Installing new baseboard

The old house in NJ that Marianne inherited from her mother has had numerous alterations done to it over the years. Somewhere along the line, the baseboard on the second floor was removed when carpet was installed. Marianne removed the old crappy carpet to expose the wooden floors and so we needed to install new baseboard. I borrowed a compound miter saw from my friend Lee and away Marianne and I went to NJ.

We had taken measurements and decided we needed 16 foot pieces since quite a few rooms had walls longer than 12 foot. This presented a problem since we don't have a truck and 16 feet pieces don't fit in our cars.

Fortunately, Lowes in Cape May has a truck you can rent for about $25 total, so that is what we did. 

Even with a truck, loading 16 foot pieces is not easy but fortunately since we had pre-ordered the baseboard, it had come as a well wrapped and protected single package that was easy to deal with and attach to the truck. The people at Lowes were very friendly and helpful.

In the background you can see the back of the house.

Your hero, captain of his vessel.

One of the shorter section showing the miter cuts. The saw certainly makes it easy but I must admit I made several mistakes. Eventually I found a method that seemed to work. I would draw the proposed piece on a piece of paper with the angles marked before cutting.

More results, prior to painting. The pieces are not yet installed.

The imaginative use of rubbish bins to hold up a freshly painted 16 foot piece for our longest wall.

Marianne is the painter, I am the brute who wields the saw.

The baseboard is made of light weight mdf that is easier to paint than regular pine. It cut very easily as well.

So the next step is to rent a nail gun and attach the baseboard to the wall.