Basement Trim and Doors Installed - A Partially Hired, Partially DIYd Job
After we got the ceiling and walls painted, the next step in our basement reno was to install the doors and trim. While we've been blessed by being able to take advantage of the handy carpentry work from my uncle for a lot of our reno, this was a pretty huge job so we decided to hire out the installation of the trim and doors. To save money, we did a lot of the prep and finish work ourselves, just hiring the installation.
Material Prep
In the flood clean out, we saved the original doors, even though all of the floor and door trim was pulled out. Ultimately we ended up deciding to replace those with pre-hung primed doors that made installation a little smoother. With that, we modernized the door style going from a 6 panel traditional door to a 2 panel door. We also purchased primed white trim for floors and door casings to make painting easier. For the door trim, we chose a molding style that matched
Painting the Trim Before Installation
Since we already painted the walls, we decided to pre-paint the trim before they installed it. This would allow us to paint faster, and simply do any touch-ups needed after. The trim was dropped off on a Thursday and they were coming to start installing that Monday, so we had to HAUL! We decided to paint them in the garage so we could spread everything out, paint as much as possible and let them dry overnight. Started by placing a few 2x4s to get the trim off the ground, then decided we better add drop cloths to catch drips.
Zach and I each got our own paint can (we're using what we have upstairs - Sherwin Williams White Flour Interior Enamel in Semigloss), brush and foam roller and we cranked out the first coat of everything Thursday night.
Using a brush to paint on the paint, and then rolling over that with the foam roller right away helps to pick up the brush marks and gives a nice smooth finish. Trying to achieve as close to a sprayed on look as possible, but without the mess of the spray.
Shockingly we were able to fit ALL the trim in the garage and get the first coat done in night one, and hit it with a second coat night two. That allowed us to let them sit over the whole weekend to properly dry and cure before installation.
Installing the Trim and Doors
After obtaining 5 quotes from different builders and carpenters, we hired Reese Builders to do the install work. Their carpenter was great - worked fast and clean. Brought his own "shop" to set up in the driveway for cutting things down to size.
He started by installing all doors - which he got done on day one. We had one door arrive in the wrong size, but it was luckily a closet door for the storeroom so we could keep the main project running on schedule. This was critical because I had lined up flooring to happen immediately following the trim installation.
After the doors themselves, he moved on to installing trim around the doors.
Then floor boards. He wrapped up the job by installing the hardware for us on the doors - which we could reuse from the original! We'll take any savings we can!!
Clean-up and Caulking
With the trim and doors installed, things were starting to look ALMOST finished. To finish the job before flooring goes in, we had to fill in and patch nail holes and caulk around all the edges to give the painted trim a truly finished look against the walls.
To patch and cancel the nail holes in the trim, Zach used this all purpose wood filler in white.
Very easy to use! Just rub it in and you're good to go.
While he worked on the nail holes, I worked on caulking all of the edges along the wall. This was quick and easy on the white walls where the caulk blended in great to the walls. On our black painted room, this was a little trickier and I had to follow the caulk line with a damp cloth to clean up any of the excess.
All Trimmed and Ready for Flooring!
After all the caulking, we wrapped up the trim work by touching up any areas that needed some obvious additional paint - which wasn't much at all.
It really started looking good at this point!
The white trim against the black walls is a fun pop in the workout room. We will be painting these doors eventually, but working on getting the space useable first.
Bathroom was trimmed too... but we realized we actually shouldn't have trimmed this out until we placed the vanity. So, we've got a little more to do here once the floor goes in.
Next up? Flooring! Let's go!
Need a trim fix? Here's what we used:
Pro Grade Paint Brush affiliate
4" Foam Paint Roller affiliate
12' Long Canvas Drop Cloth affiliate
Caulk Gun affiliate
Acrylic Latex Caulk with Silicone affiliate
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