Humps In Cieling For Crown And, And...

kevbo

You know how we use scraps of mitered crown to mark the bullnose, corner or splice for reference when installing crown. Well I'm finding that if I use say a 1' piece or pieces that if the is a hump in the ceiling a little further than 1' that it will throw off my reference marks or splices and I end up haveing to scribe the crown to the ceiling. Sometimes I end up haveing to shave down most of the upper profile to get the miters to line up. I mean, you don't want to fight it to much so the miter is under alot of twisted stress.
And, if you are a one man show what is the largest crown you install? So far I haven't ventured past 5 1/4", but I also haven't had any one ever ask me to install anything bigger in the 9 years I've done custom installs.
And, do you install crown in a room when the client plops themself down in their rocker and starts reading the paper or watching TV in the same room? I've had this happen 2 more times since I posted about it the first time it happened to me and I just can't imagine what the client is thinking. Here I am up on a ladder with a piece of 16' crown, a nail gun and my tool belt, just feet away from them...hello! I've thought of saying something but I guess I just feel I'm lucky I got the job, but man does it slow me down. I almost want to put some verbage in my bids saying that they will have to sign a waiver if they are going to occupy the same room for a long period of time.

Five Star

you should put the client to work next time, then he,ll be out of there real fast.

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Five Star

a friend of mine is an hvac contractor, in his office he has a sign of labor rates.

our labor rates are:
$95 per man hour
$125 per man hour if you watch

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trimman2

humps,bows,dips can all be troubelsome,just try to find a happy spot where your splitting the differance on both sides of the hump rather than just one side,sometimes you have to adjust the miter,i'll even cut the dry wall a bit with a razor knife if needed to ease some of it

i dont bother with referance marks (waste of time,and just adds alot more of ladder climbing).ouside corners if possible i roll both pieces until the miter hits the sweet spot,have the nail gun between the legs and pop a couple in one side,finish nailing and then back to the other half,if its a longer piece just dont nail the end for about 2-3 feet until you have the other half of the corner,then just tap/adjust until it closes

im doing some 12'' crown now,made from poplar,its 1 1/2'' thick and im coping with a jig saw,lol,just taking my time and going slow,coping the smaller pieces when possible so i can tap the fit before cutting the other side

as for home owner,i had a home owner that vacumed around my saw once after every cut,NEW CONSTRUCTION HOME no less

TBFGhost

I just put up 7 1/4" crown by myself.....I also had a HUGE bump in the wall where a pipe fitting was out past the framing about 1/2". It was bad, I just scored where the crown goes with my knife and bashed the rock out. Yeah the crown sits recessed in the wall in that area but it is straight.... There are some low spots in that area as well. I am going to float that out with some hot mud. Once it is floated out and the wall frames go up and everything is painting it won't stick out so much.

silvertree

This post made me laugh, punch out the wall, shape the crown, cut the ceiling. Done all of that. Its all normal and its what we do. Customer in the room, I put up with that when younger, now its "I'm sorry but I can't do as good a job with your slowing me down".
Marking with scraps, sometimes that's best in some situations, but I just figure nothing hardly goes the same way twice.

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kevbo

12"...7 1/2"!!! Holy cow, I can't imagine trying to manipulate that big of crown alone in a furnished home with home owner watching...thats what 95% of my scenarious are. Well I pretty much do the reference marks to find out if there is a problem with the wall or corner before I'm fighting a long measured piece with a bad corner. Has any one actually said some thing to a client that sat themselves down where your installing? I don't have a problem with a client watching every now and then, but to plop themselves down in the same room your installing.....

trimman2

also keep in mind,"tight to the wall" isnt always good when dealing with dips,and bows in the wall for crown or base,in fact in my opinion never is

if you have a dip/bow in the wall and you wrangle it tight the dip transfers through the trim and will always be there for the eye to pick up,but if you bridge the dip/bow keeping your trim straight, once caulked and painted it will not catch your eye,if its real bad,you just have to find a happy medium to make the best out of a bad situation

trimman2

TB,i see that exact same pipe bump in the town homes i do,they have poured first floors and the pipes are always bulging the wall,its pretty tough when close to a corner,middle of the wall doable with minor grief

Warren

$200 per man hour if you help!!

Mellison

X 2
Build it out with mud and charge for it.
I always make sure you mention this could be a possibility when meeting with the customer.
Explain that while alot of "contractors will use caulk, that is a short cut that will cause problems down the road.
More work+ properly done job= more $$$
Everybody wins!!!

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"Enjoy Every Sandwich" Warren Zevon

TBFGhost

As far as charging the customer, I wouldn't know, I am a sub for a GC...so I just pass my costs along to him. We talked about that pipe before I even started the work.

greg24k

Sit down next to him, take the remote and start switching channels, then say to him "Since you can not work with him sitting here, because your insurance policy does not allow such practices, linch wouldn't be a bad idea right about now"
Watch how fast HO will disappear. Always worked for me!!!

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naptown CR

bean burritos work well too

katoman

Just finished installing 500lf crown against smooth ceilings. Ceilings were all over the place. What I do is I keep the crown straight and re-plaster the ceilings where gaps occur. I have a 4' and 6' plasterer's straight edge for this. Impressess the customer, and that's why they pay the big bucks. I know I'm crazy!

EIDOL

I pretty much do the same thing except that it will 50% more to watch and 100% more if they help, most say they will see me when i'm Thur
But I have one client who always watches me sometimes i to tell him to back up or simply tell him to move back none of this bothers him
Now I just don't let it bother me and the fact that over the years i have made tens of thousands off him
Have any of you install crown on ceiling that was textuerd i have it was alot of fun. I ended up cutting a block the width of the crown projection and screwed a razor blade to it then held it tight to wall ceiling and cut the paper on the sheetrock then pulled the paper and texture off.
it worked but what pain in the butt

greg24k

Bro,

Reminds me of that window replacement job we did. We taking the windows out, and the guy with a vacuum right behind us. We finally said we cannot work like this and put the window down and started to pack up. HO took off and we never saw him again. We had to make a loud bang for him to come out of the room. He came out "what happened, what was that noise" we said "its time to write a check"

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