How do you handle some things in prebuilt houses?

[miniaddicted]

My Chateau was pre-built and there are a few challenges that I see. How do you generally handle them?

1. Inside the dormers, the surfaces don't all meet flush. I want to say that the interior opening is narrower than the interior of the dormer if that makes sense. If I stick my fingers in, and feel around the lip of the interior opening, there is a small space before you feel the interior wall of the dormer. Do you simply leave it, sand and paint and leave it? I don't know how I could attempt to plane/cut/sand all that thickness while the dormers are attached. 
   
    
2. The floors are all removable and sit on the crown molding for the room below. All the interior is still unfinished, and I want to prime, and then electrify, etc but don't know how to deal with these crown moldings. I think Lawbre glued them in, not the previous owner. I'm afraid that my attempts to remove them will end up splitting/chipping them. I may have to try a hairdryer to see if I can heat them up to loosen the glue. I guess, I would remove them all, and prime, then mark where the floors go, then tapewire, then...? I have to really think this whole thing out I guess.
   
   

Edited September 26, 2017 by miniaddicted
added pic

[havanaholly]

When I rehab a house I disassemble as much of it as possible and rebuild it the way it tells me it wants to look.

[Sable]

3 hours ago, miniaddicted said:

My Chateau was pre-built and there are a few challenges that I see. How do you generally handle them?

1. Inside the dormers, the surfaces don't all meet flush. I want to say that the interior opening is narrower than the interior of the dormer if that makes sense. If I stick my fingers in, and feel around the lip of the interior opening, there is a small space before you feel the interior wall of the dormer. Do you simply leave it, sand and paint and leave it? I don't know how I could attempt to plane/cut/sand all that thickness while the dormers are attached. 
   
    
2. The floors are all removable and sit on the crown molding for the room below. All the interior is still unfinished, and I want to prime, and then electrify, etc but don't know how to deal with these crown moldings. I think Lawbre glued them in, not the previous owner. I'm afraid that my attempts to remove them will end up splitting/chipping them. I may have to try a hairdryer to see if I can heat them up to loosen the glue. I guess, I would remove them all, and prime, then mark where the floors go, then tapewire, then...? I have to really think this whole thing out I guess.
   
   

Referring to #2.  If the floor is removable can you run the tapewire up the front of the house to the second floor and therefore bypass the crown on the sides?  I had this problem with my Walmer except the crown was more of a built in block (not removable) and it was on the front also. I had to build up the walls with 1/8" plywood to be even with the crown, then I recrowned over it. But I also had to cut window openings into the new plywood and expand the window's depth. It was a lot of extra work.

#1-Drywall compound 

[jbnmini]

I am with Holly-  I disassemble whenever possible.  As for #1 and the dormers....dang, maybe just bust out the heat gun and pry those puppies off and put them back together properly.  However, if that is not an option go the spackle/drywall compound route or just add some moulding around the opening.

#2: I've also totally removed the floor in a recent rehab. You are in luck- the supporting crown moulding is only on the sides....so tapewire could be run up/down thru the back wall.  The easiest thing would be to use a heat gun to try and remove the floor and then cut out narrow notches in the floor edge where the tape wire will go.  I've done it with the floor still in place, using my Dremel with an angled attachment. It worked, but I thought it would have been easier and cleaner had the floor been removed!

[fov]

What are you planning to do with the dormers - wallpaper them, paint them? I would be tempted to leave that lip alone. Will you even see it?

Here's how I did the trim on my Gull Bay dormers:

That's made from two pieces, one on the outside (ceiling) and one on the inside (where the dormer meets the ceiling). If you did something like that, the inside pieces of trim could be thicker to make up the gap.

For the crown molding, if you don't want to remove the crown, I'd run the tape up the front of the house that doesn't have crown. (You only need one piece of tape running up, right? Twist that piece so it ends up on the floor and then do a long piece on the floor that runs through the doors to get into each room.) But, if you leave the crown, do you have matching crown to add to the walls that don't have it? How will it meet at the corner? You might consider removing what's there so you can redo the whole room with crown that matches and has mitered corners.

[havanaholly]

You can also do blocks on the corners and have your crown molding abut the blocks, eliminating the need to miter them.

[miniaddicted]

On 9/27/2017, 11:01:08, fov said:

What are you planning to do with the dormers - wallpaper them, paint them? I would be tempted to leave that lip alone. Will you even see it?

Good question. I took another look at this in detail, and placed the window, and the cast arch frame I got for them. In really looking closely, the lip isn't that deep. So I think my plan is to sand all that, and then paint it basic white. Then place these again and see how it looks. If I feel like it still needs work, I will cut a triangular piece of cardstock and glue it on. 

I'm not sure about my decorations - if I will be papering the rooms or not...but I think I can work with this now - whichever way I go. 

Emily - looks like what you did worked for you - sort of like a frame on the inside of the dormer too. I may also add cardstock on the surface of the sides - covering the thickness of the wood. Or a very thin strip of wood.

As for the crown - I am leaning toward removing them. It just limits what I do - in terms of choosing a different style of crown, as well as papering easily. I took a closer look at this and its nailed in, probably also has glue. One strip is a little loose so I may work on heating it and prying it off. 

On 9/27/2017, 11:01:08, fov said:

But, if you leave the crown, do you have matching crown to add to the walls that don't have it?

Yes, I have extra crown that matches and came with the house to finish it. 

On 9/27/2017, 3:11:35, havanaholly said:

You can also do blocks on the corners and have your crown molding abut the blocks, eliminating the need to miter them

Good point Holly. I have sometimes considered that in my houses - maybe its something to consider here.

As for tapewire - that will be a moot point if I remove crowns. 

Thanks all - love the feedback!

[Sable]

25 minutes ago, miniaddicted said:

Good question. I took another look at this in detail, and placed the window, and the cast arch frame I got for them. In really looking closely, the lip isn't that deep. So I think my plan is to sand all that, and then paint it basic white. Then place these again and see how it looks. If I feel like it still needs work, I will cut a triangular piece of cardstock and glue it on. 

I'm not sure about my decorations - if I will be papering the rooms or not...but I think I can work with this now - whichever way I go. 

Emily - looks like what you did worked for you - sort of like a frame on the inside of the dormer too. I may also add cardstock on the surface of the sides - covering the thickness of the wood. Or a very thin strip of wood.

As for the crown - I am leaning toward removing them. It just limits what I do - in terms of choosing a different style of crown, as well as papering easily. I took a closer look at this and its nailed in, probably also has glue. One strip is a little loose so I may work on heating it and prying it off. 

Yes, I have extra crown that matches and came with the house to finish it. 

Good point Holly. I have sometimes considered that in my houses - maybe its something to consider here.

As for tapewire - that will be a moot point if I remove crowns. 

Thanks all - love the feedback!

Still confused...why do you need to remove the crowns if you run the tape wire up the front of the house? Front being where the windows are (some would call that the rear, so I'm just clarifying).

[miniaddicted]

52 minutes ago, Sable said:

Still confused...why do you need to remove the crowns if you run the tape wire up the front of the house?

I wasn't clear - you are right - i can run up the 'front' as you say. 

But I may remove them anyway so I can paper, etc and apply pre-finished painted crown. Just gives me more flexibility.