Trim & Moulding near you

Each piece of trim has a job, and its profile, the shape you see at the end of a piece, sets the style. Plain, square-edged profiles suit modern rooms, while stepped, curved and layered profiles suit traditional ones. Keeping profiles consistent from room to room matters more than any single choice.

The material decides how trim looks under paint or stain, how it stands up to knocks and how it reacts to moisture. Many homes mix materials, using one product in the living areas and another in rooms that get wet.

A finish carpenter starts by reading the room, not by cutting. Walls bow, corners are rarely square and floors dip, and trim has to follow all of it without looking forced. The work then follows a familiar sequence.

In a Canadian house, dry heated air in winter and humid summers make wood trim and the framing behind it shrink and swell. Mitred corners and the butt joints along long runs are where that shows first, as thin gaps that open when the heat comes on and may close again in summer.

Installers limit the problem by letting trim sit in the house for a while so it adjusts to indoor conditions, coping inside corners, gluing mitres and fastening into solid framing rather than just drywall. A flexible caulk handles the small movement that remains. If joints open wide every winter, the house may simply be very dry, which is worth checking with a hygrometer.

Original trim is often wider, thicker and more detailed than what stores stock today, and a single damaged length replaced with a modern profile stands out at once. Before anything comes off the wall, ask whether it can be repaired in place: gouges filled, a new section spliced in or loose pieces refastened.

When new pieces are needed, there are several routes: a stock profile that comes close, a built-up profile assembled from several simple mouldings, a custom profile reproduced by a millwork shop, or trim salvaged from a closet or a less visible room. Keep any piece you remove as a sample, since a profile is far easier to copy from the real thing than from a photo. In a home with a heritage status, check what approvals apply before original woodwork is removed; the plaster repair page covers the Quebec rule for classified buildings.

Trim takes more wear than walls, so it is usually painted in a harder, more washable finish such as satin or semi-gloss, which wipes clean easily but shows flaws more readily. New trim is best primed on every face before installation, especially MDF and anything going into a damp room, then finished in place once it has been filled and caulked.

Existing trim needs cleaning and a light scuff, and trim finished in oil-based paint needs a bonding primer before water-based paint will stick. The interior painting page explains how to tell which kind of paint is on your trim and how a painter sequences walls, trim and doors. Stained wood trim is a different job: filler has to match the wood, and the finish is a clear coat rather than paint.

Trim is where old paint piles up. Baseboards, casings and window trim were repainted over and over, and in older homes the bottom layers may contain lead. Health Canada says a home built before 1960 probably contains lead-based paint and warns against using sanders, heat guns or blowlamps to remove it, because they create toxic dust and fumes containing lead.

Pulling off old trim also cracks the paint film where it meets the wall, and windows and doors that rub grind painted surfaces into fine dust. Have the paint tested before anyone sands, scrapes, strips or removes trim in an older home, and ask the contractor how chips and dust will be contained and cleaned up if lead is found.