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wendyb_gw4

Do you have a seam in cabinet crown molding?

WendyB 5A/MA
10 years ago

I've been in my new house for 7 months and I just noticed TODAY a very awkward seam in my crown molding. It is at about the 10' mark with about 4-5' left to go. Does crown molding not come longer than 10' or is that the builder doing what's easiest and cheapest?

Now that I've seen it, my eye keeps going to it. The grain change is very noticeable! Could be that the line of the seam is a little more noticeable too with winter wood shrinkage in effect.

Comments (11)

  • mark_rachel
    10 years ago

    I have a seam in mine, but I really have to look for it. It took my husband about 5 minutes to finally find it. I was worried that it would look terrible, but it couldn't have turned out any better. What color are your cabinets?

  • live_wire_oak
    10 years ago

    10' is the limit on crown, and only from some companies. Many only do 8'. I try to limit runs to no longer than about 7' without having some sort of depth change to avoid that issue of a scarf seam. It adds more interest to have a varied upper depth as well.

  • annkh_nd
    10 years ago

    If it took you 7 months to notice, it must be very well done!

  • PRO
    Joseph Corlett, LLC
    10 years ago

    wendyb:

    It took you 7 months to notice and you're complaining?

    Those would be the first words out of my mouth if I got this callback.

  • Vertise
    10 years ago

    I don't spend a lot of time looking up or inspecting things either. However, I too noticed the seam on mine is open now due to the dry humidity and will be filling it. It was done with a straight cut so is very noticeable. I was told they don't miter cut them due to alignment problems and it being prefinished material. Dunno. But it is very obvious on light cabinets.

    Not surprising about the grain. Sometimes they don't even attempt to blend, which is annoying. Hard to say in your case without having seen the raw materials to work with.

    It's disheartening, but you'll move on ;) Can you focus on a pretty view when you walk in?

  • WendyB 5A/MA
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Oh, I'm not truly complaining-- just a little whine :-)

    I wouldn't call them on it. I was mostly just curious if this was normal or not. My last kitchen didn't have such a long run.

    I will be curious to see if it blends in better without all this dry heat and shrinkage, although now in this lighting I don't see the shrinkage line as much as I did earlier when it was bright light.

    The cabinet color is mid-tone nutmeg orangey. blech. I hate the color. Someday I will probably paint them, but it seems wrong to paint brand new cabinets.

  • WendyB 5A/MA
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    fwiw.

  • jakuvall
    10 years ago

    As LWO says- in semi custom 8 is norm, 10 max. It is possible to get up to 16 feet max- you pay for it-custom.
    Matching grain is harder than matching counter seams- with counters you at least have the option of getting sequenced slabs. Again that is possible with wood- sequence matched material is always pricier and really rare for moldingsd- but doable.
    OTOH I a not used to seeing straight cuts for scarf joints- always bevels. Sure sometimes material doesn't line up so another piece needs to be cut- those joints are cut first to minimize waste.
    Finally as LWO astutely suggests, design around the size to begin with.

  • PRO
    Joseph Corlett, LLC
    10 years ago

    "Sometimes they don't even attempt to blend, which is annoying."

    Stop and think about this for a second. You're a carpentry contractor. If you buy and cut enough material to have enough to have selection to make a blend, you will be underbid by a guy who's figured the material to the inch, seams and blending be damned.

    Homeowners want it both ways. They want the extra material needed to provide selection, but they want to pay the price of no selection. Read the potential customers here constantly looking for lower and lower prices in countertops and cabinets.

    A decent cabinet finisher could blend that crown in perfectly with a little glaze. Just don't ask the carpenter to pay for it, please.

  • WendyB 5A/MA
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Makes me wonder if the seam was better matched if I would have appreciated the match had I noticed it. Although if it was better matched, I probably would not have noticed so the craftsman would never get credit for doing the right thing.

    I remember a previous project when I specified and paid extra for a flush end on a cabinet. It didn't come in flush and I didn't notice til later and it was annoying. Now I notice that particular detail on all cabinets and judge the overall quality by the amount of end flushness.