One of the most common problems in renovating a pre-1950 Portland home is trim. The original moulding profiles. The ogee casings, the back bands, the built-up crown details. Were milled to specifications that lumber yards stopped carrying in the 1970s and 1980s. When a section of original trim is damaged or missing, the options are: find a salvage yard that has matching stock, order a custom run from a millwork shop, or make it yourself. We do the last one.

Reading the original profile

The first step is measuring the existing trim accurately. We use a profile gauge. A tool with a row of steel pins that conform to the shape of the moulding. To capture the exact cross-section. That profile is then transferred to paper and used to grind a matching cutter for the shaper. For complex built-up profiles, we sometimes need two or three passes with different cutters to reproduce the full shape.

Species selection

Most pre-1940 Portland homes used clear vertical-grain fir for interior trim. It is dense, stable, and takes paint well. We source VG fir from a supplier in the Willamette Valley when it is available. For homes where the original trim is poplar or pine, we match the species. Using the wrong species under paint is not always visible, but it affects how the trim takes stain and how it holds up over time.

Milling and installation

Once the cutter is ground and the stock is selected, milling a typical run of casing takes one to two days in the woodshop. We mill slightly more than the measured quantity to account for waste and future repairs. The new trim is primed on all six faces before installation to reduce movement, then installed, caulked, and finish-painted. On a well-executed job, the new trim is indistinguishable from the original.

What this costs relative to off-the-shelf trim

Custom milled trim costs more than stock profiles from a lumber yard. The cutter grinding alone adds time and cost. For a typical casing replacement in a single room, the premium over stock trim is real but not prohibitive. For a whole-house project where the trim is a defining feature of the architecture, the cost of getting it right is a small fraction of the total renovation budget and a large fraction of the final result.

If you have a period home with damaged or missing trim, bring us a sample or a photo and we will tell you whether we can reproduce it. Most profiles we have seen, we can match. Notes from the woodshop are posted periodically on our news page.