Don’t let your house become the meme that we all laugh at.
So, you watched a couple of 10 minute YouTube videos and are convinced that you can re-trim your whole house on a Saturday. Well, fast forward to hundreds if not thousands of dollars pissed away and a house that looks and feels more embarrassing than when you started. Here we give you the blunt but useful advice on how to prevent these issues based on our real world experience in the Twin Cities.
1. Cheap Materials
Your home is something that you should invest in – not cheap out on. Now, I’m not saying that buying the most expensive interior doors and trim will magically fix all of your DIY issues – but buying substandard builder grade materials from the discount big box home improvement store is a recipe for disaster even before you start. You know the place I’m talking about – yep, the discount big box store that is basically Wally World with lumber. Yeah, stay away from there. Seriously… Instead, do some research into what materials the pros are actually using. Don’t be afraid to directly go to a reputable Twin Cities lumber yard and make friends with a knowledgeable rep with real world experience who can help you make informed choices that you won’t soon regret.
Some tips:
When choosing between paint grade vs stain grade materials, remember that MDF or foam moldings are NOT your friends. Neither one of those materials will hold up to any kind of daily use. If you cheap out now, you will be right back where you started within a year or two tops.
Choose interior doors that have actual wood door jambs. Don’t let the pimple faced 20 yr old behind the counter tell you that using a bedroom door with a mdf jamb will “be fine” – it won’t. MDF is basically ground up cardboard with formaldehyde (look it up) and is utterly incapable of holding your bathroom door square.
2. Planning
As with any project, there is an order of operations that you should follow. Replacing the interior trim before you replace your interior doors is like putting the cart in front of the horse so to speak. Proper planning means not skipping or cutting corners on the prep work. Yeah, prep isn’t as fun as installation, but if you are trying to hang your classy new bedroom door before you square up your openings – you are in for a world of hurt buddy. Professional trim carpenters are ALWAYS thinking 4-5 steps ahead.
Some Tips:
Do NOT paint your wood trim before you install it. Yeah yeah, I hear it every day. “But it’s easier and it just makes total sense!” I don’t care what that idiot on Pinterest or Instagram told you – pre painting your new interior moldings causes all kinds of preventable problems during installation. Pre painted trim means runs and drips along the back, making accurate cuts and tight miters next to impossible. Also, every cut you make can shatter the finish – especially if you used cheaper paint. Every time that you need to splice a long section of baseboard or line up a crisp miter on your window trim, you will need to sand through all of that goopy paint for a seamless result – then prime and repaint those sections again. Also, did anyone tell you that every nail you fire into your baseboards and window trim will need to be filled with putty, primed and painted? No? Well, I ‘m telling you now, otherwise your swanky new wood trim will have embarrassing mystery “dots” all over it. And yes, your friends and family will definitely notice. Do what the pros do – fill nail holes, sand joints / miters, prime, then paint. The results will speak for themselves.
3. Door Drama
Interior doors that scrape, swing open on their own or refuse to latch are super common. Door installation mistakes like poorly leveled door jambs, bad shim placement and cross-legged openings will ruin your Saturday faster than a phone call from your ex. Why suffer the embarrassment of a bathroom door that doesn’t latch properly and swings open on its own when you least expect it?
Some Tips:
When installing doors, it is hyper critical to pay attention to the geometry of the interior door jambs. Your door jambs need to be level, plumb, coplanar and square. Proper prep, shim placement, fastening schedule and hinge adjustment videos are on YouTube – and guess what? The bubbly 5 minute videos don’t ever cover these issues, you need to find the longer in-depth videos that actually take the time to explain these techniques in a manner that makes sense. Hiring a professional trim carpenter to “take a quick look” at your wonky doors after the fact is going to be very expensive when we have to fully disassemble everything and start over.
4. Miter Saw Mayhem
Congratulations on buying your first miter saw! I hate to break it to you but the assembly line worker who slapped your new miter saw together did not spend one second calibrating it. Sure, the gauge reads 45 degrees, but in real life that sucker is often off by a degree or two right out of the box. It may not sound like much, but it adds up fast when trying to negotiate properly mitered corners. Compound that calibration issue with the fact that every single corner of your house is off by an additional few degrees and you have a recipe for DIY disaster.
Some Tips:
Take the time to calibrate your new saw. Make absolutely sure that 90 degrees is actually 90 degrees and don’t forget to check the angles of your bevels. Also, do yourself a favor and buy a proper finish blade. As a professional trim carpenter, the only time that I use the cheap, thin blade that came with the saw is when I am cutting scrap wood to throw in my fire pit.
5. Overconfidence On Complex Trim Work – Crown Molding and Wainscoting
Oh man, I see this one all the time. I am all for people tackling their own projects, but attempting crown molding installation or wainscoting layouts before mastering baseboard installation or window trim installation rarely works out – walk before you run. Complex angles and poorly planned transitions will expose every weak point in your technique. My inbox is FULL of requests for help from people with a Pinterest degree who thought that they knew better than a professional trim carpenter.
Some Tips:
Crown molding is all about finding the correct angles on all of the X Y Z axis. You need to pay attention to the spring angle of your crown molding along with its height and projection. A properly calibrated miter saw along with a screamingly accurate cutting technique is non-negotiable.
Wainscoting installation is all about proper proportions and getting the spacing just right. Shadow lines and depth of materials will need to be accounted for every step of the way. Joinery techniques such as using pocket screws, biscuits and using plenty of adhesives are crucial to a project that increases your home value instead of turning future buyers away.
Understanding The Costs Of Fixing Mistakes – The Real Price Tag
The “I’ll fix that later” or the dreaded “I’m sure that there is just some way” approach quickly becomes the several thousand dollar repair that ended up costing more than hiring a professional trim carpenter in the first place. Remember ladies, if your husband who just bought his first hammer nods his head and says “I think it will be fine” – it’s not.