I finally learned why my baseboards kept cracking around the corners

Last fall I was trimming out a room at my buddy Tom's place in Austin and he showed me how he copes his baseboard corners instead of using those cheap pre-cut corner blocks. He said a carpenter he worked with in 2019, a guy named Mike, told him that wood moves with humidity and a tight miter joint will always split around 7 months. Now I spend an extra 15 minutes per corner with my coping saw and I haven't seen a single crack since. Has anyone else switched over to coping and never looked back?

3 comments

3 Comments

riley_miller2522d ago

Yeah that "7 months" thing is way too specific. Wood moves whenever it feels like it based on humidity changes. I've seen miters crack in 2 months and others hold for years. Coping is definitely better but that timeline is just some old guy's guess.

garcia.tyler22d ago

Damn, that 7 month timeline is oddly specific. Has that actually held true in your experience or was it more of a ballpark thing?

cora86322d ago

My buddy waited exactly 7 months on the dot for some rift sawn oak base he was installing in a dry house with HVAC running constantly. The miters still opened up 3 weeks after he set them. I think people get way too hung up on these exact numbers when really it's just about waiting through at least one full season change if you can. Unless you're working in a climate controlled shop with a moisture meter and a lot of patience, you're probably fine to just cope and move on after a couple months. Its trim work, not brain surgery.