Templating

Just-In-Time

Okay, so I just saw Tom on TOH templating for a piece of vinyl flooring. He laid down felt or some other type of template material so it was not quite touching the perimeter walls; then took his framing square and butted it against the walls, traced onto the template material. After he finished, he moved the template material onto his finish material and lined the square up with the lines and traced on the opposite side onto the finish material for his cut marks. I would have never thought to do this for an entire floor like this, but then again I have never laid single sheet vinyl roll before either. Its a great idea that I am sure has been around since the ice age. I want to learn some more ideas like it. So whatever you specialize in, finishing, framing etc... I am sure you make some sort of templates on a regular basis......How? Explain your templating methods, whatever they may be.

woodmagman

A simple process if you only have a small amount of templateing material, I keep 2 inch strips of paneling or cardboard and a hot glue gun behind my seat for templateing countertops.
Place the strips of paneling or the cardboard strips against the back wall and additional strips on the front, lap the seams and glue them together, place shorter paneling between the front and back pieces about 2 feet apart and hot glue them, make notes on the strips regarding wall conditions, side panels and sinks. You can fold it up if it is cardboard and take it back to the shop. Take them apart and save or throw them away when you’re done.

Just-In-Time

Good Idea, if you ever get a chance snap a pic, this thread will be a million times more helpful with pictures, as these ideas can get lengthy and a bit complicated. Thanks for sharing!

Daniel Powell

That is a standard method to build countertop templates. The appropriateness of the material used would depend on what you are templating.

For flooring, since you really don't need the finished template to be rigid, I would buy a bundle of cardboard furring strips (Home Depot drywall section) and use the glue gun method described above.

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Jordy3738

I have been in the cabinet industry for many years. On many houses, where we had angled walls, we would eliminate the margin of error. The counters and cabinets that we manufactured always fit very well. Having a good installer always helped make us look like we were the best.

• First we would load the trailer with some horses that were about 36" high.
• Then we would load the individual counter top pieces that were cut to fit from angled corner to angled corner and cut extra long on the finished ends.
• When we got to the new construction site, we would set up the horses and fit the boards tight to the walls.
• They were stacked on top of each other and we would then trace the ninety degree ends on the bottom board (or, "boards).
• Using a saber saw or skill saw, we would notch the bottom board.
• Once they were all cut and fit well, we would mark the finished end cuts (we cut these back at the shop) and make general notes on the boards like, "tight here and 1/16 away here."
• We would load them back in the trailer, take them back to the shop and assemble the angled top in the shop using all of the notes we had written on the boards as a guide.

When the counter was assembled, I would then use it as a template to layout all of the cabinets on. Then I would cut all of the angled fillers etc. It was common practice to build the boxes, lay the top on the floor and double check what we had built by placing the cabinets on the counter and aliening them with the pencil lines that we had drawn.

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