Rant: spent 4 hours fighting a crown rail that shoulda taken 20 mins

Got a job in Columbus last week, crown molding in an old house with bowed walls. Every piece I cut to my angle finder left a huge gap on one side. Tried shims, tried coping, nothing looked right. After 4 hours I finally grabbed a scrap piece and traced the wall profile with a contour gauge. That was the whole trick, now I gotta redo all the cuts I botched yesterday. Anyone else deal with walls that curve more than an inch over 8 feet?

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harper_gibson21mo ago

That contour gauge trick is a lifesaver, but it makes me wonder if you checked the actual ceiling line too, since old houses never have a straight reference anywhere. If the walls bow that bad, the ceiling joists are probably sagging just as much, and that changes everything about how your crown sits. Did you end up scribing the backs or cutting a compound angle to match the drop?

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