Baseboards and Trim - How To Get Best Prices?

I'd like to redo the baseboards, door trim, and maybe add some window sills to my current drywall/bullnosed windows. 

I really like the "farmhouse" style of trim work. Easy. No need to miter. In my area its increasingly popular in high-end homes. 

Some friends of our in a brand new house down in Sedona have:

4" x 1/2" baseboards

2.5" x 3/4" door trim

Their trim is very smooth, glossy, with really hard edges. Almost like it's PVC.

Trouble is, when I try to find similar trim materials, they are ridiculously expensive. Like, $20-$30 for a 12' stick. Sometimes more. That just seems really expensive.

What's the secret to low cost interior trim and sourcing stuff with good prices? 

Our kid's babysitter who's husband is a contractor sourced his from a local hardwood supply, in alderwood, and he planned them himself. That seems like a lot of work, but she said they saved quite a bit over pre-finished stuff. 

Bump?

You can get a planer from HF that's pretty solid in my experience. It'll pay for itself pretty quickly - you can buy rough lumber and turn it into nice finished wood. Takes time, but that's the flip side of not spending money.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

You'd probably want a router & router table as well as the planer, right?  Seems like you wouldn't get the whole job done nicely without a router.

buy a sheet of 1/2" MDF.  Rip it into strips.  Attach.  Paint.

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

You'd probably want a router & router table as well as the planer, right?  Seems like you wouldn't get the whole job done nicely without a router.

Depends on what you want the profile of the boards to be. You can ease the top edge easily enough without a router, but if you want more complexity you'll want one. You can get away without the table but I'm a lot more comfortable with one for things like this. The two criteria in the original post were "easy and cheap", so to me that means no routed folderol :)

Another option to routing a profile would be to use some quarter round in a clever manner. Might go quite well with farmhouse style windows.

I want a simple cut edge. No routing necessary. 

MDF is probably the cheapest option, but labor intensive. Hardwood would take primer and paint more quickly, but require sanding and/or planing. 

There has to be a manufacturer out there that makes this stuff cheap and factory finished. I just can't seem to find it. 

Nope. Trim is expensive. 

You don't have to rip MDF. It's available in 1x6x16'

Still pricey

Dumb idea...

Habitat ReStore?  Drive around the neighborhood and look for a Bagster full of someone else's tearout?

I used to dumpster dive (with permission) at a local stereo install shop for good strips and scraps of MDF.  Good luck finding an actual stereo shop these days that builds custom boxes, though

My reason for suggesting MDF is that it is so smooth and takes paint so well.  I really like it for baseboards and trim.  Since you're going farmhouse, it's really as simple as smacking up some dimensional pieces and maybe some half-round.  I did a whole house in Van Nuys that way and it really made a crisp clean look.  Painted with an oil-based enamel.  Shiny, easy to clean, highly recommend.

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

You don't have to rip MDF. It's available in 1x6x16'

 

Still pricey

Yup.  It's all pricey right now.