Replies

1. 
   Bruce | Dec 12, 2002 05:28pm | #1

   After having seen and done every combination possible of bullnose corner bead and trim, I'm still convinced that the best route is to forget the corner blocks and miter the base like you would with square corner bead.  Caulk the little gap behind the miter, paint it, and you're done.  The only exception I liked was a contemporary house with 1/2" x 5" base, flat with a small roundover on the top corner, and custom matching corner blocks.  Everything goes together in a smooth seamless flow around the corners.  That worked well for that house. 

2. 
   Redfly | Dec 12, 2002 07:33pm | #2

   We once did a large house with Brazilian cherry floors and baseboard that also had radius corner drywall.  I experimented with lots of different looks, but finally settled on using mitered 90 degree corners with a small quarter-radius block of cherry behind the corners.  I made the blocks by ripping a piece of cherry in 3/4" wide strips, drilling 3/4" holes in the strip and cutting the little corners off with a miter saw.  (wear those safety glasses - some of the pieces can fly out like bullets!) 

   I then stuffed a little piece of backing rod in the space behind the corner, put a dab of glue on my little block and tapped it into place.  A little anal maybe, but looks pretty clean.

1. 
   DougU | Dec 14, 2002 06:22am | #3

   Redstaines

   Miter your base around the radiused corners.

   I wish I had a pic but here is the explanation, cut base with 22.5 deg miter, end that half way into the curve, cut another 22.5 to conect to the first miter, then wherever your next radius bisects cut the second piece with a second 22.5 miter( this piece will only be approx 1" wide,  long point to long point) then on your thi8rd piece cut 22.5 miter and but that to your 3rd piece and continue down the wall.

   The benifit of this is that you dont have those big gaps behind the miters(only very small ones) and it looks 100 times better than the cheeze blocks that you buy to avoid the tough cut.

   Be careful cutting the small pieces, especialy with hickory, that stuff is like shrapnal when it flies through the air.

   Hope this is clear enough, I can show it better than descrbe it. Just think of the way a stop sign is and if you had to make a frame around it, Put a radius inside of three of the eight sides and that would be your wall.

   Good luck

   DougSorry that should have been directed at the original poster.

   Edited 12/13/2002 10:23:29 PM ET by Doug@es

   Edited 12/13/2002 10:24:23 PM ET by Doug@es

1. 
   AlanRoberson | Dec 14, 2002 06:55am | #5

   Yeah what Doug said. We do it by making a template  like this: _/ (except the two longer legs are at a 90 to each other) and holding it to the wall to mark and measure. Without the template you can measure a short 7/16 back from the corner.

   I have an index mark on the saw table to cut the smaller piece - cut it upside down to get one end , flip it, hold to the index mark to cut to length. I cut a bunch at once - 1/3rd a bit short, 1/3 normal , and 1/3 a little long. It makes it easier to fit it all together without running back and forth to the saw.

   The angle is usually 23 0r 23.5 degrees, unless your drywallers  float out the corners better than most.

1. 
   DougU | Dec 14, 2002 07:12am | #6

   Alan

   A good point about cutting all of the small pieces at one time, I do do that but I never thought about the making some smaller and some larger, good idea, no fun getting up and down all the time, especialy at my age!

   Doug

2. 
   don26299 | Dec 17, 2002 04:36pm | #11

   Thanks Doug, Red, and all.  If I can get this attachment stuck on I got a picture of what we

   
1. 
   riverr1 | Dec 17, 2002 07:32pm | #12

   Fonzie,

   Nice work. How'd you do the concave radius? Cut or drill it?  Have you ever carried the bullnose down instead of going into a chamfer?

   Don

2. 
   RussellAssoc | Dec 18, 2002 04:22am | #13

   The 22 degree solution is best looking using existing trim, however, we use one of several manufactures that will mill a radius corner from your base profile, best overall solution.

3. 
   don26299 | Dec 18, 2002 07:12am | #14

   Thanks.  Actually the guy I work with did it.  For that inside radius he just clamped a board diagonally across the table saw and pushed the piece across with a squared board, raising the blade 1/16 at a time.  That was his first corner. 

4. 
   goldhiller | Jan 05, 2003 01:04am | #19

   Fonzie,

   This isn't intended as criticism of your result but is just a consideration that would yield an even slicker looking result from the approach you've taken here. (sorry, but I can't ever put the furniture-maker side of me to sleep)

   If you cut the short angled piece from it's respective place in the same board that makes up the rest of any particular baseboard run, the grain would follow right around the three boards as they traverse the corner.

   Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.

5. 
   don26299 | Jan 05, 2003 01:43am | #20

   You're right, and don't worry about any criticism anytime.  I think I mistakenly posted the wrong picture.  My partner did what you said on another and it looked better.  Even this corner looks a lot better walking by.  A little Max Factor and it will look better yet.  This was our first hickory and our first round corners.  Thanks

6. 
   goldhiller | Jan 05, 2003 02:57am | #21

   Ya done fine.

   Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.

2. 
   cutawooda | Dec 14, 2002 08:09am | #7

   I agree with your method. I have only done a few like this. It is tedious but looks the best. If you in a rush  though, with painted trim..45 'em and caulk.

1. 
   DougU | Dec 15, 2002 12:08am | #8

   Anybody

   My sister had a house built and the GC did not want to do the corners the way I suggested to my sis(I think because he had never saw it done and the thing about the fear of the unknown) She told him that I would be happy to come show him how and I guess the macho thing in him wouldn't allow that, anyhow he was at some big box store and found them pre cut, same profile, same everything, not the bigger uglier ones that says "I don't know how do this so I'm going to use these  pieces of crap and make it look like an amateur did it". Anyhow they must be available somewhere, never saw them but I wouldn't look for them anyhow, don't think is that big of a deal to cut them.

   Cuttawooda, I do agree that in some instances that that way is appropriate but I just always prefer to do them with the little pieces, nothing against the way you do it.

   Doug

1. 
   Redfly | Dec 16, 2002 07:19pm | #9

   I agree that it's mainly a matter of individual preference.  I personally prefer the mitered corner look - seems to look nicer with a hardwood floor.  On several projects I've made up sample corners - 90 degree with shaped backer block, and the incremental miter technique that you recommend, and let the owners pick the style they prefer.  The only consensus that I've seen is that there doesn't seem to be any.  One thing most of us seem to agree on is the cheesiness of the 'pre-radiused' corners that are available for some trim styles.  Might be OK if the profiles matched perfectly, but usually they don't, and the joints with the straight stock always seem to stand out like Trent Lott at a Sierra Club meeting.

3. 
   SgianDubh | Dec 14, 2002 06:45am | #4

   Not being a house builder 'an all, fonzie, but a mere furniture maker, and therefore probably way out of order, I'd consider saw kerfing it, but with a wrinkle. Lay the moulding face down on a radial arm saw, and take out one big wide kerf that roughly matches the tangent of the curve to the 'circumference' of the 'circle' leaving about 1/8" of the visible front flat face of the base board. Bend it round the corner and infill the space at the back with a block or two of hickory shaped to the curve. You literally carve the the moulding profile at the top of the infill piece, and that's easy enough to get close with a router and some moulding bits on a router table. Hey, it was just an idea, and not an uncommon approach for a pooffy tea drinker like me, ha, ha. Slainte.

   Some stuff I've made.
4. 
   riverr1 | Dec 16, 2002 08:05pm | #10

   I'd suggest going to a drywall supplier and getting trim-tex's transition corners. They are square at the base and transition to bull nose. They work great and cost about 50 cents each. Much easier then trying to trim in the base. I'll look for the link to show you.

   Don

   http://www.trim-tex.com/

   Look in the catalog at the 3/4 bullnose accesories.

   
   

   ---

   Edited 12/16/2002 12:08:50 PM ET by Don C.

5. 
   jimorban | Dec 18, 2002 08:19am | #15

   One other way that I have done and it looks good is to run your base board first  with a  90' cut and then set the bullnose down on top of the corner. that hides the little area that would need to be caulked and can also look like the routered in style

   Jim

1. 
   don26299 | Jan 04, 2003 09:04pm | #16

   The guy I work with is pretty ingenious.  In this house we had a mixture of hickory trim and standard trim to navigate around these round drywall corners.  I took a picture of how he did it with three different kinds of baseboard in the same house: this is white BB in the bath:

   
1. 
   don26299 | Jan 04, 2003 09:12pm | #18

   This, again is a better shot of his navigation around the end/wall round drywall corners with 3/4 hickory trim:

   
2. 
   don26299 | Jan 04, 2003 09:07pm | #17

   Here is standard oak baseboard in the bedroom: