I spent 6 hours scribing baseboard to an old stone foundation and everybody says to just use caulk

Worked on a 1920s house in rural New Hampshire last month. The stone foundation wall bowed out maybe 3/4 of an inch over an 8 foot run. Everyone I talked to said just run the baseboard straight and fill the gap with caulk or quarter round. I tried that on the first wall and it looked awful to me. Big crescent shaped gaps even after caulking. So I spent a whole day scribing each piece with a compass and cutting it to match the stone. Looked perfect in the end but took forever. Am I the only one who thinks scribing is worth the time on old houses or am I just being too picky?

2 comments

2 Comments

gibson.elizabeth1mo ago

Scribing is absolutely worth it on an old stone foundation like that... I had a similar situation in a farmhouse from the 1890s where the walls were wavy all over. Used a compass and a jigsaw with a fine blade, took about 45 minutes per board but the end result was seamless. No caulk, no quarter round, just wood fitting tight to the stone like it belonged there all along.

terry_thomas1mo ago

And thats exactly what I was getting at with my original post, gibson.elizabeth is totally right about the jigsaw with a fine blade making all the difference too. I learned the hard way that using a regular blade will chip the wood something awful on those old houses with the wavy stone. What really sold me on scribing was when I went back a year later to see how my first caulk job held up, and the gaps had opened back up because the house kept settling. Took me longer to do it right but now I can walk past those baseboards and not cringe every time I see where the light hits the gap wrong.