# Wood trim for doors in a wonky corner



## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

I have 2 doors that "meet" in a corner. They don't touch each other, but the hinge side of both doors is toward the corner. There is about 3 inches of wall from the hinge side jamb to the corner.

The problem I'm running into is that while the doors are plumb, the wall is not. On one of the doors, the jamb is inset about 1/8 to 3/16 at the bottom and slightly proud of the wall at the top by the same 1/8 to 3/16.

On the other door, also plumb, the top of the hinge side jamb is 3-1/4 from the corner and the bottom is 3 inches.

The trim will be painted but I'm not a trim carpenter and I'm wondering what you think might be the best way to trim out this corner. The latch side jambs are fine. This is a 1960 ranch so….. typical "not-everything-is-straight" situation.


----------



## JustJoe (Oct 26, 2012)

How about having the trim go up the latch sides and all the way across the tops of both and meeting with a cmiter in the corner so as to make it look like both doors are part of one doorway. Then the strip in the middle there can be trimmed out with a flat-piece the same thickness as the bottom edge of the top trim, or slightly thinner. You can butt the two pieces (one for each wall) against each other and put a line of caulk down the edge. When you paint it that middle piece will then look like one solid stile.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - for a piece that small, just a few inches on each wall, there's no reason for the wall to stick out/in 1/16". Just take a hammer and block of wood, or a rasp, or a lot of sandpaper, and correct it before putting the trim on. You've got the thickness of the drywall to play with, and you can always slap some mudon the low spot before putting the trim on, so there's no reason not to even it up. If the doors are plumb, when you are done that stile will look plumb too.


----------



## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

Oh, the trim across the top will meet in the corner as you talked about. The latch side trims will go from floor to the underside of the top trim. The top trim will stick out past the latch side trims about an inch.

It's not just drywall. It's the old gyp-board. Think drywall in planks. In that top photo, showing the bottom of the door, there's wood there. I'd have to chisel off almost a quarter inch of wood, maybe an inch wide, before getting to the drywall and then shave the drywall down from the floor up to about 38 inches from the floor. That would mean a stop at Harbor Freight or something to pick up some crappy chisels as I wouldn't want to do this with my good ones  And…. it sounds like a real mess, BUT it might be the best to try to straighten the wall surface.

I need to trim these doors before I can do the baseboards. PITA. I love old houses….. *sigh*


----------



## JustJoe (Oct 26, 2012)

Been there with cabinets and a way-out-of-whack soffit. It's no fun. Instead of chiseling out, maybe buy one of these and a dust mask and just power through it:

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-1-4-quarter-inch-electric-planer-91062.html


----------



## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

Well, here's what I found through some experimentation…

I'm using leftover 6" tongue and groove pine boards. If I mill a dado, 3/16" deep and a half inch from the edge that will be against the hinges… I can make that dado 38 inches long and as wide as I need by making a few passes. Then I flip the board so it's flat side down and trim it to width. Basically this "carves out" the clearance for the wonky wall at the bottom of that corner. The trim stays plumb as it's following the hinge side jamb which is plumb.

I think I'm going to give this a try as it's the least messy and least disruptive (to the kitchen) solution. If it doesn't work, then I may have to bite the bullet and wreak havoc on the wall, but…. I'm going to give this a try.


----------



## nailbanger2 (Oct 17, 2009)

That sounds like a good idea, Charlie. You may want to put a dado on all your trim pieces. Most manufacturers do, it aids in stability and leaves fewer gaps to be caulked.


----------



## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Unless you want to mess with "backing out" the trim,
I recommend carving back the gypsum. Surforms
work.


----------



## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

Not a big deal to rebate the trim if you have an electric hand planer.


----------



## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

Loren, it's not just gypsum. If it was I'd shave it back or pull it out. It's gypsum, wood, and probably some nail. Oh and the gyp is plastered. Not skim coated with joint compound… plastered. At this point I really can't get much in there unless I uninstall the door which I'm not in a big hurry to do. It's a tight corner.

Carving the back of the trim looks like it's going to work. It only takes a few minutes to set the dado on the table saw and do a few passes. I know I should have addressed this when I was installing the doors, but to be honest, I was so darn frustrated with everything else at the time, I just didn't remember to do anything with it.

I'm not real upset as it appears there are several ways to skin this cat. I just have to pick one


----------



## JoeinGa (Nov 26, 2012)

*DUCT TAPE *... that stuff will fix (or cover up) most anything


----------



## widdle (Mar 10, 2010)

What the profile of the trim look like..What are it's dimensions ?


----------



## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

widdle, it's plain. 3/4" thick, 3 inches wide for the side trims. 4 inches for the top trim. slightly radiused edges. It's a cottage kitchen and the wife likes clean lines in some areas…door and window trim being one of them  (or is that 2 of them?)

Baseboards will have a more ornate profile and will be 6 and a half inches tall.


----------



## widdle (Mar 10, 2010)

So the legs butt the head peice ? is the head trim thicker.. And from the reveal to the corner is less than 3 to the corner ?


----------



## widdle (Mar 10, 2010)

If it's not too late i would cheat the doors out of plumb a bit…And try to get the the two hinge sides a little closer to the same number from inside corner to your jamb ….If you dont want to dig out the plaster, You could rip some 1/8" or whatever jamb extensions that will get you back out to flush…Or even better, tapered jamb extensions..as far as jamb extensions go , you can give them a reveal, and than step back again for the trim..


----------



## widdle (Mar 10, 2010)

Or just go with tapered rabbetts


----------



## shawnmasterson (Jan 24, 2013)

first of all you either carve out the back or beat the rock/(plaster). beating the rock is very common practice. in most corners the taper will leave it out of square and flared out at the bottom. if you run the heads into the corner and put mulls (1/4"x whatever) for the legs it looks nice and clean. there are my place.


----------



## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

I like the way you did that with the beaded separator. Or… mull… or whatever 

If I had seen this when I was installing the door….. I mean I MUST have seen it but if I had paid ATTENTION to it, I would have just put a 2×4 against the bottom plate and whacked it with about a 5 pound "adjusting hammer". It's pretty amazing how easily you can shift a bottom plate. Then use screws to resecure it.

But I didn't. My bad.

2 "practice boards" later… only because I have them and even the wasted ones won't get wasted…. I have my method for the "good" piece. I only have to do this on one leg.

Rip width over sized.
Cut a dado 3/16 deep and 1/2" from the edge that will be resting on the jamb. This leaves me about 1/4" reveal. I might go for 1/8, but we'll see.
Cut that dado 38 inches long and stop.
Make several passes to make the dado the width of the final board width minus 1/2 inch.
Flip the board so it's dado-side-up and rip it to final width

That seems to be the ticket as far as carving out the back. The jambs are plumb, so I'm basically taking the wall out of the equation 

And I only have to carve one leg and it only has to be carved halfway up… from the bottom to the middle. After that it should be ok.


----------

