Sawdust on the Floor

Do me a favor, take a half hour and watch any of the homes for sale on the DIY channels. In almost every one of them some will always say one of the following two things, “Wow, I love the crown molding” or “Wow, I love those hardwood floors”. And if you have ever looked at a new home, I am sure either you or your spouse has uttered something along those lines.

Believe me , I share those feeling.  A properly installed hardwood floor and crown molding can vastly improve the look of any room. But it is also fair to say that improperly installed flooring or crown molding, will stick out like the preverbial sore thumb. Once noticed, you see it every time you walk into that room.

You all know what I am talking about. Not only as woodworkers, but as just normal people (Not to say that woodworkers are not normal) we learn by observing. You look to see how someone else handled a particular problem. If their solution is better then ours then you try to emulate that solution.

For me I hate to go into any home, particularly a upscale home and see poorly or improperly installed molding. We recently visited a family friend’s home, and he was showing us the new ceramic floor that had been installed in his kitchen. The tile was beautiful, and really added a dramatic punch to the kitchen. However, the finish work was a disappointment.

Where the tile met the trim on the doors, the installer had tried to cut the tile to match the profile of the trim. The result was a very jagged edge on the tile, and an uneven gap between the tile and the door trim. This area he filled with grout. For me, every time I went into that room, that joint would scream out to me “LOOK AT ME”.

It doesn’t matter if you are installing a hardwood floor or floor tile. There is one simple rule that needs to be observed, the floor material goes under the door trim. That way any uneven edge on the flooring material is covered by the door casing material. Grout or caulk should not be used to cover large gaps.

And the sad thing is that it is really easy to install the flooring material under the door trim. No, you don’t have to take it out and cut off a length. All you need is a Flush Cutting Trim Saw, and a piece of the floor material. Take a piece of the flooring material, place it upside down on the floor next to the door trim and cut across the top of the material. Simply follow along the top of the material. It is the correct thickness, and if the floor is uneven, the piece will follow the contour of the floor. Once you have cut thru the trim, simply knock it out with a chisel and you’re done, a nice clean, professional looking job.

You use the back of the floor material so your saw blade doesn’t scratch it up. Some people prefer to use an Offset Saw instead of the Flush Cutting Trim Saw. They fear that your cut can wander around with the flexible trim saw. I happen to have one of each, and have not seen that problem. So use your own judgment, see what works for you.

The important thing is that we pay attention to the details. Just like that old idiom that “God is in the details” or if you prefer “The Devil is in the details”. Either way, the message is the details are important. Funny thing about the above tile job, I suspect that it took a lot longer to do the job the incorrect way than it would have to have done it correctly.

For tips on installing crown molding see my blog post, Installing Crown Molding.

I know as a good woodworker you don’t assume anything, correct? You check that your table saw blade is at 90 degrees from the table surface, and you also check your cuts to ensure that they are really square. And if you are building a cabinet, you also recheck that the face frame is square, and that all the corners are at a 90 degree angle. So then why is that when you go to install inset doors on those cabinets that the hinges end up binding?

Well, as silly as it might sound, your finish work maybe undoing all of the exact work you have already done. Before you think I have smelled too much paint thinner, let me explain. You have gone to a lot of trouble to make things flat, straight and square, and you’re ready for the finish. But before you apply the finish what do we all do? We grab our handy sander, and clean up the entire project. We work real hard to make sure that all of the surfaces are smooth; we also work real hard to get rid of any burn marks that may be left over from the saw. And this is where I think we get into trouble.

Inset hinges are installed on the inside face of the stiles. (See Drawing). For the hinge to work properly, the inside face of the stile must be 90 degrees from the face. If it is not then the hinge will stop before the door totally closes. How much of a problem this is really depends on the size of the door. If you remember your high school trigonometry classes then you will remember the Pythagorean Theorem, which defines a right triangle, which is what we created by too much sanding. Or if your more like me, and have trouble remembering high school, what good the good old Pythagorean theory says about our problems is, for any given angle, as the length of the Hypotenuse ( the Door width) increases, the length of the side( Offset) will also increase. Or the wider the door, the more acute the problem will be.

So how do we fix this problem? Well, I guess the first suggestion I have is to be very careful when you sand the edges of your stiles. And deviation from a 90 degree angle can wreak havoc on your doors closing correctly. But not sanding really isn’t a practical answer.

The method I learned from my father-in-law, takes a page from the machinists’ world, shims. Machinists use metal shims to correct misalignment, these are normally very thin strips of metal, only a couple of 1000th of an inch thick. Metal shims may work well, but there may be some chemical interaction between the metal and your chosen finish choice that would end up discoloring your finished product. So instead of metal, I would suggest the use of either paper or very thin cardboard.

How thick of a shim do you need would really depend on the angle and the width of the door. I normally will loosen up the hinge, insert a small shim, resecure the hinge, and try it. If you need more correction, then simply add another thickness of the shim. You may find that you will need a different thickness of shims on the other hinges on this door; it’s really a trail and error process. Just be sure that you trim off the excess shim that protrudes beyond the face of the hinge. You really don’t want that to show in your finished product.

On important note, only install the shim on the front side of the hinge. A shim that covers the entire hinge would only move the door further away from the stile, and would not correct the problem.

The moral of this is, be careful of what you sand, and if you create a problem with the sanding, a little high school math and cardboard can correct your problem.