Painting door / window trim - do I caulk first?

Question

We had new windows / slider installed and some new doors inside. I'm about to paint the trim. I caulked (paintable) the small gaps between pieces of wood, but am not sure what to do about the gap between the wood trim and the sheetrock. It is generally quite small - 1/8" or less.
Do I caulk this or let it be? How about the gap between the baseboard and the wall?

And do I caulk first THEN paint?

And there are 2 places where the gap is QUITE large. The gap between trim on the slider gets larger as it goes down. To 3/8". Do I caulk that?
There are a few other places where there are some large gaps. It's difficult to caulk something so large, wondering if I should stick some wood shims in there, so the caulk has something to go up against.

Thanks

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

caulking the gaps between the wood trim-sheetrock and baseboard-wall gives professional looking results you can caulk a 3/8" gap with no problem. most paintable caulks are ready in 20-60 minutes. you should have great looking results in no time.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks for the help.

Answer 2

caulk it all in before you paint. cut the tip larger for larger gaps or hit it a second time a day later.it will look much better all sealed.

Answer 3

Yes, caulk in stages (allowing each application to dry/cure before the next application)

Answer 4

Of course you do all caulking fist ,
Then ,After you caulk those small gaps
Which you have already done .
Don't use caulking for the big gaps, it takes tooooo long to dry (weeks) and it will shrink
I use this,, it will fill your 3/8 gap easy,,
Just go the home depot and get some.
don't listen to anyone else. this type of " light weight spackeling" is what you want.
It is GREAT !
Its called
PATCH AND PAINT

here is the one i use.
You will not be disappointed
just get the quart size
It goes a long way.

And stuff ! what those others have said
this is what you want.

You dont want to stick foam in the gap and then caulk .
That is for those that do not no what they are doing.
contractors included .

Plus it kiinda smells like vanilla ice cream

http://www.shop.com/patch+and+paint?g=1&…

Answer 5

I think the answer is yes to all your questions. lways caulk before you paint. And yes, adding shims will help the caulk fill in the large gaps.

good luck, it sounds like you already know what to do.

Answer 6

Hey, it what im hearing is what I think you need to put trim around the doors and windows. This is to hide the gap, look at any door or window in and building, it should have trim around it. If the door and windows are flush with the sheet rock just installed some 1'x 2' trim or what ever size you want. Just use trim nails and nail it to the wood of the door and window. As far as the base by the door, try to get trim that will go all the way to it to fill the gap. Best way is to use as wide a trim as possible so worst case you may have to pull of the base and trim it down, recaulk and paint. If you get the trim to small where it does'nt butt up to the base you will have a gap, you could caulk it or buy more base to extend over. So its better to cut the base with the wider trim. After you install the trim caulk it to the sheet rock, do all caulking first and fill any nail holes with wood putty. Let it all dry for a few hours at least. If its raw wood then put a primer on it, after it dries give it a light sand to make the finish smooth. Just real fast with some 100 grit sand paper will be fine. Then put two coats of finish paint, most doors and windows are semi-gloss. Don't use flat paint as a finish, it will absorb water, if you don't like a shin get satin or egg-shell.
As for if you ever need to caulk a larger gap there is material call "backer rod". Its round spongy tube shaped material comes in different sizes, you shove it in the crack the caulk over it to help hold the caulk and use less. You can get it at any construction supply or Home Depot or Lowe's. Hope this helped. Good luck!

Source(s):

Superintendent of General Contractor

Answer 7

get some latex mono caulking, it is very cheep and easy to work with. Just keep a wet cloth with you and wipe everyting up so you don't even see the caulking, just fill the gaps

Source(s):

I'm a renovater