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Master carpenter's level trick saved my crown molding job last Tuesday
I was fighting with crown molding in a 1920s house in Portland and couldn't get the corners to close. Old timer Dave, who's been framing since the 70s, watched me cuss at it for a minute and said 'flip your level upside down and check the ceiling plane first.' He was right, the ceiling dropped almost half an inch across that room. I'd been squaring everything to the floor and the whole top line was off. Anyone else run into walls that aren't plumb even when they look fine?
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olivia_bailey10d ago
That bit about the ceiling dropping half an inch really hit home. Houses are never as true as they look, especially old ones. It's like that with everything, not just carpentry. We assume the floor is level and the walls are straight because they look that way, but time and settling mess all that up. Once you learn to check the actual plane, you start seeing all sorts of hidden slants and tweaks in the world. It makes you wonder what else we're assuming is square when it really isn't.
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