Tom Watson wrote:

I'm sure that you thought that you were doing the best job possible.

There are other possibilities.




Regards, Tom
Thomas J. Watson - Cabinetmaker
Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
http://users.snip.net/~tjwatson

Like I said in my reply, if you are on a job where you have the time
and money to purchase the equipment to plane each piece of trim applied
to match the mating surface that is fine and IT is a superior job to
caulking OR applying prepainted/stained trim without.
If you havent re-read the original post it was in regards to basement
remodels from and individual who just started doing them. It was shortly
followed by a post by the same individual about how to protect drywall
corners while carrying them to the basement.
Now I will concede that, in your consumate dillusion, this basement
_may_ be in a 3 millon dollar home but I hesitate to think its the case.
I am sure what we are talking about here is mating a piece of 3 1/2"
colonial casing or base, probably bought at home crapo or howes, to a
tape & joint finish. We are talking about the average home, the average
trim, the average installation, etc.. Now if all of you want to morph
this into something else go right ahead.
Of course the caulk changes the profile of the edge of the trim in
relation to the wall. Where there is a gap that profile becomes larger.
This is an issue that has to be dealt with in a real world manner in
average homes. Yes, in "high end work" to quote your own post we can go
to further measures to insure the integrety of these elements. Come back
into the real world and remedies have to be taken. In the average home
there is no time, money, nor capacity to "mate" these surfaces. We have
always said that the painters are the surgeons of a job and the carpet
layers get the credit for the whole house.
The painters come in and fix EVERYONES f-ups. Gaps, pourous plaster
that wasnt shaded, mix custom wood fillers, etc. They do their best to
make it all look good, at least the good ones do. The carpet layers,
flooring guys, come in and the homeowner now feels like they can move
their furniture in as they are not walking on plywood. The get an
immediate feeling that the house is finished, all to the work of some
carpet and even though there may be a month more of finish left.
If you are so far into it that you cant make these connections on your
own you need to schedule an appointment "on the couch" _or_ go back and
do a couple "non-high end" jobs to regain some perspective.

Mark