Home renovations can be
tedious, time consuming and expensive. By the time you purchase all
the necessary tools, and materials to complete your job the mountain
of work ahead can be quite daunting. If you have worked hard on fixing
up your home then having it look as professional as possible is a must,
and the finishing touches are as important as every other part of the
project. When selecting materials to finish a room it is important to
choose products that are easy to use (if you are a first time/amateur
renovator), that look nice and really showcase all the trouble you went
to. Mouldings are one such detail that can make or break a project you
have undertaken, and two choices available are easy crown mouldings,
and plastic injection mouldings.
Easy Crown Mouldings:
simple to use, but do they look professional?
So you have done the drywall, plastered, painted and are ready
for the finishing accents to really bring the project to a close. Easy
crown mouldings; the name suggests the level of usability required to
install. With Easy crown mouldings there is no need for mitre saws or
finishing nails to properly measure and affix your crown mouldings to
the upper portion of your wall. To properly trim this specific type
of moulding you simply require the knowledge of: how to use a pair of
scissors. This removes the hassle of complicated angle measurements
to properly line up corners. Sounds simple enough; however, how do they
measure up to the old fashioned way of using tools and angle measurements?
According to some renovations
experts; though, they are easy to use they leave you in the lurch
quality wise. Because the trimming is done with scissors accuracy on
trimming is always an issue, and rarely do seams meet properly (it is
said that seams in easy crown mouldings can be taped over though). Is
this how you want to finish a project that you have sweated hours over?
With Easy Crown Mouldings there are also issues of installation on the
wall. Yes they are easy to use for all levels of expertise. To stick
these mouldings to the wall, you must simply remove the layer of tape
on the back (revealing a layer of tacky adhesive) and firmly press into
place in the desired location. How reliable is the adhesive? Well on
the aforementioned website where tests have been performed… after
very little time the glue gave out and the Easy Crown Mouldings fell
down to the floor which brings up 2 new problems: how do you firmly
re-attach them to the wall? And how to repair the tears in the paint
left behind after the adhesive has torn it off the wall.
Obviously like other products
you get what you pay for, and cheap and fast generally results in hassles,
and more work. There are others that state that these so called “Easy
Crown Mouldings” are not as easy to install as the name states.
Plastic injection
mouldings: more complicated, and more expensive
Plastic injection mouldings are probably the exact opposite of the Easy
Crown Moulding. The creation of Plastic injection mouldings is not one
for an amateur home renovator unless they specifically want to learn
how to make them as the process is time consuming and tedious. Simple
table top machines and moulds can be made to form your mouldings; however,
the necessary tools list is far more expensive than that of ordinary
wooden mouldings. Welders and drill presses are two of the said required
machines to create your own, not to mention the plastic pellets which
must be purchased to melt and form your mouldings.
For
those who aren’t interested in learning
the process behind making your own plastic
injection mouldings, using this type of finishing
product is not realistic as tracking them
down through your local home renovations store
will be quite complicated. If you are dead
set on using them tracking them down can be
daunting.
Written
by John Mann
John Mann is an experienced
home renovator and webmaster. Visit
his website Workbench
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