When I put casing on I start by bradnaiailing it to the jam and in the corners to keep them aligned and help tighten the miters. The cut is backcut by putting a 1/16″ shim under the keeper side of the cut. The problem I have is when I shoot a couple of finishnails into the outside of the casing it opens up my miters. Do you really need finishnails in the outside? I like it when the trim is a little off the wall when I paint. It’s much easier to cut in. I want thoose miters tight! It is prefinished oak and the contractor is having the miters filled with putty.
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I keep nails through casing into wall away from the miters about 8 inches and if needed slip a putty knife behind the miter to hold it out when I nail near the miter.
I prefer my casing tight to the wall but calk it if necessary.
Yes you most definitely need nails on the outside of casings because down the road it'll look horrible when it pulls away from the wall and all your "cutting in" of the paint job won't look good either.
I might suggest gluing the miters so the don't separate or if ya wanna go nuts use biscuits.
Be tight....mmmmm
Namaste
andy
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My vote is for yes you do need to nail the outside of the casing to the wall.
We've found that the trick to keeping the miters tight is shimming as you make the cuts but we don't shim (tilting the casing on the bed of the saw) just to get an arbitrary back cut. We shim the cut accordingly to account for the differing offsets between the wall and jamb faces. We've found a good carpenter can generally handle up to a 3/16 to sometimes even a 1/4" offset depending on the width of the casing material. I would hold the shim (or shims) against the surfaces to measure and match the offset. I would then place them under the wood to be cut to the reverse of what I had measured to get the precise backcut I needed (or front cut in cases where the wall was proud of the jamb).
There are cases however such as when you have a large or wide architrave piece where that's not practical and you just absolutely have to have the casing lie flat or 100% square to the jamb. In those cases we will channel the wall material and flat tape that wall edge or scribe cut a filler piece for that outside casing edge but either way it has to be secured to the wall.
Another thing we do to keep our miter tight is if there is any way that we have enough room to biscuit our miter joints we will put a biscuit in. Been doing that for something like 15 years now and to the best of my knowledge we've never had a joint open up,
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Jerrald, I'll try the guage method you use by putting the shim up against the jam/wall. I had a thought when I read your response. When you shim on the bed of the saw, say with 3/16", is the shim all the way accross under the trim or would it be better to lift the front and create a twist. After all this is what the low wall surface is making the trim do when you nail it down to the wall? What the shim is doing is setting up the same conditions/angles that the wall/jam dictates. I am just getting back into the biz and am getting hit with stuff I think I can work through.
The shim does go under just the edge when you cut it on the saw so the intent is to "twist" the casing just as you described. As I was writing that out I was thinking, hey this is really tough to explain with out pictures, but it does sound like from your reply that you do understand what I meant. I think it's funny at times since I actually don't do much of the actual installation labor anymore and whenever I do go back to it I usally cut the first piece or two exactly backwards of what I had intended so I certainly do understand what your going through "getting back into carpentry shape" again.
At one time way back when I was doing carpentry all the time I would make full width tapered shims just so I could cut the casing pieces with either edge into the facing and not have to turn the pieces around just so I could support the edge I needed to shim.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
You wrote: "I like it when the trim is a little off the wall".
You mean you deliberately leave a gap ? Do you fill it with calk before you paint ?
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
No I don't in my own work but this contractor wants it nailed to the wall with no gap. I see the trim as a separate piece from the wall and a gap on the side doesn't bother me but I realize there is a standard or expectation that should be met. I'm more of a cabinet/trim guy so tight miters are what I expect to see. Putty in the miters or caulking on the side is just not acceptable. This is stained trim.