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Trim

What it's for

Counting sticks of trim for a list of rooms: baseboard and shoe, door and window casing, or crown. You walk away with pieces to buy in the stock length you choose, the linear feet behind that count, a corner cut count, and a material list. It is an order quantity, not a code check.

Step by step

The example is the screen as it opens: baseboard and shoe around one room with a 44' perimeter and four inside corners, bought in 12 ft sticks.

Trim inputs at their defaults: TRIM TYPE Baseboard (Casing and Crown beside it), PROFILE MEMBERS Baseboard 1x6 and Shoe 3/4 round, ROOMS with ROOM 1 and its trash button, PERIMETER 44' 0", OUTSIDE CORNERS 0 and INSIDE CORNERS 4 with steppers, ADD ROOM, STOCK LENGTH 12 ft and WASTE FACTOR 10%. The answer bar reads 5 pieces per member over 44.0 LF per member · 8 corner cuts. There is no PLAN SHOWS row, because it appears only once there are two rooms. RESULTS starts at the bottom edge with 44.0 LF per member · 8 corner cuts. 1 3 4 6 7
Pick the trim, measure each room, then choose the stick length.
  1. TRIM TYPE — Baseboard, Casing or Crown. The room inputs change with it. Leave it at Baseboard.
  2. PROFILE MEMBERS lists what that trim is built from. Baseboard has two members: Baseboard 1x6 and Shoe 3/4 round. Every member runs the same length, so every member gets the same count. The list is fixed — you read it, you do not edit it.
  3. PERIMETER — for Baseboard and Crown. Measure along each wall at the floor and add them up. 44' 0" here. Doorways are not taken out.
  4. OUTSIDE CORNERS and INSIDE CORNERS — for Baseboard and Crown. Count them in the room. 0 and 4 here. They set the corner cut count. They do not change the number of pieces.
  5. Tap Add Room for each further room. The trash can removes one.
  6. STOCK LENGTH — the sticks you will buy: 8, 10, 12, 14 or 16 ft. 12 ft here.
  7. WASTE FACTOR — the extra for miters and bad ends, in steps of 5%. It opens at 10%.
  8. Read RESULTS: 5 pieces per member, 44.0 LF per member, 8 corner cuts.
  9. Tap BASIS & WHAT WAS ASSUMED to see how casing and base are measured.
  10. Check the trim plan under the results.
  11. Read MATERIALS — Baseboard 1x6 — 12 ft stock, 5 pcs; Shoe 3/4 round — 12 ft stock, 5 pcs. Each row carries its stock length after the dash. Then save or share the job.
The end of the Trim results, with 5 pieces per member in the answer bar under the TRIM title: Room 1 — 5 pcs · 8 corner cuts at the top edge, then the BASIS & WHAT WAS ASSUMED row and the link Check before you cut · Measure twice. Below is the TRIM PLAN: a room outline with its corners marked, a 12' 0" bay dimensioned 1 @ 12' 0", a 2 COPE, 1 BUTT corner detail and the notes ROOM 1 · PERIM 44' 0"; RUN = 3 × 12' 0" + 8' 0"; BUY 5 PCS/MEMBER @ 12' 0" +10% · 44.0 LF EA; BASEBOARD 1X6 + SHOE 3/4 ROUND · 2 MEMBERS = 10 PCS; 4 IN ▲ 0 OUT △ × 2 = 8 CUTS · DOORWAYS NOT DEDUCTED; 2 CUTS A CORNER: COPE + BUTT IN, 2 MITERS OUT; SCHEMATIC — PERIMETER ONLY, NOT ROOM SHAPE, over the title strip TRIM PLAN, BASEBOARD · 5 PCS, NOT TO SCALE. MATERIALS: Baseboard 1x6 — 12 ft stock 5 pcs and Shoe 3/4 round — 12 ft stock 5 pcs, above a dimmed SHARE PDF with a list icon at its right end, beside a lit SAVE. 8 9 10 11
The basis row, the trim plan and the order.

Casing

With TRIM TYPE on Casing the room block asks about openings instead of the perimeter. DOORS is how many doors the room has and DOOR WIDTH is the width of one. WINDOWS is how many windows, and WINDOW WIDTH and WINDOW HEIGHT are the size of one. Measure the opening you are casing. If the doors or windows in a room are different sizes, split them across two rooms so each block holds one size. A door is cased up both legs and across the head. A window is cased on all four sides. CASING WIDTH is the face width of the casing, 3-1/2" for a 1x4. Every piece is cut longer than its opening: each mitred end adds the casing width plus a 1/4" reveal, so a 3' × 4' window takes two 4' 7-1/2" sides and two 3' 7-1/2" heads. The sticks are fitted from that cut list, so four of those windows on 8 ft stock take 12 sticks, not the 10 their footage suggests: a side and a head will not come out of one 8 ft stick. Those 12 hold no spare, so the drawing's buy line reads BUY 12 PCS/MEMBER @ 8' 0" NO SPARE rather than claiming the waste factor; add a stick or two for a bad cut. Casing has no corner steppers: every corner of every opening is mitred, two corners a door and four a window, so 2 doors and 3 windows take 32 miter cuts.

Reading the results

The headline is sticks per member. With two members, as in the example, you buy that many of each — the drawing note reads 2 MEMBERS = 10 PCS. It also shows in a strip under the title whenever the results card is scrolled off screen.

LF per member is the measured run before waste. Waste is added when the run is turned into sticks — the drawing note reads BUY 5 PCS/MEMBER @ 12' 0" +10%.

Corner cuts is two cuts at every corner, one on each piece that meets there, for all rooms: a cope and a butt at an inside corner, two miters at an outside corner, the same for base and crown. Four inside corners make 8. The drawing note says it: 2 CUTS A CORNER: COPE + BUTT IN, 2 MITERS OUT. For casing it is two miters at each corner of each opening.

The member and room lines give each member's pieces and footage, then each room's pieces and corner cuts.

BASIS & WHAT WAS ASSUMED opens one line. For casing it says the pieces are picture-framed and mitred with a 1/4" reveal, the legs are cut for a 6' 8" door (add about 2.7 LF per door for 8 ft doors), and the sticks come from the cut list, never fewer than the footage plus waste. Casing is counted per room side, so a door shared by two rooms should be counted in both. For base and crown it says the run is the full perimeter plus waste, counted by footage, which leaves you a little over. A second line says what corner cuts count, and a third that finish nails, wood glue for the miters, caulk and filler are not counted: buy them with the trim.

The drawing is a trim plan for one room, the one PLAN SHOWS picks once there are two rooms or more (room 1 otherwise): how the run breaks into sticks (RUN = 3 × 12' 0" + 8' 0"), the corners marked, and a detail of a coped inside corner. Where the joints land is yours to choose: the plan is a schematic, so it does not tell you to scarf mid-wall. The line SCHEMATIC — PERIMETER ONLY, NOT ROOM SHAPE prints in the quiet note ink with the rest of them: the screen only knows the perimeter, so the rectangle is not your room. Pinch to zoom, or tap the expand button at the top right to open it full screen. See Reading the drawing.

SHARE PDF sends a sheet with the drawing, your inputs and the material list. The list icon at its right end sends the material list alone. SAVE puts the job in History. SHARE PDF and the list icon in it stay dim until you change at least one input. SAVE stays lit, but while every input is still a default a tap only answers Enter your job's numbers first and saves nothing.

Trim is a Pro calculator, and sharing a PDF and saving to History are part of Pro too. This help is free. See Free and Pro.

Common mistakes