One of the best ways to get tight great-looking inside corner joints for the baseboard installation would be to cope one end of your baseboard. Corners in a home are rarely a perfect ninety degree angle making coping the best option. Lots of people believe coping is challenging and requires more of their time than simply mitering the inside corners. It’s not true with a little practice coping the corners can be carried out faster than merely mitering them, specially in small to medium rooms.
Usually the board you are going to cope could have one end with a simple square cut and the other end could be the end that needs to be coped. Figuring out where to cope the end is done simply by placing the board vertical, the way it’ll be positioned or the wall, and cutting a forty five degree angle on one end. Where this cut meets the profile (pattern) within your base is where the coping cut should be made. When making this cut you want to make the cut slightly back from the line formed by the forty five degree cut, so profile is not damaged, make sure that back back-cut simultaneously. Back-cutting is to are cutting away a lot of material within the backside of the board than the front. This gives for the front profile edge to fit more tightly rather than push the front profile edge away from the other baseboard thus producing a gap.
Other than the normal tools for installing baseboards and a coping saw you will require some additional items to make the job easier and the finished product look wonderful. You’ll need several rat-tail files(one round,one flat), round adhesive backed sanding pads(80 and 120 grit), a 6 inch piece of the baseboard you are coping, a dowel rod which has a diameter just smaller than any bead sections of your baseboard, two 1”x3”x8” square edged hardwood block, and a 6-8 inch long piece of tongue-and-groove hardwood flooring 2 ¼ -3 ½ inches wide.
Once you’ve all the items listed above, you simply must get all sanding material ready. Cut any dowel rods down to 6-10 inches, cut the 120 grit sand paper in strips which will just overlap itself for every size dowel you will end up making use of, now peel adhesive back off and attach them to the dowels. Peel and adhere sanding pads to the two hardwood sanding blocks, 1 with 80 grit and one with 120 grit, to ensure that sanding paper overlaps three edges. Then peel and adhere an 120 grit pad to the hardwood floor block of wood so the sanding pad adheres as much as possible the contour of the tongue-and-groove side of the board. Having each one of these different sanding profiles will help you pick a sanding grit and profile to best suit the spot you have to fine tune.
The quickest way to measure precisely what length your baseboard has to be should be to cut the forty five degree miter on one end and then measure from wall-to-wall or the center of the wall stud where you plan to join to the next piece. Now measure from the long point of the miter cut the wall-to-wall measurement and mark the board. Do not cut board to length right now or cut it an inch long if board is too log to handle easily. Now cope the end with the coping saw, and then use the files or sanding blocks that best fit the section of the baseboard profile you’ll want to get rid of. Take the scrap piece if baseboard you cut earlier and place it at a ninety degree angle to the end you just coped, this will show you any kind of areas that should be fine tuned to secure a perfect fit. You will cut the other end to length. If you believe (blank) the board might be a bit short then cut it a bit long and test fit, then cut as needed. The reason for not cutting the length first is actually to be able to re-cut the miter, re-cope that end and re-mark the right length. After you have more practice and confidence with your coping skills you will go ahead and make the cut for length before you cope the end.
For longer walls where you will need to join some bits of baseboard, you need to miter the other end of the baseboard so that the joint is centered on a wall stud. I prefer to use a 30 degree miter cut, nonetheless a 45 degree miter cut may even work as well. Setting up the baseboard that needs coping on one side initial is most effective. Cut your second baseboard a quarter inch long, test fit and after that cut to length simply by cutting the square cut end.