LESLIE: Aaron in Kentucky has a question about crown molding. How can we help you with that project?
AARON: Yeah, we just bought our first house back in May. And I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never been the home improvement type and I really don’t have any tools (inaudible at 0:03:02) other than maybe a ratchet set and a set of screwdrivers.
TOM: OK.
AARON: And we’re working on wanting to repaint some of our rooms to kind of give the house a custom feel to it. And I’ve seen some crown molding in some houses and I thought, “How hard could that possibly be? You just cut it and put it up there.”
And when I went to the local home improvement store, the guy there, he just kind of shook his head and he said, “Oh, my goodness.” He says, “I’ll do drywall, I’ll rebuild an engine but I will not do crown molding.”
So what I want to know is, is it as bad as they make it out to be?
TOM: Well, you need more than a ratchet and a screwdriver, I’ll put it that way.
LESLIE: Yeah.
AARON: Oh, my gosh. Well …
LESLIE: You’re going to need a compound miter saw, because there’s the angles for how the crown molding goes together.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: Then there’s the angle for how your house is, how the wall is, how it meets the ceiling. So it’s sort of a delicate balance of one angle, another angle, the tilt of the blade. So that can be tricky enough as it is.
TOM: It’s a compound miter cut and it is very difficult. However, for you, I would suggest another route. If you like crown molding, there is a product called Simple Crown. And there’s a couple of them like this. I know this one. Simple Crown – I think their website is SoSimpleCrown.com.
And basically, it’s a foam product that looks like wood when it’s painted but it’s all modular, so it’s really easy. The corners are all precut and stuff and you can basically put it up with just caulk.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. It glues in place.
TOM: Exactly.
LESLIE: And you know what? It might sound like, “Eee, I don’t know if I’m interested in that,” but I actually used it on an episode of a TV series that I worked on called $100 Makeover, on A&E. And it went up super-easy and I’m telling you, I worked with real carpenters on the show and they laughed at me when I pulled out this foam stuff. I was like, “And you glue it in place with caulk,” and they were like, “Yeah, right. Whatever.”
But it looks fantastic. When you paint it, it looks just like for-real wood molding and it could not have been more simple to install. So, if you’re feeling like it’s something you want to do yourself, it’s definitely worth it. They’ve got a great website, a ton of different styles out there.
You could probably – I know the budget for us was $100 per room and we did one of the most simple, simple, simple moldings and I think we spent $50 on the crown for the entire room.
AARON: Oh, wow. Very affordable and very nice-looking. Well, I’m going to have to check that out.
TOM: Alright, Aaron. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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