Door casing replacement

So because the prior owners of my house had a water loss that was never discovered until after the sale of the house, they had repaired the door casings as cheaply as possible (pic related). Its kinda bothering me now and I figure I should replace them. Theres like 23 sets of door casings like this. I can see where drywall was poorly patched/repaird, but thats another thread. Painting makes me want to drink until blackout.

I've never done a door casing before, can PrepHole walk me through the process? I think I need to buy a flat bar to pry them off hopefully without damaging the walls after scoring the caulk with a utility knife. Then cut some casing sticks with a miter with finish nails, putty over nails, then paint the trim.

Can I just buy one of those hand-saw miterboxes, or is it very strongly recommended I buy an actual chop saw that will likely go unused after this repair? Can I get away with leaving the top portion of the casing in place and painting over it or will the miters not line up well?

Shopping list:
Flat bar, Miterbox/handsaw, finish nail punch, finish nails, wood putty, paint.

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    > Can I just buy one of those hand-saw miterboxes, or is it very strongly recommended I buy an actual chop saw that will likely go unused after this repair?

    Normies get out reeeee!!

    Buy a chop saw then sell it on Craigslist. It’s so much faster than cutting by hand.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Hmmm, I was clearly remembering the dewalt, bosch, and other prices but my Lowes has a Matebo 10-in miter saw for $120. It looks like it can cut other lumber and I'd like to put wood up in one of my closets to hang guns off of. Can I use this Matebo Miter saw to make wood boxes and other fun projects in place of a shitty circular saw?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        I doubt you need a 10 inch. That’s overkill. But a miter saw will cut straighter lines than a circular saw if you’re doing boxes etc.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          its just one of the cheaper models I saw, theres also 12 and 15 inch blades but I agree, I'm not building a house or whatever. But if I'm going to spend $120 on a 'cheap' tool it'd be nice if I could build a decorative wood wall, shelving, and other stuff with it. Pic is what I found and seems to have good, but also paid for ratings.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            it's decent or try ridgid x4waph

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            I have that exact saw. It is nice and rigid, with little slop or play in the arm, but it has a really shitty fence that shattered into pieces on the first cut. (the inside of the fence casting was porous and looked like rotten gray styrofoam. it's terrible quality)

            Overall, it's usable but it's only a reasonable value if it's the price is low.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          10" is not overkill, it's the minimum size you need to effectively cut a range of small dimensional lumber sizes, baseboards, crown, etc.

          Even the best designed 10" ones are still limited to about 4-5" height material, and that's doing 4D chess to figure out how to keep the motor from hitting it. A 4x4 post is about their limit for a single pass cut, that's not an extremely large piece.
          Smaller chop saws are great if you only cut one size of material like in a production line scenario or are cutting really small hobby size materials, but if you expect to be able to go " hey, I have a chop saw now!" and put one to general use after the job that drove the original purchase is done, you will regret anything smaller than 10" quickly.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        you realize most places you can just return the product after you are done.

        Menards will let you return anything even after years for instore credit, even without a receipt. I do this all the time. I literally got a polesaw, pruned my trees, and the next day returned it.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          I have a bunch of doors to do, and I wouldn't mind making some shelving or decorative wood covering in my gun room, or adding some slightly nicer trim pieces elsewhere in the house. I'll get plenty of use from this $120 miter saw and $30 brad nailer. Got 5000 nails for $13. I could go to my garage and just nail shit together for a stress reliever. No need to return shit over the next couple weeks out of dishonesty.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    For that many sets, trying to fit to the existing head pieces is likely to cause more problems than it avoids, beginning with not being able to *exactly* match that profile and not being able to adjust the side to side locations of the leg pieces.
    Unless its some rare solid wood trim or something it's usually advisable to just replace it all, which will also let you adjust the reveal to cover any weirdness from repairs, tweak things to lay flatter, etc.
    If you absolute don't want to buy or rent a chop saw, you may be able to minimize angle cuts by buying casing sets that are pre- mitered and then you can set the heads and just cut the legs to length at the straight cut end. You might need to adjust the head width but theoretically it's only one miter cut.
    Even if you hand cut them all, its just extra work but not necessarily so less accurate that it's an issue, especially if you are painting. Just use a sharp quality saw and it's not rocket science.
    One thing I HIGHLY recommend that you do differently is that you paint that shit flat and off the wall before you put it up, and then just touch up any nail holes or handling blemishes.
    That will avoid a massive amount of PITA painting details, potential sagging and runs, etc.
    Trust me on this, especially with crappy drywall repairs and texture you don't want to begin painting it after installing.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Yeah theres some really tight corners where clearly putty was applied with fingers, then heavily painted over, if I'm going to replace casing and have access to these tight corners I'll do my best to sand down and correct these imperfections; you can see it in the original pic where it looks like the drywall paper was torn during removal, texture applied, then painted over. Frick I hate painting.

      But since you mentioned it I do vaguely remember someone saying to paint before installing. I assume I measure, cut, hold up to the door to make sure it looks right, then paint, then nail on? Am I over thinking this and should just expect to make a few mistakes but learn as I go?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        No don’t paint before installing. Caulk any cracks with painters caulk. Apply a small bead and wipe with your finger. Let dry and paint after an hour. You will also need to caulk all seams on the wall and the interior of the trim.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >I assume I measure, cut, hold up to the door to make sure it looks right, then paint, then nail on?

        that just makes extra work trying to keep from glopping up the cut ends with paint...just paint the raw material before doing anyrhing, and let it get good and cured before handling it, then cut and apply it, caulk where you nerd to, and touch up those spots.

        Theres literally no reason for or advantage to painting it after installation, and all kinds of advantages to painting it first.
        anyone who tells you otherwise is full of shit.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          t.painted houses to pay for college

          >Theres literally no reason for or advantage to painting it after installation

          If you're installing trim correctly, you're filling nail holes after, and sanding. I guess you don't bother filling corners and painting them so it's solid, then?
          We used to prime before installing, fill, sand, then final coat. Why frick up a finished surface and have to go back and repaint to cover nail holes? And, if you're cutting after painting...big dumb dumb. Tear outs are common.

          There's big advantages to painting after. It's just more efficient and you're not redoing anything.

          Maybe if you're doing one piece. But a whole room/floor/house? You prime it, cut it, install it, paint in place.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >t.painted houses to pay for college
            Great, another house painter who thinks that's some title of accomplishment that conveys authority. LOL
            literally no reason for or advantage to painting it after installation
            >If you're installing trim correctly, you're filling nail holes after, and sanding. I guess you don't bother filling corners and painting them so it's solid, then?
            No, teenage part timer house painter, nothing I said suggests that at all. But if you'd ever been a real painter you'd know that you don't need to sand most *nail holes* if you learn how to fill them properly, and even of you do, so fricking what? If you have no technique and slop filler around, you'd need to sand them either way.

            >We used to prime before installing, fill, sand, then final coat. Why frick up a finished surface and have to go back and repaint to cover nail holes?
            Because painting molding flat without needing to worry about walls and jambs and floors and ceilings arround it, cutting in two coats without getting paint on any of them, brushing out grooves to prevent runs, etc. with much of that work on a ladder or bent over or on your knees is a massive time saver and gives a better paint job.

            >And, if you're cutting after painting...big dumb dumb. Tear outs are common.
            Possibly the most moronic take so far. If someone makes a cut with significant tearout and just slaps it up for the painter to fix he's a hack on multiple counts.
            Nearly every high end door and window manufacturer offers premium factory finishes that come with prefinished casings, and not just prehung units. Prefinished trim for doors, windows, floors is common as dirt and in the case of picture frame moldings is the standard.
            Tear outs may be common on jobs that hire hacks and kids to do the work, but it's simply not a reason to avoid the MANY benefits of prefinishing for real professionals.

            1/2

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              2/2

              >There's big advantages to painting after. It's just more efficient and you're not redoing anything.

              It's not more efficient, you have no clue what you're talking about.
              >Maybe if you're doing one piece. But a whole room/floor/house? You prime it, cut it, install it, paint in place.
              You have it exactly backwards, you can paint two even coats on a full house worth of door casings and base in a fraction of the time it takes to do it in place, and then simply touch up nail holes and corners after installation. Not only is that FAR faster and less risky, it also avoids damage and further touch ups from having to have wet moldings drying in high traffic areas in the middle of a moron filled jobsite or occupied home where a single drip of paint can damage expensive materials like carpets and fabric wall coverings or the client's wifes Dior blouse that she planted on the 100% wet casing paint before you had time to put a sign up.

              You don't even realize that your admission to pre- priming BTFOs your entire premise; if applying finishes in place was so superior and important then installing the molding raw and priming in place would be the best practice...but nobody does that, it's more work for no reason and *if* the installers are such apes that they damage the primer later with tearouts and other damage you just spot prime it, you don't have to re- prime the entire piece.

              t. finish carpenter *and* painter (and not just houses, either) with decades of experience building/finishing/installing high end door and windows and trim in custom homes and luxury remodels, much of it clear finished stain grade hardwoods where covering up mistakes with paint wasn't an option.

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    With no experience you're better off paying someone competent to rip all that shit off including the baseboards and doing it again. Not impossible but 100+ nice fitted coped cuts for a noob wouldn't work, and having a pro do it properly would be something you can look at everyday and appreciate. If I saw that shit on my walls it'd Rustle my jimmies big time

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Who the frick is coping inside corners on builder’s grade casing? Jose and Jesus are going to throw a couple miters together and keep going

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >Who the frick is coping inside corners on builder’s grade casing?

        What "inside corners"?

        Who the frick is coping casing, period?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          How it's supposed to be done.

          You never noticed how mitered joints always look like shit?

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >How it's supposed to be done.

            t. straight up moron

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >mitering and coping inside corners

            Why yes, I do use a butt joint for all inside corners, how could you tell?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          My trim guy works for several builders and does a spectacular job and even he told me no one cope’s anymore.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            in trim carpentry terms, inside/ outside corners refer to joints made where the plane of the surface that back of the molding sits on changes directions...where adjacent walls meet, where a pilaster or cabinet juts out, etc.
            Since door casings sit flat on one wall there are no "inside corners" to deal with. Same with picture frames. Where casings use corner and plinth blocks, they stand proud of the molding and its all butt joints, same with craftsman style door and window interior trim.
            Coping still has its place where inside corners aren't a perfect 90° and you need to join baseboard or crown or chair or picture rail cleanly ( like stain grade work)...but it's more of a fix for imperfect or oddball angles than some superior method when it comes to architectural moldings, and has never been used for door and window casings of the type OP's pic shows.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Grind it out, fill it with something, sand it flat, paint it.....

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    All that trim and caulking looks like crap.

    The seam in the trim can be bondo filled and sanded smooth if you don't want to go through the hoops of tearing it down and redoing. All the unwanted texture, bad joints, and cracking plaster gives me a headache. Since you don't own, I'd still recommend just working it with a sanding block, filling, caulking, and painting.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >All that trim and caulking looks like crap.
      Agreed. Its why I'm wanting to redo it myself and hopefully make it look nice. I'm also thinking slapping putty on 23 pairs of casing, sanding to a custom contour, then painting will also look like crap. And I do own, is english your second language?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Bondo isn't putty you stupid homosexual. Your ugly shit sucks and you're so moronic you have to come to a forum for help cutting and nailing moulding. good luck trimming a digit or two.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous
  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I did all the baseboards in my last house with the handsaw miter. It wasn't the shitty box one though. It was picrel

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Go back to your garden you homo

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I'm going to pour salt on your plants

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Can I just buy one of those hand-saw miterboxes, or is it very strongly recommended I buy an actual chop saw that will likely go unused after this repair?
    23 doors is a lot, but using a miter box and a hand saw isn't really a big deal.
    Most of your time is going to be spent measuring and installing, not cutting. So yeah you're going to save some time, but not a lot, maybe like 30 seconds per cut.
    So you've got a project that's going to take a couple days, and you might save a total of 30 minutes by using a miter saw instead of a hand saw.
    A miter saw is going to be way easier, of course, and your arm won't get tired...
    But overall it's a matter of deciding how much you're willing to spend for a fairly small inconvenience.

    The BIG difference is going to be using a finish nailer.
    I've put up trim using a hammer and finish nails, and I've put up trim using a cordless nailer I rented from Home Depot.
    That cordless nailer is a game-changer and worth every penny.
    A miter saw wasn't worth it to me, I was fine using a miter box and quality hand saw.
    But using a cordless finish nailer made a HUGE difference compared to a hammer and nails.

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Lipstick on a pig plan. If that's the actual wall, it all needs to be replaces. It's not salvagable, and just as much effort to repair than it would be to replace it all.
    And, you won't get trim off without fricking up the wall. You just can't.
    Just rent a chop saw from Home Depot like everyone else. But uf you have 23 casings to repair, just buy one. If you can't afford one, you had no business buying a clapped out house like that. And this "found after the sale" bullshit - you bought it sight unseen over the internet, didn't you.
    Well, get to used to painting and doing carpentry, or looking at ghetto level casings with 20 coats of cheap paint on them.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Nah, I think I was kinda misled by the inspector and didn't think about it after losing a few houses I liked and rushed myself into buying instead of looking further. Inspector said "looks like poor repairs from pet damage to doors" then after closing my insurance came back pointing out it had a water loss 3 years prior. yay.

      And yeah, that was my original question, just buy a miter saw or save a few bucks on a handsaw and miter jig. Looks like miter saw is the route as outlined above for other projects around the house.

      >get to used to painting and doing carpentry, or looking at ghetto level casings with 20 coats of cheap paint on them.
      Open a window and let some smug out. Its why I'm asking how to fix it on PrepHole of all places; its carpentry and painting to avoid looking at a shit repair.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        If you were mislead by the inspector and owner you have a slamdunk lawsuit to make them pay for it, not you. Which is why I think you bought sight unseen, in a desperate race to own a house. Are you the one who was posting the worst crapshacks in Ohio?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          No, I got it 4 years ago thinking some door casing repair was the worst of it, it was sold by opendoor with shit covered up as cheaply as possible. Home inspectors aren't a warranty on houses, its just a fricking racket for banks to feel good about you paying for a house that doesn't need major repairs. And lawsuits aren't "slam dunk" or quick, I can try to sue for $5000 or just fix it myself. Don't' be a californian thinking every time life wrongs you its lawsuit payday time.

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Theres like 23 sets of door casings like this
    Your house has 23 doors? I don't think mine even has 10...

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      A "set" of door casings is two legs and one head, exterior doors only have casing on the interior side and not all interior doors have casings on both sides- closet and utility room door jambs are often left plain and caulked or just use a flat cover trim on the inside.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      A "set" of door casings is two legs and one head, exterior doors only have casing on the interior side and not all interior doors have casings on both sides- closet and utility room door jambs are often left plain and caulked or just use a flat cover trim on the inside.

      yeah 1 door typically has 2 sides of casings. And I misremembered kinda, its 34 vertical sections that should be replaced, add in a few more if the contour of the casing is different, plus horizontal pieces overhead. A rough number of doors would be roughly half that. Its a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house. Nothing special really but most people don't realize exactly how many doors or windows they have in their house.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >yeah 1 door typically has 2 sides of casings.
        Interior passage doors, yes.

        Reminds me of this jagoff contractor who bought from a door shop I worked at ...he'd always piss and moan that things weren't right when they were and he ordered wrong, or assumed something...
        He bought a bunch of interior prehungs and came back spitting mad because the casing was applied to one side, but the other set was bundled separately...
        He ranted and raved about how he was "cheated" becuase he ordered them with casing attached and had to pay some guy to install the second side after installation.
        He kept interrupting the person (the owner he'd demanded to speak to) trying to explain to him why they came that way and wouldn't STFU so the owner just asked him what he'd like done and he demanded that all interior prehungs he ordered after that have all casings applied to both sides before delivery.
        We gladly complied and laughed our asses off when he rescinded that order by phone moments after the next batch went out and someone went to install one.

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I have to go buy a bran nailer don't I? I got some finish nails and driving the first 2 cracked the new material casing...

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Or do I need to just go in at a steep angle?

      Brad nailer/finish nailer. I have a 1 gallon hot dog compressor, i'm sure it'd run a few nails

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        you could try pre-drilling the holes in your trim if you don't want to go buy a nailer

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          That sounds like it'd take way too much time. I'll just spend the $30 on a nailer. Off to hazardfraught I go.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            First casing done, and I might have enough to do another door (only bought 5-7' sticks as a test run). Not terribly hard; probably won't be winning any awards for my install but its better than the original post pic of a shitty repair.

            Is this normal for a crappy harbor frieght brad nailer, or is there a setting I'm overlooking for the hammer smashing a big notch into every nail strike?

            And as I was installing this "colonial" profile casing, I noticed its slightly different from every other piece of trim in the house. Should I go with a more contemporary 'flat' profile, or are profiled casings still in?

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              >Is this normal for a crappy harbor frieght brad nailer, or is there a setting I'm overlooking for the hammer smashing a big notch into every nail strike?

              You can probably dial the pressure to the gun back but if you go too light you have the opposite problem if hand setting the ones that don't go beneath the surface.
              That's a pretty huge nail set profile, looks like a stapler...but if thats what it does I'd just set it to avoid pushing the fasteners in so far there's no meat left to grab onto... it is what it is and filling the divot won't be appreciably more effort one way or another.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                not this anon
                if there isn't an adjustment on the nail gun itself, you could put a regulator inline and see how it functions

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Yeah, it says don't exceed 120psi and its a combo stapler and brad nail shooter. I have a little regulator on the air compressor itself, turned it down from 100 to about 75psi, probably will take a bit more messing with to reduce the punch. I think after the first half dozen strikes on the casing I kinda figured i'd be using some wood putty then painting anyway and ignored it. I'll try a lower pressure next time.

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    pic related and a sander

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