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Caulking interior trim question

15 years ago

The trim in our new house is almost finished being installed. The walls have already been painted and the trim has been primed and one coated. We are filling the nail holes and will be final coating when the nail holes are done. What is the best way to caulk the gaps?

The casing is 3 1/4" and the base is 4 1/4". Our builder said it's difficult to get a flush fit w/ wider trim. So we have gaps in some areas that need caulked. Some of the areas have no gaps at all and some have a few inches to a foot in a run. Does the whole piece get caulked or just where the gaps are? Do we need to then paint over the caulk?

In our current home we have stained trim and there are a few places where there are gaps. Why caulk painted trim and leave stained trim alone?

Any advice would be appreciated!

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Comments (2)

Ron Natalie
15 years ago
Because you can't stain caulk?
You may not even be able to paint it depending on the type of caulk.

The reason you have gaps primarily is that the framing/drywall work is poor.

When there's a color change like light walls to dark stained trim or whatever, the gaps are less noticed than when you have white trim on a white painted wall.
megradek
15 years ago
I believe this should have been caulked before painting. there will also be a need to do this in the future because of settling/movement
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