I've just put some cheap T&G pine cladding on a ceiling to cover up the mess that's there. Looks fine, but the edges where it meets the corners/walls need finishing.
Any ideas for a cheap and effective way to do this? The gaps are too wide in places for caulk. I was thinking of cutting one of the boards down into 1cm strips, but I've used up all the long pieces.
A small length of trim of some description - quadrant or cove or bevel?
Normal practice is to use a ramin wooden moulding strip
Cut a "shadow gap"?
Thomas Prufer
Impressive. Must get me one of those. But meantime, given the uneven walls, I'll go with the moulding suggestions upthread.
Normally if I need a bit of trim like, I just knock up what I need on a router table...
That means you can also choose what wood species you want should it need to be matching or contrasting with the ceiling boards.
The other thing to watch is the flatness/trueness of the walls. If the edging is not flexible enough to match the undulations in the wall you will also end up with a noticeable gap to the wall. Unless this can filled with something that can match the colour of the trim or the colour of the wall you may not be able to disguise it well. A filler or glue loaded with pine sawdust to match a pine trim could work.
Start with putting a long straight edge (long spirit level) against the wall at ceiling height to see if you are still going to end up with smaller gaps.
I once had this type of problem when trying to add ceiling coving in a house built over 100 years ago. In the end I gave up with this as no wall was true or flat and no corner at 90 degrees.
The saw follows the wall, so the gap is (pretty much) the same all round.
Instead of that dedicated tool, a biscuit jointer works as well, and has more uses than a specialized saw you might only use once.
Thomas Prufer
I can see it could look neat - and would help with the wood expanding/contracting.
I used to have a biscuit jointer, and used it for a number of things - routing skirting gaps for flooring ISTR. Not often for biscuits for some reason.
Only if the wall is substantially flat.
The flat bit of the saw evens out the high-frequency bumps, and follows the wall as well as a base of 15 to 20 cm will. And beading or a strip won't smooth out much less, so it's either something like Styrofoam beading that is very flexible, or some sort of filler or caulk.
And looking at the gap, a variation from 12 to 15 mm or even 22-25 mm is less distracting than one of 0-3 mm.
Thomas Prufer
Yes a little piece of trim, timber or other is the only practical way. You may want to paint it first (wall paint) then caulk the crack/gap then paint the caulk and you have no cutting in to do with a paintbrush. You may want to use some other material. A scotia moulding is nice, or just a chamfer.
TW
Thanks - I've bought a few lengths of 18mm rounded moulding. It'll cover the gaps between the cladding and walls, but I had undertimated the unevenness of one of the walls. So there'll be a bit of filling going on. Currently 'thinking about next steps' . . .
I've got some grab adhesive to fix the moulding - how best to hold it in place until the glue sets?
I cut a flock of thin laths to secure something similar in a bathroom. Looked a bit Winter forestry but worked.
No doubt someone will be along with a more technical solution:-)
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wedge timbers against the floor
Yes, I'll give it a go. 2.8m ceiling so a bit more awkward than usual . . .
No no, that's what I'd planned originally, cutting up lengths of offcut cladding. But I've gone posh and bought some wooden moulding strips now . . .
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