The old time craftmens way to install wood baseboard molding was to run the first piece right to the inside corner and the cope the next piece around the corner to the profile to fit against the first piece. These days it seems that much of the molding currently available is MDF material with a pre-primed white surface. Is coping to inside corners still the method for installation? I question this because it seems like the MDF material could just crumble away as one tries to cut the profile with the coping saw.
Not really, if you're practiced at coping ... the problem many have is trying to spring the mdf in, IME, that's when it breaks.
Coping/mitering inside corners is a religious endeavor, some do, some don't.
I prefer coping, but have a hard time getting the young trim guys to do it.
If you're good at coping, mdf is no problem, probably faster, cleaner and better looking, AND, if you're really good enough to be charging for your skills, your painter doesn't need to be a trim carpenter too.
Basically, if you have to caulk it, you need to plan on coming back every five to ten years and make it look like what you were paid to do in the first place ... whole lot easier to do the job right in the first place.
Those are also my findings. MDF also provides better flexibility in fitting the slightly odd, crooked floor problems in addition to that. Plastc molding is even better for matching out of square areas. Up untl a few years ago I always fgured coping the corners was too much work but after trying it a few times, I think it's the only way to go now. Not hard to do, slight misses are often invisible when you over/under cut the angle, depending on whether in/out side corners or long-runs. Those also help allow for un-square corners. Caulking is seldom needed this way too. I managed, with trial and error, to come up with templates for such cuts. I also paint to the final coat before installing them; amaznig how many little "mistakes" that willl make invisible unless you look real close. Using a brad nailer there is usually no touch-up required.
Ditto, ditto, and ........maybe. For my own personal efforts, I certainly agree with you. But for the "trim carpenters" of today, I rarely see them carry a coping saw out to the job, and incredibly, I have run into some that have NEVER used one. I have slapped so many pieces of trim to cut a 45 degree slice to reveal the profile I don't ever think about it. A coping saw is a must.
If today's "trim carpenters" had the same training I had, you did, and many here have as well they would realize it is actually **easier** to cope corners than to miter them. Coping helps disguise badly taped and floated corners, out of square corners, and helps with poorly adjusted miter saws. And unless the house is affected by fierce movement or water damage, I have never seen one of my coped joints (base or crown) come apart.
BTW, I have seen that awful blue monstrosity that you clamp onto a piece of trim to try to reverse a back cut for a coped corner. What a monstrosity.... and it takes a MORE skill to use than as opposed to hand cutting with a coping saw.
Personally, I like the MDF baseboards (don't like much else MDF trim) as it comes out in long lengths, is completely uniform, paints great, wears like hell and holds finish great.
Thanks for all the responses. In the past I've always used wood baseboards and coped in the way I was taught by my carpenter dad many many years ago. Here now some 9 or 10 years since I've done any base molding work I'm finding that MDF, plastic and some types of particle board molding are the standard fare at the big box home centers.
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