Baseboards: Better to cope, or to miter?

[Frederick Skelly]

Hi folks,
I need to replace some baseboards. I have a miter saw (electric) and a coping saw. Before I started following this forum, Id have mitered the corners. Now Im wondering if theres an advantage, improvement, etc in coping the corners instead?

Does anyone know of a good reason to choose one way over the other? Mitering should be faster, but that doesnt necessarily mean it will look better, etc.

Any ideas?

Thank you!
Fred

[Jim Koepke]

The rule, from my understanding, is outside corners are mitered and inside corners are coped.

On an inside corner one piece goes all the way in to the corner. The second piece is coped to butt up to the first piece. That way if there is any movement in the walls or foundation there isn't as noticeable opening.

Try it with a few small pieces and you will see.

There is also a trick of making a model corner with the bottom of the sides where the molding meets cut out. This makes it easier to see how the back of piece being coped meets up to the other section.

jtk

[Daniel Rode]

If your inside corner is dead on at 90 degrees, mitering works pretty well but I'm not sure I've ever found a corner that was a perfect 90 degrees. Coping gives a nice tight joint that looks like a miter when the walls aren't square.

[James Conrad]

It's a rarity to find corners that are perfect 90's let alone straight and plumb with level floors. Insides are coped, outsides mitered. Depending on the complexity of the mop board, you can also cut a rabbet on the end of one piece in an inside corner and slide the other in. And, if you're painting the trim - "caulk and paint, make a carpenter what he ain't!"

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks guys! Thats just what I needed. I always wondered why good finish carpenters "coped" and the (now obvious) answer never dawned on me. I appreciate it!
Fred

[Jason Roehl]

The "trick" for coping is to install one piece all the way to the corner, with a straight cut on the end. The second piece, you measure to the wall behind the first piece, and put a 45º miter on the end. Where that miter meets the profile on the face of the board is your coping line. Cope with a slight back-cut, which makes it easier to tune up the cope joint. A half-round file works well for tuning up the joint (keep a cutoff handy for checking the fit of the coped end to the profile).

[Paul Incognito]

In a square room, I'll generally run 2 pieces with straight cuts on each end and double cope the other 2. Cut the 2 double coped pieces long (how much depends on the length you're working with and the wood species, a 12' length of pine can be 1/8-3/16"long, a 3' length I wouldn't go more than a 16th. Oak, between actual length and 1/8 depending on the length) and spring them into place holding 1 end in the corner and bending the piece from the middle till the other end is in the corner. When the middle is nailed in, it'll push the coped ends into their mates and tighten everything up nicely. Oh yea, undercut your copes 20 degrees or so, that makes a sharp edge that'll push in more easily. Basically, I'll try to double cope whenever possible, whether running base or crown.

And miter your outside corners at 46 degrees, not 45. And glue them.

Clear as mud?

Paul

[Jeff Heath]

Wood moves. If you don't cope your inside corners, they will open up in the dry season. The trim carpenter (who definitely wasn't a trim carpenter) who installed the mouldings in my house mitered everything.....horrible job. It looked so bad it drove me nuts, and a year after I moved in I replaced everything. Woodworkers are a finicky bunch....customers come in my home frequently to look at furniture and cabinetry. It's sort of my showroom. I couldn't have them seeing lousy work in here.

[Tom M King]

The only time I ever don't cope inside corners, with any type of molding, is when it's applied to something that has a perfectly square inside corner, supported on three sides by something that won't give when it's fastened-like in ceiling coffer boxes.

I went to a house that someone else was building, for some forgotten reason, and there was a young "finish" carpenter there cursing because every time he tried to nail mitered baseboard in a sheetrock corner, it opened up. I went to the truck, and brought back a coping saw to show him how to cope an inside corner. After I did a baseboard inside corner, he got down on his hands and knees, examining it closely, and I'll never forget his response. He said, "Dayam, it looks like it's done growed together." I said, yeah, that's what you want.

When I cope molding that's going to be finished wood, as opposed to being painted, I use a jewelers saw for small parts of it, like the little cove at the bottom of Crown molding.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks for all your help guys!
Fred

[bill tindall]

All spot on directions.

Additionally, look at the room as it will be observed by those using it. Looking from the direction along the coped board you can't see the joint. This orientation of the coped molding should be the way the room will be typically viewed.

With as bit of a back cut as was described, the coped edge is sharp and can be indented into the mating piece to make a joint that will never open. When practical, like between two inside corners, cut the molding a bit long and spring it into position.

[Harry Hagan]

He said, "Dayam, it looks like it's done growed together." .

That's the line I would always use to compliment a finish carpenter that worked for me, " It looks like it grew there."

[Steve Baumgartner]

The other trick you can use with a coped inside corner but not with a miter is to run the coped piece in the direction that will most often be viewed. That way any gap will be foreshortened as you look at the molding.

[Frederick Skelly]

I was a little afraid my coping saw skills werent up to it, so I did the closet with miters and really dont like the result. Just as everyone said - walls arent straight or even totally flat. Aaaarrrgh! - those miters will require some wood filler before painting.

But that unsatisfactory result made me want to do better on the dining room. So I decided to try coping. I figured if it looked bad, Id just waste some material, right? Youll laugh, but I kept thinking about that guy who said "It looks like it growed there" - its funny, but that simple story was a motivator for me.

Anyway, I did everything you folks told me to, including carefully sighting the coped ends for "best viewing". It was about half as hard as I was afraid it would be, and it came out BEAUTIFULLY!

Thanks so much folks! Im really pleased.

Fred

[Jim Koepke]

Glad to here about your results.

Im really pleased.

At the end of the day and every time you or someone else looks at it, isn't that what it is all about?

jtk