# Crown molding - uneven ceiling



## jelly (Oct 19, 2007)

Hi, Im putting crown molding for the first time and am realizing how much more challenging it can be.

In some spots in my dinning room I have a 1/2 gap in spots. I am sure this comes up all the time and hoped someone here could offer a tip. How should I go about tackling this job? 

1- seem the crown where the ceiling dips
2- seem the crown on the high spot
3- don't cut the crown and just fill with spackle

any other suggestions? 

thanks in advance...


----------



## Ron6519 (Mar 28, 2007)

You will leave the crown molding alone. You skim coat the ceiling and fill in the areas with the large gaps. Gaps of 1/8" or less will be caulked.
Ron


----------



## II Weeks (Jan 6, 2009)

> You will leave the crown molding alone. You skim coat the ceiling and fill in the areas with the large gaps. Gaps of 1/8" or less will be caulked.
> Ron


 +1

what Ron said


----------



## Five Star (Mar 19, 2009)

i would try to push on that spot and see if the drywall has room to go up..if so i would cut it out and patch that spot.(maybe there was a leak there at one time)

if not i would call a structural engineer thats too much deflection in a small area.could be serious.

trying to float that out with spackle could bring more attention to that area not to metion how much spackle you would need!

1/2" gaps you could shave the top of the crown profile a 1/4" to split the difference then caulk.


----------



## Willie T (Jan 29, 2009)

No, that sure doesn't come up all the time. You said you have even more of these kinds of wavy lofts? I think I'd be finding out what's going on up there in the attic.


----------



## KOHNSTRUCTION (Apr 23, 2009)

yeah i agree just leave the crown alone and work the ceiling. by the way that is probably plaster don't want to play with that too much you'll be putting aa new ceiling up there before you know it


----------



## mikehdow (Jan 4, 2010)

Hi all,

I have a similar problem, with the variation being 1.5". This is a 120yo place that, in my amateur eyes, appears to have had a lot of shoddy work done to it.

Most the the ceiling is within a 1/2" inch, but a one spot that runs about a foot dips down a total of 1.5" below the highest point.

I think skimming the skimming with plaster would be overkill - 1.5 additional inches in plaster.

I'm thinking of tacking (2) 1" trim to the ceiling, which would come out flush with the face of the top of the molding for most of it. Where the ceiling dips down, I'll reduce then remove the trim. Plaster or caulk the gaps, and paint.

It seems like I'm perpetuating the shoddy work, but just don't feel I'll have much luck without ripping down the ceiling and starting over (not an option).

Thanks in advance!
Mike


----------



## jelly (Oct 19, 2007)

Hi Mike,

Thanks for posting your question, I hope someone here has an answer for you.

I am going to take this opportunity for future reference how I solve my initial problem. I ended up using *finishing screws* to accommodate for the concave spots on my ceiling. This was much easier than skimming or sanding the trim/drywall. 

You obviously have a much bigger problem with 1.5 inch variance, I hope someone here can offer as additional suggestions.

Good Luck.


----------



## Augie Dog (Oct 22, 2009)

Check out this thread from Contractor Talk

http://www.contractortalk.com/f11/crown-molding-could-use-little-help-67466/


----------



## pyper (Jul 1, 2009)

I had about a 1/2" to 3/4" dip in my ceiling. I'm not up to the task of skim coating -- tried it on a wall and made a mess, so there's no way I'm messing with the new ceiling. Besides, it has popcorn.

Here's what I did:

I used a band sander to take about 1/8 inch off the top of the crown. I bent the crown slightly (about 1/8 inch). I still had about a quarter inch gap on either side of the dip, which I filled with caulk. If you try to make up 3/4 of an inch in a single method it will look really bad, but if you take a bit here and a bit there you can hide it from casual observation. Also, I could have bent the crown more to make it tighter to the ceiling, but I figured it would be better to allow the crown to remain straighter.

If you stand and stare at it you can see the dip, but the guy that came to install the cabinets didn't see it until he had his head at ceiling height.


----------

