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Crown molding on cathedral ceilings

PD | Posted in General Discussion on March 28, 2007 06:59am

Is there a stock crown molding for cathedral ceilings? If not how have people done this?

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  1. User avater
    JDRHI | Mar 28, 2007 07:21pm | #1

    I'm nominating this thread for Vaguest of the Week!

    Anyone care to second?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    sorry PD.....just havin' some fun on my lunch break

    Democrats.
    The other white meat.

     

     




    Edited 3/28/2007 1:36 pm ET by JDRHI

    1. ChicagoMike | Mar 28, 2007 07:52pm | #2

      I would if I knew what you were talking about.

      1. User avater
        JDRHI | Mar 28, 2007 08:36pm | #3

        Correction made.

        Second?

        Democrats.The other white meat.

         

         

        1. ChicagoMike | Apr 01, 2007 07:19pm | #15

          Yes, I second. I was having a blond moment with the word Vaguest.

    2. karp | Mar 28, 2007 09:44pm | #4

      Stock crown at the pitch break, oh,.. its NOT a 12/ 12 , O.K.  change the roof pitch, no problem.

      Anything else?

    3. User avater
      BillHartmann | Mar 28, 2007 10:38pm | #5

      I suspect that he is asking about transistion where the ceiling changes pitch. http://www.garymkatz.com/TrimTechniques/making_pendents.html
      http://www.garymkatz.com/TrimTechniques/cutting_crown_transitions.html
      .
      .
      A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.

  2. DanH | Mar 28, 2007 11:14pm | #6

    Two words: Picture rail.

    So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
  3. AllTrade | Mar 29, 2007 01:02am | #7

    Do you aim to put it at the top of the wall where the roof line comes down and then turn the corner at keep it wall height? I don't think that would look to sharp myself.

    You could end up with a cap on top all the way around and I don't think you would get the desired effect.

    You can buildup some trim work at the top of your wall and then follow the roof line up to the peak but I have not seen that done myself.

    As far as crown for cathedral ceiling no such thing. Basically while different profiles are available its not what your thinking.

  4. dovetail97128 | Mar 29, 2007 03:04am | #8

    Don't know as I have ever seen crown applied where there is a cathedral ceiling . So I would have to say I don't know that there is a stock crown for the job.

  5. Shep | Mar 29, 2007 03:21am | #9

    I recently did crown on a cathedral ceiling. I had to plane the back of the crown to match the bevel of the cathedral slope so it would fit properly.

    Its also necessary to make a pie-shaped piece for the transition from horizontal to the slope.

    I used an 8-1/2" crown, and it took me about a day and a 1/2. I could easily do it in a day again. A lot of my time was moving ladders so I could do the work.

    And there was some time spent doing some head-scratching.

  6. PedroTheMule | Mar 29, 2007 04:08am | #10

    Hi PD,

    In my own home I didn't want to accentuate the cathedrals to a point of drawing extreme attention but I did like the finished look of crown, so.....yeah the ceiling is 23 feet over the catwalk.

    I made my own 6" oak baseboards and double layered 4 1/2" chair rail. For the crown I continued with the same material at 2 3/4" and beveled the top back about 15 degress. All of the wood work has a simple Ogee detail to round it off. I installed the crown flat to the wall and pushed tight to the ceiling.

    We put a medium stain and cleared it before putting it up. Light construction adhesive on the back and used a pin nailer then touched things up with a marker crayon.

    To skip mitering corners I went the easy route and made some simple yet highly detailed corner blocks. The crown intersects easily to the blocks.

    The funny part of this are the ooohs and ahhhs we get over the corner blocks....geeeeze...it was a whole lot easier than mitering the corners with a pie.

    Pedro - Stubborn Old Mule

  7. AitchKay | Mar 29, 2007 04:33am | #11

    Bill Hartman is on the right track for starters-- Look at the Gary Katz transiion link. The basic concept is that you can't make two transitions (miters) at once and have it work. So first you turn the corner as if it was a level transition on a flat ceiling. Use a short scrap, and miter or cope the 90 degree corner. That'll get you around the corner of the WALL.

    Now that you've turned the corner onto the rake wall, you can make the transition to the RAKE. First find the slope angle. Let's say the roof slopes at a 20 degree angle. That means the miter angle will be 10 degrees. But be careful--you're not going to hold the work upside down and backwards as usual for this cut. You're going to set that short scrap on the miter box with its wall leg flat to the table. The ceiling leg will be propped up in the air against the fence. Cut this short piece so that the top edge comes to a point ( or just short of that, in Gary's example). Remember, the transition piece must measure zero at the top for this to work.

    If you did it right, the horizontal wall piece, the transition piece, and the run up the rake will all meet at one point.

    That was the hard part. The top cut is usually simpler-- you can almost always treat this as a standard level miter, just try a test piece first, and see what it looks like. Make a 90 degree miter measuring from the bottom corner of the molding at the top of the run, where it hits the high wall. The crown on the tall wall will lean out more than normal, and its wall leg will not lie flat to that wall. But because of its height and the viewing line, it should look fine.

  8. drbgwood | Mar 29, 2007 04:56am | #12

    I've done some ceilings of that type with crown.  As long as the rake isn't to steep, my approch is to flaten the angle of the crown to the low horizontal wall so the cope will match the peice going up the rake wall.

    You may have to plane a little off the bottom of the back of the horizontal peice, but other than that it's quite simple.

    If it will help you visuallize what I'm describing, take two short peices of crown and cope them / tack them together to make a sample of an inside corner.  hold that assembly up to where the rake meets the horizontal ceiling line. 

    I've done a few rooms with multi angled ceilings like this and they turned out nicely.

     

  9. tdewalt | Mar 29, 2007 05:19am | #13

      Using regular crown lay it fat on the angled ceiling look at th top and bottom of the crown against the drywall. there has to be a ripped piece of 3/4 board in a triangle to make a return back to the wall. kind of like a return on a skirt board under a window apron

  10. User avater
    Jeff_Clarke | Mar 29, 2007 08:37am | #14

    Furr out the gable ends the depth of the crown and keep it all horizontal.

     

    Jeff

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