Adhereing Baseboard Trim to Brick Wall

[Rich Riddle]

Any ideas on how to securely attach baseboard trim to a brick wall?

[Mark Bolton]

The only options Ive seen is drill for plastic anchors and trim heads but its messy and leaves all big holes to fill. Another method I read about a long time ago but have never seen is to bore a large hole in the brick with rotary hammer and bond a dowel in the hole. then shoot your nails into the dowel. That would be my preferred method if I had no way of putting a backer behind the trim.

If it were me I would try to come up with some option where you could attach a ledger to the brick and then wrap it making it look like the trim you want. For instance, attach a 1/2" or 3/8" ledger using tapcons, then apply a face trim of sorts over top of that with a cap molding or something. If you didnt mind a beefy base it could get relatively thick but would be possible to get it 3/4" if needed.

Is it paint grade? Natural finish? How much do you have to do?

[Jerry Miner]

trim-head screws and plastic anchors. Brick is pretty soft and easy to drill. (Use a masonry bit)

[Mark Bolton]

How bout something like this?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G05viMv8xr8/UVco51o2oHI/AAAAAAAABV0/AfKX5xgNa94/s1542/brick.jpg

If you are paint grade the exterior face could be MDF

[Jim Andrew]

PL premium would stick the base to the brick, but you would have to brace it so the base was tight several hours.

[Bernie LeBlanc]

Although Marks has a good solution, if your painting it and don't mind a possible slight variation in the thickness, I was thinking along with Jim - a good pl glue that comes in a tube like caulking. There are many brand names, but "Loc-Tite" comes to mind.

[Rich Riddle]

Although Marks has a good solution, if your painting it and don't mind a possible slight variation in the thickness, I was thinking along with Jim - a good pl glue that comes in a tube like caulking. There are many brand names, but "Loc-Tite" comes to mind.I have a tube of Loc-Tite heavy duty adhesive that I used to hold thin-bricks to cement board (that's what the manufacturer of the thin bricks recommended. Never thought it would bond to the wood. What does PL mean?

By the way, I don't have painted wood, just finished.

[Mark Bolton]

Im not completely disagreeing with the adhesive option, but unless there is a lot of tooth in the brick to key the adhesive to the brick I would be skeptical of it holding over the long haul. I have seen construction adhesives of all sorts fail more times than I can count, and against masonry is literally the first place it will always fail. Bonding to masonry is tough. I too have seen even manufactured stone bonded to a backer with such products. Its worth a try but its nothing I would ever want to be responsible to warranty.

Ive had good success with chemical and adhesive bonds with embedded fasteners using epoxy capsules or products like two part Red Head to bond a stud in a hole but I have never seen a surface bond of any kind last.

I dont have any first hand experience because I just don't even bother trying it.

[Jerry Miner]

PL means "Pro Line" --it's a brand name. PL (or any construction adhesive) will stick to both the wood and the brick, but holding it in place until the adhesive sets can be an issue. You could prop it with sticks or some clamping arrangement, but IMHO the best (and easiest) way is with a few screws. You can countersink and plug if you want, or fill the holes with a color-matched filler (like Color Putty) or wax fill sticks.

[johnny means]

I use strategically places blobs of hot glue along with what ever is the proper adhesive for spots where screws or nails are impractical. I run my normal bead of adhesive, leaving room for largish blobs of hot glue. Stick and hold in place long enough for the hot melt to take hold. I've used this technique on backsplashes, trim, sleepers, furring strips, wainscotting, etc... and never had a problem.

[Peter Quinn]

I've hit this situation in the past on mantle installs. I put in a 1/2" backer the full height of the trim, plywood, tapcons into the mortar joints, then nailed 1/2" base trim to that, used an 11/16 top cap to cover the seam, looks like a nice old 1X base mold with cap, never guess what's behind it.

[Sam Murdoch]

A 3/8 bead of PL construction adhesive - maybe PL400 - will hold it for ever but as other have said, you need to keep to the wall for 24 hours or better. Depending on how much baseboard you are talking about just placing something heavy in front with some wedges or shims in between should work fine. Lots of 3 or 5 gallon buckets of sand or drywall compound would do the trick. Brush and/or vacuum any loose dust off the bricks before you glue.

[Ed Edwards]

+1 for Johnny's method. It worked for me.

Ed

[Jim Andrew]

PL premium is a brand, a step up from the PL 400. It is common to use as adhesive for backsplashes. But the board has to be clamped in place. 40 years ago, I worked for a contractor who used PL to glue nailers to a concrete basement wall, used cut concrete nails to hold the nailer till the glue set. Then we pulled the nails out. The nails were hard to get in flush with the surface of the 2x2's and would hold the board tight if you just drove them in until they grabbed, and usually stuck out about 1/2".

[Bob Potter]

Hi.
I recently put new base board in our church foyer which was popular stained like cherry and oak in the sanctuary. Both were fastened with lock tight or something like that. I had to use cement blocks or something heavy to push again them to hold until it dried. In the sanctuary I was able to use 2x4's in between the pews and the walls and they all stuck to the walls. It just takes time and patience but it works.

Hope this helps, Bob

The walls were cement bock.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Any ideas on how to securely attach baseboard trim to a brick wall?As others have mentioned - PL or Loctite Power Grab or even Liquid Nails will work fine.

The real problem isn't getting the trim to stick - the real problem is doing corners.
That bead of adhesive looks tiny and innocent - until you hit a corner and suddenly realize you didn't take that small extra thickness into account when you measured.

Personally - I go with a backer (nailer or ledger or whatever you wish to call it) and stick a cap piece on top to hide the gap.

[Rich Riddle]

As others have mentioned - PL or Loctite Power Grab or even Liquid Nails will work fine.

The real problem isn't getting the trim to stick - the real problem is doing corners.
That bead of adhesive looks tiny and innocent - until you hit a corner and suddenly realize you didn't take that small extra thickness into account when you measured.

Personally - I go with a backer (nailer or ledger or whatever you wish to call it) and stick a cap piece on top to hide the gap.
The trim attaches to wood on which to nail at the ends of the baseboard. It just worked out that way. It would prove easy enough to cut the board to look like a capital letter L with the lower bar of the L facing up. That's what needed to be done when fabricating the sill/stool for two of the windows. Then I could attach into the backer piece that was screwed into the walls as you folks recommend. This is craftsman style trim, so it's square with one step-looking cut. You can see the end here:

258691

[Phil Thien]

Im not completely disagreeing with the adhesive option, but unless there is a lot of tooth in the brick to key the adhesive to the brick I would be skeptical of it holding over the long haul. I have seen construction adhesives of all sorts fail more times than I can count, and against masonry is literally the first place it will always fail. Bonding to masonry is tough. I too have seen even manufactured stone bonded to a backer with such products. Its worth a try but its nothing I would ever want to be responsible to warranty.


Cannot agree w/ this more. In fact, my entire basement shop renovation was the result of adhesive bonds between wood/brick/block failing.