Adventures in Renovation

What a huge pain in the ass. I spent 12 hours last Sunday trying to put up some baseboard before the floors guys came the next day and it felt like I barely got anything done. I wanted to at least get the electrical behind the baseboards around the outside brick wall because then it would be all ready for my electrician to come in and finish up. But man, what a pain it was.

When I first started demolition on this house I found these blocks of wood embedded between the brick that confused me. Initially I though they were structural but then Greg told me they were there so you have something to nail your baseboards to. How convenient! So I spent a lot of time knocking out plaster along the walls trying to find these hidden wood blocks. But nailing into them wasn't as easy as it seemed. I couldn't use Bryan's finish nailer because those nails were too short. And when I manually pounded in some 8d finish nails, the board would move around and wouldn't really set very firmly. Somehow those blocks of wood were shifting in the wall.

A lot of the old baseboards I pulled off, were nailed partially into the floor. But I couldn't' do that because I'd run the risk of nailing into the wiring running behind. So I tried a bunch of things. I tried framing nails but they were messy and not any more effective. I tried screws but they left a big hole in the trim and those would totally mess with the next person who tried to take them off. I can see it now. "What the hell? Who the @#$%! screwed the baseboards to the wall?!" I even tried nailing the baseboard straight into the brick with fluted masonry nails. I was crazy and desperate at this point because I had gotten down to pieces where there weren't any wood blocks in the wall to attach to at all.

Finally Bryan suggested the winning strategy: attached new pieces of wood to the brick for the baseboard to attach. After I chiseled holes in the plaster, I cut squares of 3/8" OSB plywood and hammered them into the brick with the fluted nails. Then I had a much stabler surface that was close enough I could use the finish nailer to aattach the baseboard. It was time consuming, but effective.

The good news is that the baseboard looks great. I wasn't sure about the style and went around in circles trying to decide on this trim, but I ended up going with what approximated my old trim. The finishing touches really bring it together. Next time tho, I'm going to use some Tapcon screws because the fluted nails had a tendency to break the brick out pop out because of all the beating it took to drive them in.