Rant: I almost gave up on scribing a tricky baseboard until I tried a trick with a compass and a scrap of cardboard.

After messing up the cut three times on a 100-year-old uneven wall in a Boston brownstone, I traced the wall's profile onto the cardboard with the compass, transferred that exact shape to the board, and it fit perfectly on the first try, so has anyone found a better way to handle those crazy old walls?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia6851mo ago

Nice! That's a legit old-school carpenter trick.

miles94614d ago

Wait hold on, you did that three times on a 100 year old wall in Boston and then got it perfect with cardboard? I'm honestly shocked you had the patience for that. Those old brownstone walls are basically held together with hope and plaster dust. I've seen them where the floor drops a full inch across a single wall. @patricia685 is right though, that compass trick is legit and way smarter than trying to laser level a surface that's been settling since the Civil War. Most people would have just filled the gap with caulk and called it a day, but you actually matched the profile. That's dedication.

blair_dixon1mo ago

Honestly that compass trick sounds like way more work than it's worth. A laser level and some creative caulking would have saved you an hour of messing with cardboard. Sometimes the old ways just overcomplicate a simple fix.