Installing Crown on an uneven cieling

[Paul]

I am installing 4 5/8 crown molding (38 degrees) in my upstairs hallway. Everything is been going fine except for some odd corners, which I was able to figure the angle with a plumbers tape and the miter and bevil setting from Dewalt online. Anyway, one of my pieces wasn't fitting at all. After a few minutes of frustration I figured out that there was about an inch change in the cieling of that wall. Now the wall is only 48 inches long, so I was using one piece. I guess with a longer wall you could firmly nail in one side and then bend in the other, but that doesn't work with the short piece.

Any suggestions? Do I have to warp my damn crown molding to make it fit?

~Horrendously Built House's Homeowner

[Don Phillipson]

Do they not make expanded poly foam crown moulding for just this purpose?

[Tom The Great]

I found using foam crown molding very useful in compensating for uneven ceiling. Plus triming the ends was easier since I could use an exacto knife to carve the ends.

Good luck!

later,

tom @

[Abe]

Some people do that, but you end up with an uneven bottom line, which is very noticeable. Others prefer to add an extender piece of scrap slightly offset backwards to the top of the crown where it's too low to reach the ceiling, and then fill in the space with a smooth bead of paintable caulk.

[Ed]

Not sure if you meant that the ceiling is 1" higher at one end than the other or of you mean the ceiling is lower by 1" somewhere along the 48".

If one end is higher than the other, its a simple matter of adjusting your miter and leaving your bevel alone. Sort of like you would do tri-angle vaults.

If you are talking about a 1" sag in the ceiling along the 48" length, what we usually do is plane off the top of the molding to fit the ceiling snug while the bottom of the molding stays straight. But a 1" sag in just 48" would possible be too evident to the eye. Plane a test piece to fit and see if it looks too evident. If it does, then you might have to get into some carpentry and pull the sagging section of ceiling up if possible......... My son is telling me that to plane off 1" in only 48" will be too evident and he would suggest to the home owner that adjustments will have to be made in the ceiling which can (if you are lucky) only encompass pulling the sagging section back up.

[Goedjn]

If the ceiling was flat but not level, he'd be able to just tip the molding to match, so it's got to be curved.. and since the problem is on the ends, not the middle, it's got to be a convex curve.

For something with that much variation, I'd scribe a plank to match the curve of the ceiling, and put that on top of the crown molding. The only problem with that is if he's trying to meet more such molding at the corner. At which point you'd have to decide whether to continue with the spacer all around the room, or put in some sort of corner-block or bracket to hide the discontinuity.

[Ed]

I either misread or didn't catch that. I assumed (wrongly) that he was talking about in the middle instead of the ends. I stand corrected.....

Regards, Ed