Finishes With No Baseboards

Davey

We have a client that wants to have the look where the drywall comes all the way down to the floor with no baseboards at all. So there would be a 3/8" to 1/2" gap from the bottom edge of the drywall to the finished flooring which would make a nice shadow line.
Has anyone done this before and if so how do you treat the bottom edge? I was thinking a beadex paper faced L-trim but that is a lot of finishing on hands and knees. The gap would also be too small to allow the use of a flat box with a beadboxer attachment I think.

Thanks!

taper71

Can't you just fill the bevel a couple of coats and sand ?

Mike Finley

A trim piece such as you described has always been the traditional method. It keeps the bottom of the mudded joints between panels as straight as the rest of the factory edges at the bottom of the panels, creating a perfect shadow line.

LennyV-NHSNOLA

Metal corner bead but you would have to cut the edge going under the the drywall. This could be done with a table saw set up at a 1/2" and then run the corner bead to trim off the excess metal. Then screw in the long edge into the beveled edge of the drywall. The raised nosing of the corner bead would make a nice edge for you to fill in the bevel and also a nice clean bottom edge to knock off any excess mud prior to painting.

I never thought about doing that before but it would create a nice place for the big cock roaches to crawl out of sight, down here in N'Awlins. You would still have them, but at least guests wouldn't get scared out of their minds since they would have their own little tunnel system to move around in.

AtlanticWBConst

Wouldn't "peal-away" work for this?

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- Build Well -

jett_painting

Why go to the trouble to rip down regular corner bead....thats what L-trim is for (or J-mold)???. I would think the tear-away L trim from trim-tex would be a great choice since it would give your knife something to ride on and thus prevent you from picking up trash from the floor, which would be in close proximity, lol!

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Christopher M. Jett
Jett Painting & Drywall LLC

kaiberg

L-bead or even "tear-away" bead as you said would definately involve a lot of on your knees work to coat, especially if you are talking about a high amount of lin. wall lengths. It sounds like your client doesnt mind an unconventional look, why not snap a line a half inch or three-quarters up off the finished floor, and screw a J-trim there, and then set the sheets in it. If the sheets are to be hung horizontally I would rip off about 3 inches to get rid of the factory recess, doing it this way would provide a nice clean edge and much less man hours spent taping. before paint just apply a nice bead of painters caulk to the top of the J-trim and it will effectively dissapear after painting it the same color as the wall. Just my .02 cents, do it on one wall as a mock up for the client, it will give them an actual idea what the finished product will look like, and remember that the look wil vary greatly depending on what the finished flooring will be.

1KingOfDrywall

put some caulking inside the bead and put it on backwards. Tell the customer thats as good as it get. Use plastic not metal if possible. Tell them it gets painted NOT finished.