1) Buy, rent or borrow a chop saw. When I trimmed out the basement after I installed the cork flooring last year, I cut all of the miters by hand. Don't do that. It was exhausting! I found my chop saw on Craigslist for the bargain price of $50, and it has been worth every penny!
2) One piece at a time! It is so easy to cut the angle the wrong way; you'll have to trust me on how I know this (one painful mistake after another!). I tried to do two at once, but I'd get downstairs and either get the piece confused or still, even after trying very hard, cut the piece on the wrong angle.
3) Mark Mark Mark. No, Mark wasn't here (I don't know him anyway!) but marking each piece is crucial. I would think I would remember which was I was cutting, but forget once I went down the steps. I would mark the direction of the cut as well as the piece that was being saved; XX marked the piece that was not being used.
4) If in doubt, cut a little long. Leave it a sliver on the long side, and take the time to slice it down if you need to. No matter how hard you try, you can't add back once you cut.
5) If your space is longer than your board, use an overlapping joint, not a butt joint.
6) What doesn't fit perfectly can be perfect after little wood filler or spackle. Really.
7) Draw pictures if you need to: what an inside miter looks like, and what an outside miter looks like.
8) On ends, I cut at a 25 degree angle to leave a nice end that isn't a blunt straight cut.
Words good; pictures are better, and pictures will be up....soon. Hopefully the floor will be done....SOON!
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