Cope Baseboard Inside Corners?

Mrmac204

seems to be a matter of preference. I was on a job a while back, they just butted the inside corners - looked like he)( in my opinion.... mitering? works but takes time. I did see one place once that the guy coped, but then left a "tail" on top going out on the 45... then sliced a small bit off of the mating piece, and pushed the first one down on top of that - does that make sense? it was to fake a miter look... ?? what's the preference here?

doubleaction

We always cope our base.

Luke's Dad

We do too! Makes it easier than trying to find the angle on and out-of square wall and makes the joint appear nice and tight.

jmic

Cope...........I mean really wether it takes a little longer or not it's the only way inside corners should be done.

__________________
___"Remember You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression"______________________
Joe

thom

Miter and calk if it's painted

Cope if it's stained

Mrmac204

ok cope it is what I"ve done in the past (movie sets) is use the bosch angle finder, then split that number ie: corner measures 88 deg... go with 1/2 the reciprocal, or what I do is whatever is done to one side of 90 deg I do to the other.. so 88 deg... means that I'm dealing with 1/2 the reciprocal, so that's 1/2 of 92 deg... set my saw to 46 and cut my stuff face out! it works, but it does take time.. and as we never use drywall in film, we usually have a consistent corner.... what I've found in houses is that there is sometimes a "hollow" so all the careful work? for naught- so theoretically its right on, but in a practical sense -probably too much time pi%$*&^ around,,, better to cope I guess that copemaster thing is lookin better all the time..

thanks!

Mac.

troubleseeker

I always cope inside corners, because no matter how well you cut the miters, one of the pieces is going to roll at the bottom when you nail it, and open the corner up. It is pretty easy to adjust the straight part of the cope to make up for this, I always cut the cope on a "long" piece to check for this before cutting an outside corner on the other end. If it is stain work , I use shims to be sure the base stays vertical over any sheetrock irregularities, since cutting anything out of plumb is more evident than on painted work.

King of Crown

I love coping, but i dont cope paint grade high detail base.

__________________
Real nice guys

tcleve4911

Coping is easier, faster & more foolproof than mitering so why do people miter?

__________________
Back in Maine
Dubbin' Around
Doin' good stuff ......

Bill S

The tail you refered to is the long point of the miter. Like you said it looks like a mitered joint. Some people like this on stain grade. I would not do it on a base where the top edge is 1/8" thick but on some crowns that have a large flat on the bottom edge, it can have a nice look. I know one guy who did this on all of the crown in one house since the home owner said she wanted everything mitered because she was told it was a better job. Not wanting any call backs he coped all of the joints with the mitered look and everyone was happy.

Tom M

I always cope myself. While were on the subject how does everyone handle the factory recess on the drywall that isnt spackled. Do you ignore it while nailing base and maybe shim corners or rip lattice strips to even out the surface?

Bill S

Tom, Most guys I know use a sheetrock nail or screw behind the baseboard to hold it out so it is square to the floor. There was a post on JLC Finish Carpentry forum, search for "Trim Adjuster", which has 31 posts relating to this problem. Bill

StairBuilder

Bill, That's a really good idea. I always used 1/2" blocks under the sheetrock against the bottom plate. Everyone I know does it this way too. I especially like the idea of using a screw because you could easily back it out if needed. Seems like I thought about doing that before but never actually tried it.

back on topic: I always cope base because miters always open up when you nail them. Once you get rolling, coping is faster anyway.
Certainly not any slower.

Mrmac204

wow, great replies! I'm takin notes Stairbuilder, are you using just a little chunk of 1/2 inch material? say something like 1/2 x 2" in the corners?
that trim adjustor looks good too, I'll have to check into that... maybe someone in Northern Washington's got them... (bellinham?) gotta run over the line for some shoppin I think

Tom M

Bill S Thanks for the insight. Never heard of that site before. The information available on these forums is great education. Where else can you get this much insight to so many situations.

StairBuilder

Yes. Even better-get some 1/2" OSB and cut it into 1/2" rips. Then cut them into 2" chunks. Then you don't have to worry about your blocks turning over.

Krazy Johnni

I have been a finishing carpenter for a few years now and mitering joint's is frowned upon by people in the trade. Coping is the right and better way of doing it only hacks and people who don't know what their doing is something you would hear from a lot of people. This is true for the most part but in my experience mitering is just as good as coping and sometimes better. Coping is the way it has been done for a long time and for good reason with some simple hand tools a little practice and time one could get good tight fitting joint's. It is still a good way of doing it but mitering has some good thing's going for it now that it didn't in the past. The glue's of today are far better than the glues of old along with the fact that some of the base and crown available today is big detailed, and made from soft or engineered woods like mdf. Having a accurate portable power miter saw is something that wasn't available until recently. I have found it extremely frustrating to cope a big baseboard made of mdf because the fine edge in so brittle. Mitering the same piece gives you a nice clean edge but fitting a miter so it fits together tight is defanatly harder than coping .Getting a miter to fit requires averting to be lined up perfectly or it looks like crap but once you learn a few tricks then you end up with tight fitting joint that is easy to cut and can be glued unlike a coped joint. I recently got see the two type's of joint's compete against one another cope vs miter a battle of strength how? you ask. Well the house I was working in didn't have gas yet so it was being heated with a couple of electric heaters in the kitchen area. It had been cold the entire time of construction -10 to -25*c so the bedroom was fairly cool this caused shrinking to occur latter on. The bedroom had a 6.5" MDf crown and a 7" baseboard half the crown joint's were coped half were mitered all the base was mitered. About a month later everything shrunk! I had always wondered if the mitered joint's were a lot weaker than the coped ones, as it turns out to my surprise the cope failed and the miter one. there was almost a 1/4" gap on one wall where the mitered base had come off the wall but was still intact but the coped crown had an unsightly 1/8" gap all the way down the joint. Sorry to carry so but I just had to put in my two sense

troubleseeker

Okay.point taken, but which would you rather remedy on the call back? I would rather go in and caulk and repaint a 7" tall joint in the corner of the base,than recaulk a gap along the wall where the caulking has pulled away and probably torn wall paint with it. Then repaint both the wall and baseboard colors.

Krazy Johnni

I would have rather had the contractor take my advice and wait for the furnace to be installed, but I was just trying to point out that mitering isn't as bad as most would have you believe.

pitbull

cope all the time, but im like others mentioned. I cope till about 1/8" from the top of the baseboard / skirting. The reason why is.
1. it in my opinion gives the tip of the mitre more strength in the case of being knocked.
2 I like the look of a mitre in the corner