crooked walls

[kkolhage]

:?: I just bought a new house, and the only thing really wrong with it was it had really old wall paper on the walls in the living room and hallway. So the last two weeks I've spent taking that down, sanding the wall, painting and now finally puting new trim up. Now what I didn't know was that the walls were kind of waivey. After laying the base board you can look down the wall and see where the wall bowes in, and the base board dont even touch the wall in that area. I went out bought three inch nails thinking that would hold it down, but it didn't help. If anyone could give me some ideas I would apprieciate it.


Thanks,

kkolhage

[Dragon]

Furniture.

[Rich]

About the only way to "hide" it (as you won't get it fixed, is to caulk, putty, or drywall mud the space to the trim. Then paint that area up to the trim. It's not a great solution but helps in not drawing your eye to it so much. Hopefully someone else will have a better solution and we'll both learn something.

[Cole]

Furniture.

Sad but true :D :D

[that_guy]

Along the same lines as Rich...

I would leave the baseboard as is, don't force it to bow with the walls, but make sure that it's secure. Then use latex (or some type of paintable) caulking to fill in the gaps before painting the whole thing. It's worked very well for me.

Good Luck.

[kkolhage]

Is there anything you can buy like caulk, that is stainable? Because I didn't paint my baseboards, their stained.

[giddonah]

you could paint it the same color as the wall (what I would do). Trying to use wood filler there would make it stick out if it's stained.

[that_guy]

I agree with giddonah. I would do the same and it's true that wood filler won't work - it'll stand out and you're trying to hide a problem not bring attention to it. (By the way, some may say that you can do it with wood filler, but you have to be very careful because matching it to your stained wood would be really tough - that's why it's easier to use your wall paint on it).

[kkolhage]

I apprieciate all of the help and suggestions :)

[Cole]

Oh by the way, it sucks you are even having to fix it.

[Rich]

Yeah - be careful with wood filler. Most of the stuff is like bondo and is pretty difficult to sand in a tight area. You'll probably end up doing more damage to the wall than getting anything sanded.

[Tom R]

Generally, as has been stated, you would want the 'gapped' area to match the wall, not the baseboard.

Silicone caulk is a lot more flexible than paintable caulk. The 'paintable' will soon crack and separate.

Next time consider matching your wall color to your caulk in such an extreme situation. Just paint first and then caulk.

Or 'skim-coat' the walls first to get them back within reason.

[Hometown Handyman]

I hate to ask, but are you sure that you nailed the baseboard into the studs? I had to learn that one the hard way. :oops:

[VALENT]

Another help (not solution) would be to remove the baseboard and then find the studs(for positive) and renail the baseboard working your way from stud to stud. I dont know how you put the baseboard in the first time but if you nailed the ends tight and are now trying to nail the middle(with your problem) it is hard to stretch that board.

[Thumper]

Another option is to add an additional strip of fine scale finish trim work just above the basebard but alligned tightly flush to the wall surface. You may be able to find strips of suitable decorative trim about .5"-1" wide at your local borg, the thin stuff is flexable enough to move with the wall and cover any open space between the baseboard and wall.