Improve your home with crown molding

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - It is something that can really improve the look of your home, crown molding.

News 4 can show you how easy it can be to do it yourself.

If your looking to make your home or apartment look a lot nicer and not spend a lot, then crown molding is the way to go. It does require one piece of serious machinery. It's called a compound mitre saw. You can rent them at most hardware stores for about $20 to 30 a day. But before you use that saw, you should take the molding and measure it.

Home repair expert Tex Lincoln said, "Set it up on the ceiling a piece of it, measure the base and your top mark it where you want it to be."

Now you're ready to cut the 45 degree angles so the molding fits in the corners of each wall just right. Using the mitre just adjust the dial to the angle you desire. In this case, 45 degrees. Then your ready to cut.

When you're done cutting your molding, you should come away with two ends that fit together pretty snug. If you're thinking about adding some more decorative molding to your walls that can go about half way up a wall known as a chair molding you can use a mitre box. Like the electric mitre, the box also has different angles

Tex said, "You look on the box itself, they usually have them marked depending on the box and you can tell which is the 45 degree. All you do is set your saw down in and start sawing."

You should end up with two angles, shown in the picture. Now your ready to install your molding. All that takes is a handful of nails and a hammer. Line up your molding on the ceiling and hammer away. Always remember to tap the nails into the thicker part of the molding surface. This way, you won't crack the wood or whatever material the molding is made of.

The finished product shouldn't cost you more than $70 bucks to mold a room about 12 by 17 feet.