Baseboards over carpet

I'm finishing a guest room with new baseboards and doors. This room will have carpet installed so I'm installing the baseboards off the floor to allow clearance for the carpet to be tucked under. This provides a much nicer aesthetic, allowing the carpet to flow under the base.

To do this I've cut scrap trim at 7/16" on a table saw (exactly 7/16"!), then chop into 3 or so inch segments to use as spacers. I've read 3/8" seems to be the standard but no one says anything about the carpet thickness, so how can 3/8" work for all carpet? I opted for 7/16" since I will have a 1/2" pad and moderately thick carpet. You have to be careful that if your floor isn't even that you don't end up with 1/2" or higher gaps in areas or you would see gaps between the base and carpet. The base I'm using is 4.5" and doesn't like to bend much, although it will some, but my floors were mostly level so wasn't much on an issue.

I paint the base before installing so I don't have to cut in the paint along the wall. On sawhorses I sand and prime (oil base) the base. Then I paint one coat on the entire base and  second coat on just the top, where it meets the wall. After installing the base I just need to fill the nail holes, sand and spot paint. Then I paint one final coat on the entire base, except of course where it meets the wall. I really like this approach, with the only downside being that the base can have some slight gaps between the wall in places, but mostly it's tight and the perfect line (no paint spilling onto wall) makes it worth it, along with time savings in not having to cut in. For the next paint job it will get caulked to fill in any gaps and painted as typical. Also, for the corners and where it meets door trim, I can caulk to the wall but it's very subtle and again I think worth it

Oil first, then Latex

I've read varying accounts about whether oil can go over latex or latex over oil. The consensus is yes on latex over oil but maybe not oil over latex. Anyway, the point about this post is to never, ever, ever use a latex primer on bare wood since it has the tendency to raise the grain in the wood. Here's what you might get

Notice the diagonal ribbons on the door jamb. That area was completely smooth before painting but the water from the paint raised the grain. When this happens you kind of have a mess. You can sand it down but latex doesn't sand so great, especially before it cures. Then you'd have to use an oil primer and then it's safe to apply latex. This is pine and I'm sure some wood varieties don't have this issue as much. I've noticed alder to be fairly stable with latex. Cedar doesn't have a raised grain but does leak tannins through latex, so oil base is essential. Also, I've noticed not all pine has this issue and it depends on the cut of the wood, with the quartersawn/end grain being mostly resistant to swelling and lesser cuts (most of what you encounter in paint grade/finger joint) being problematic.

So, for me, always oil primer on bare woods, then latex. The oil effectively seals the wood so the water can't mess with the grain

Replace Your Brush

I wasn't paying much attention to my brush (purdy nylox soft sash 2 1/2") Here's the old and new side by side. Not surprisingly the new brush results in a much smoother finish. The brushes are also not expensive when taking into account the cost of a good quality paint $50/gal and your labor, so makes sense to replace before they get too worn. Same brush but they changed the design.

How Not to Get Rust Flakes in Your Paint

tldr; Use a rubber mallet, not a hammer, to close your paint cans. Don't allow paint to collect in the rim or it will rust and ruin your paint. Also its best to use a paint tool instead of screw driver to remove the lid so it does not deform. If this does happen then read on.

I started some trim paint work a few months back and recently when I opened the can I noticed rust all over the lid. I painted with it and sure enough there were rust flakes here and there on my trim. This sucks! I went to the local paint store and the salesguy looked at me like I'm just a biggest moron he's ever encountered. He wasn't able to articulate the why it happened but I figured it out. I was closing the paint lid with a hammer. This deforms the lid and when that happens you get air pockets where the lid meets the can. The ingredients for rust are #1 Steel, #2 water #3 air. Second mistake was to allow paint to collect in the top of the can where the lid goes.

So, to resolve this issues, with Ben. Moore paint at $50 a gallon I'm not interested in tossing it. I bought an empty can for $3, a mesh filter, and poured the paint from the rust can to the new can, through the filter. I'm not certain the mesh was fine enough to filter out the rust but we'll see. I'm only using this paint for the first coat so if it does still have rust then I can sand and remove before the final coat. The guy at the paint store mentioned that panty hose can also be used to do the same thing.

Gypped by Lumber Yard

I ordered about 700' of 1x4 for door casing. Like all lumber, the actual dimension is less than indicated, so a 2x4 is actually 1 1/2 x 3 1/2, and similarly a 1x4 should be 3/4" x 3 1/2". When I assembled my first header I realized it was off a bit, by an 1/16". I measured the thickness and it's just a hair over 5/8", not 3/4". It seems the lumber yards like to save money by giving you less wood, those cheats!!! It's not very noticeable and actually has the property of being a bit more flexible to conform to jamb/wall irregularities. Still I'm steamed that I asked specifically about the dimensions. I should have measured and rejected it on the truck. I found that the original casing is 1/32" off 3/4" so maybe you never get an exact 3/4" in the primed stuff.

Here you can see the difference of 1/16"

Searching for a decent primed 1x4

I thought it'd be no problem to find a primed 3/4" (actual thickness) in the Denver area, but perhaps not. Home Depot has them stocked and the first few I looked at were good but then most looked like they had been run over by a truck. I called several lumber yards and either they don't carry them, or they don't delivery, or they are about twice the cost. Sounds like I'm going to just pick them up a few at a time from Home Depot and hope they get more undamaged boards in over time.

Update: I couldn't find more than 5 decent boards at Home Depot. The primer is so thick on these boards it seems to get chipped easily. And I'm sure the get manhandled throughout the day. It's just not worth my time to drive to every home depot/lowes in the Denver area and handpicking the boards that aren't completely wrecked.

Installing Door Casing

Our 70s house has plenty of trim challenges with doors close to walls/electrical outlets and low ceilings. The first closet I started to trim was close to a wall and the wall is not even plumb, so I had to scribe the casing and cut it at an angle. That's one thing table saws don't do, so to do so built a very rudimentary taper jig. I tacked the 1x4 to another piece of 1x4, using a shim to get 3/16" offset. Then I can feed it into the saw with the other 1x4 riding along the fence. Oh and the 1x4 was crowned so I needed a second shim in the middle to straighten it out. Ideally I'll find a strip of plywood or mdf to use instead of the 1x4. I fed it through the table saw and it cut nearly perfectly. The boards were actually longer than necessary by a couple inches so I could cut off the nailed areas.

There are several doors in the house where the trim will need to sit flush against a wall, so I'll be doing more of these style of cuts. In those situations I'll bevel the board by 10 degrees or so to prevent any drywall anomalies in the corner (taping, compound etc) from pushing the piece out.

The 1x4s that I ordered are 16 feet in length. I paid $1.24/lf. Shortly after I got started I realized 1. I paid a premium for the longer boards and 2. I always end up cutting them at 82" so I could have simply bought 8' boards at home depot for less. The baseboard is different and for that I want 16' boards to minimize joints.