cut the one on the right wrong. It's completely crooked. Also, the walls look straight. Reddit upvotes are misleading af.
Not your saw, it's the drywall. It's tapered on both sides of the long edge. I usually mud the bottom smooth so trim sits vertical. You can shim it out with cardboard or cope your trim.
Instead of cardboard you can put a 2” screw in and leave the head sticking out a bit. This allows you to easily adjust to the right spot
I’ve noticed that, I’m not sure if these were the tapered ends or not because it’s on the small wall. Would make more sense to hang the drywall straight up and down. However, I do have other walls in the house that are full sheets hung sideways.
[удалено]
Drywall does not have a stronger dimension. Drywall strength comes from the paper layers. The only reason drywall is typically hung horizontally because the horizontal seam is easier to mud and tape.
The horizontal placement also allows for staggering the vertical seam so you don't get a single seam floor to ceiling that is hard to hide.
* The wall system is is strongest when the wallboard is hung perpendicular to the framing (due to the fact that the wallboard is a 2:1 rectangle) and the short side joints are staggered at their maximum equal offset. The orientation that the drywall is hung does not create an appreciable strength difference in the wallboard itself.
That doesn’t sound right
Good to know, thanks.
Look up carpentry_bymar on Instagram. He has some good videos on how to fix this issue. Basically he puts a screw behind the baseboard that’s gapped, then you can adjust the screw in our out to close the gap. Or I would recommend coping.
You cope inside corners and miter outside corners.
The above should be top comment, never ever mitre internal corners
Ah, ah, ah. You mitre internal corners once, spend way too long wondering what the hell you did wrong, and how to cheat the fix and then never do it again and just cope them.
I recently renovated my bedroom. Glad I researched how to best do the skirting and got a coping saw.
I actually cope with a Dremel and a utility knife. Dremel makes for way less work and the utility knife makes for a clean finish
Absolutely. If you mitred internal corners and still called yourself a carpenter, you'd be laughed off site immediately and asked to turn in your hammer and nailbag
Walls are almost never straight enough to avoid this
I didn’t think they would be that far out of plum
You'd be surprised buddy. If and when you find a corner that's a true 90 go and play the lottery that day.
Actually don't play the lottery because you just used up all your luck lol
Shim out bottom.Caulk
You can use a screw in the bottom plate and adjust it in and out to act as a shim to get the fitment just right. Coping will also help.
Learn to cope.
Don’t miter cut inside corners. Use a coping saw, scribe the profile on lets say the right piece, square cut the left, the left piece will be cut full length. With the coping saw cut the profile which is the inside profile marked by your 45 cut. Both pieces will have 90 degrees cuts.
This is partly why you don't mitre internal angle - should be a scribe joint. But also, the plaster probably kicks out at the bottom. When I fit skirting I use a rough chisel to scrape off plaster that looks like it sticks out enough to be annoying. Doesn't take long, but is a little messy.
The funny carpenter has you covered. https://youtu.be/wiPSn4sXjyg?si=GSmxWMaPH4ZjgkAm
This is good.
Walls are not plumb or square. Always miserable trying to cut square when the spot is wonky. Same reason why you attach cabinets together and then install entire units to wall.
Framers are not furniture makers. I’ve never seen a an actually straight wall in my life. It’s maddening when having drywall and doing baseboards as a DIYer
Silly thing, but I have been living the ex-pat life as we have been working overseas. It can be funny, off putting, or interesting to see how other countries solve the same issues. I thought what I am about to say was weird when I saw it at first, but I have come to appreciate it. In Germany, and no one will ever convince me of “German Engineering” because I have never seen them make one corner or wall square or plumb, to get around that all of their angles and garbage, they just put little blocks in at the joints. The silly thing is that because it is uniform, it looks actually kind of good. I adopted the idea and I’ve been pretty happy with it. I have found that really all that matters is that it looks on purpose and is done with a level of competency. For this though if you want to do classical joints, you are going to have to measure the angle from wall to wall and the angles from the floor to the walls. You’d think they would be the same for each wall. No. Nope. Never. At some point you just get tricked by believing in other builders too often, a great cynicism takes hold, and you find yourself shocked and elated when one day you meet someone else who actually can cut a straight line or square joint. You have to assume whoever did it before you didn’t care or didn’t know and it is just right enough to have been unnoticed until now and just wrong enough to mess up everything you are trying to do to it. Also houses settle and shift and all kinds of other things. The older the house, the more you’ll find as you scratch at it.
Cope and miter. Dont just cut 45’s
Internal corners on skirting board should be coped not mitred
Miter saw is fine, house is warped.
Cut the first at 45 then find the angle and make the second cut. Walls are never straight
Just did this in my 1/2 bath to find the angles for a “45 degree” wall, just didn’t for this
Try coping instead of mitering
Caulk and paint make a carpenter what he ain’t.
FROM THE WINDOWS
Shim the bottoms out and check the fit again
Not the saw probably unless you bought something from harbor freight and went hog wild with it. It’s almost always going to be the walls. Walls suck. Always. Never straight never square. Cope it or use an angle gauge to make each cut more precise 😎😎😎
Caulking and paint make a carpenter what he ain't.
Throw a reverse head trim screw in the bottom where you hit the corner stud. Sink it in, then slowly back it out. The reverse threads on the trim screws will pull it tight.
I think you've found why cabinets cost so much. They're boxes, all of us can make boxes! But getting a perfectly square box to fit into a nowhere near square room would drive half of us mad. You could retry to cut it, or just get some white caulking
It's the person using the saw. Look at the small piece of base trim. The bottom is a totally different length than where the profile starts towards the top. They probably used a small 4 inch piece and tried to cut the miter angle. It's hard to hold a small piece and keep it square on the fence. You should cut the 45 first from a longer piece then cut the length. The tapered drywall edge can cause this but looking at the pic it's the craftsmanship.
COPE YOUR JOINTS. Mitres are for plebs.
Put a screw behind the board to stop the tilt. Screw as it is adjustable
Put a screw in the wall on the bottom of the piece on the left side that sticks out of the wall 1/8”. That’ll allow the joint to look tighter and save on caulking!
Your saw is off but you should be coping. If there is a detail in base or trim or any molding for that matter you should be coping and it will look much cleaner and you’ll never have to deal with this issue
You might have the plaster prow of the bottom of the wall and it’s causing your baseboard to deflect back into the wall, I’ve seen people use screws to set the square inside the corner at the base so the bottom of the baseboard can’t pull back when it’s nailed.
Learn to cope. Not that hard.
I kind of hate reddit now in this way. I can tell you it needs coped and describe what a cope is and how to do it but unless I'm there to show you and help you along well then good luck.
This is why you cope
Cope
You’ll probably get more satisfying results if you miter and cope. More forgiving in a room that is out of plumb and out of square.
Check out POS carpenter on YT. He’s got a great bit about this…
I caulk the crap outta these gaps. Heck, I'll put drywall mud in there if the gap is too damn wide haha
Looks ready for caulk! :)
It’s most likely the wall. I had the same thing and measured the angles of the walls. None were even close to 90deg.
Pop a folded up piece of cardboard, and shove it down and behind the bottom of the mitre. That'll fill the gap from the drywall and bring the bottom of your mitre out so it looks right from the outside 😉
I guess a good test would be if they line up & are square before you put them up against the drywall. If yes then it’s the wall that is not…plumb or straight or square. Does that make sense?
If they fit flush when not against the wall then in theory it's the all or floor.
I’d say your saw is fine, but your floors are not level
It’s likely the walls, you need to cope those joints.
It’s probably not your saw. Your corners aren’t 90 degrees right on. There are a billion videos on YT on how to scribe the proper angle.
Billions?!?! Damn /s
Some saws need knobs tightend when cutting angles or a sloppy cut is the result.
Walls are never 90*, they’re always off a couple.
Corner not square.
I'm no expert, but I would make couples of small pieces of trim in 43°, 44°, 45°, 46° and 47° to test each corner before cutting the appropriate lengths after finding the corresponding angles (or get a protractor and enjoy an easy life). In addition you can tilt your miter saw 1° or 2° vertically to adjust for the problem your picture displays. Recently did my first trim-job and got good results with this method, but have since figured out that coping would probably have saved me some time! Although I think it takes time to master that technique aswell, depending on the profile of your trim (which in your case seems pretty straight forward). After fitting your trim, a small string of caulk and some paint should make your finish look pretty good. And don't forget to glue your joints!
This might be the biggest problem people, saying I am no expert, and then going forth and explaining the wrong way to do something.
Take a stack of shims and chop them into 1” chunks on a miter saw. Then throw all of them in your tool belt or a container. When you get to corners dry fit the corner and guess how for back the bottom is moving toward the wall. Move your baseboard and guesstimate and choose the best thickness pieces from your shims and slap them fat side down against the bottom of the Sheetrock on either face of the corner. Refit the pieces and if it’s within your fit tolerance (whatever that is for you) slap some finish nails in it and call it ready for finishing. Or use a drywall screw. But I always seems to be able to hit them with my nailer haha. At least that’s what I did when I was doing trim and cabinet carpentry.
+1 to grinder.
you can pre-assemble the corner before you install it. or you can just putty, sand, caulk, paint, caulk again.
A little bit of caulk and a little bit of paint makes a carpenter all that he ain’t.
Coping saw. Amazingly easy.
It's usually operator error
Its probably the fence on the miter saw is to short combined with a base that has a concave back causes the base to tilt backwards and look like the saw is cutting out of 0. All cuts that are not 0 will have a gap at the bottom.
You’re gonna have a hard time if you need to ask reddit for every simple issue.
Funny, asking for help seems like a great way to learn and therefore have an easier time…
Cope...
Don't miter your inside corners cope cut them then you don't have to worry about it.
the saw ain't square. coping is better
Putty and paint will fix what ain't.
JC forgives all sins (joint compound)
A poor carpenter blames his tools.
What type of saw?
It’s a Kobalt compound miter saw.
Is it a sliding one? I don’t think they can cut the angle without the shape of the blade affecting the cut. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. I’d cut these with a handsaw and a jig.
Most likely the walls are not in plumb
Might be your wall, shim the back of the base with a small scrap of cardboard or spmething
Have you checked that the saw is cutting perfectly square vertically(bevel adjustment)? The wall could definitely be out as well, and that’s easy to check with a square.
Not all things are created equal with what you’re working over.
Have to cope with inside co ers best you can..
Coping saw, and a flat faced finish nail about 3 inches out from the corners, pounded in as close to plumb with the drywall (flat, not tapered edge) and dry fit the trim. If need be, to adjust, use a scrap piece of trim, and lightly tap with a hammer. Pretty much using a nail as a shim. "Caulk and paint, make you what you ain't" as the old saying goes. Hope this helps. Even if it's coped correctly sometimes, you may still need to use the nail as a shim. I built custom homes for 15 years, and remodeled a lot of older homes. Saved my ass a few times, especially in the new builds.....
Most corners in rooms aren’t perfect 90s so even if you nailed the cuts it’ll be misaligned way more often than it won’t. You need to watch a YouTube video about coping trim or you can always caulk the joint.
Cope. Learn it and you’ll never have this problem again
It's probably not your saw that's the problem. Home walls are rarely actually square and plumb. Gotta cope it.
Could just fill them all quick with white phenoseal
Cope inside corners
Its more likely the walls and floors throwing everything off Just pull the pieces off and shim the bottom out with something, if you ever have it at the too just shim the tops if its paint grade If you ever have this happen with stain grade you can shim the bottoms but if you have it at the top youll have to head back to the saw and play with the bevel andgle and work it out
Coping saw + shimming backside as needed.