How to deal with uneven walls and building up molding around entrance doorways?

[Rick Cicciarelli]

I am determined to finally have a finished look for my front and back doors. The problem that I am faced with is years of previous do-it-yourselfers who had an 'interesting' idea on the way things should be done. To give you a picture of what I am faced with: My walls were originally covered with 1/4" plywood...and then covered with 1/2" sheet rock. As a result, my walls are anything but flat and consistent. My front and back door have the same issues. The door frame is set into the wall and I need to build up some of the wood from the frame so that it is even to the surface of the surrounding walls so I can then finish up with some nice mitered molding around the doorway (ideally sitting flat on the walls as much as possible). The problem I am faced with is that the door frame is flat..but the surrounding walls vary in depth by about 1/2"...i.e. in some spots, I have 2" from the frame to the surface of the wall...while in other places I have only 1 1/2"...and it varies around the doorway. The only thing I can think of doing is cutting 2" strips to nail into place and then use a block plane to cut down the other areas so that everything is flush to the surrounding wall. Any other ideas?

[Joseph Tarantino]

i picture sure would be helpful.

[Josiah Bartlett]

When I do molding on my plaster walls in the two houses I've owned I run into similar issues. When I do wide molding, I relieve the back with a wide groove so that only the outer edges of the boards are supported by a 1/2" or so shoulder. Then I hold the trim board or molding up to the wall, scribe it with a pencil, and hog out the high areas with a block plane and/or belt sander. Make sure you only nail through the edge shoulders to avoid cracking the board.

Another trick I've used, if there is plenty of plaster or drywall thickness, is to mask off where the molding goes, then take an air powered board sander and level out the plaster, and then use a small amount of caulk to fill any gaps. This is very dusty, though.

Another option, if the wall is proud of the door frame, is to fir out the door frame with the same material glued and nailed and planed level to the wall and the side of the frame. You may need to get creative, but try to keep the lines of the extra wood at right angles to the sight lines so they aren't noticeable.

Historic molding, especially baseboards, are often made with a relief cut in back to help to make leveling it easier.