Don't Cut Your Baseboards at 45 DEGREES! Do THIS INSTEAD!

Cutting your inside baseboard corners at 45 degrees won't give you a great finished project. Most likely you'll have large gaps in the joints. Instead, you'll want to COPE the baseboards. Here is the process for accomplishing that.

[radondar]

45 is fine if you live by the motto:

Do your best, caulk the rest.

[Sagacious]

I learned this on the first contracting job I ever did . Kept cutting two 45 degree angles, that did not fit and I was losing my confidence and patience and burning up days on this job just painfully trying to cut different angles ie 40, 30 degree etc to match these corners. Then, a veteran carpenter who I never saw again, told me about coping and I just wasn't sure this would work. So I skeptically and desperately did the cope.
But boy did it ever. Never forget it and owe that man a ton of thanks and gratitude

[nigelthornton]

My dad showed me this in my first house, he wasn’t a woodworker but he knew how to make things easier. Cheers dad

[soniasmith]

Hi, I noticed that too, when I was doing my baseboards years ago. I taught myself how to do that and I did mine by cutting it with a saw... 😊Thanks for sharing though!❤❤

[stephenholten]

I started coping baseboard in the 1970's when I was a finish carpenter subcontractor. There are also a lot of other tricks installing baseboard to make it look a lot more professional.

[o.p.h.o.v.e.n]

Nice work. I learned this by removing the baseboards in my house one time to replace the floor. I saw how the builder did it that way and I was impressed!

[ColdIce]

"don't cut at a 45, instead cut at a 45"

[johnlennon]

My favorite part is where you don't show cutting that profile at the end and skip over it instead...the hardest part. Nice.

[johnsellers]

And there it is, two times. Left out the part of grinding until it was looking like the second time he said there it is. But coping is the right way as he said. Years ago when I was shown the coping, I was amazed. And I remember when those sanding discs came out, no more heavy grinding stone type discs. Now I’m stuck buying both, but that’s the way it is. Thumbs up for teaching about coping. When it comes to things like fancy molding, coping is key.

[atarileaf]

I'm having a hard time coping with all these baseboard videos

[TheFrizbaloid]

Or buy a $3 angle gauge and know what angle your corners really are.

[JMcK]

Pro tips right here ! This is how I was taught to finish 20 years ago and nice to see this being taught again to the up and comers. 👍

[dgs]

Hold up… how big was that gap on the next corner to the right?

[TheMouthFromTheSouth]

I cut at 44¼ and got perfect fit, no coping needed. And that was the 1st time I ever cut trim. Rookie for the win 😂

[frontlinecustom]

Yes about time, I've watched many vids cutting 45's on the inside corner and not even trimming the back out, finally you share the best way of doing trims, boats aren't square either it works a treat.

[centurionhomeinspectionsin]

Dude-you cut it short. Always a bit long and spring into place. It’ll keep the coped joint tight. And the long piece should always face the room entry to minimize the possibility of seeing the joint.

[jamesdubois]

If only they made a "coping saw" that they could sell at every single hardware store for $15

[NexusEradication]

Nice. Now I know how to make my gaps even wider than before!

[randyreeves]

True Carpenters like myself use a coping saw and we're good at it. You don't caulk wood stained baseboards

[jakepadgett]

If it’s going to be painted and caulked then not worth the time. If it’s going to be stained then yeah I’m with you.