HawthorneVillager.com

I was visiting our lot today and ran into a contractor (Mould-Art, Decorate Crown moulding) putting in crown molding into our neighbor's house (lot 328). It was made out of Styrofoam with a plaster coating, and was pre-painted white.

He mentioned this is better than MDF for new homes, because the styrofoam moulding won't shift or need touch-ups when the house settles/shifts a bit in the first year.

He also mentioned the styrofoam/plaster coated moulding doesn't need to be nailed in.

The price was very similar to the MDF crown, and appearance wise I also wouldn't notice a difference.

Can anyone comment on this? Is Styrofoam or MDF better? Is there pros/cons either way?

Also on a side note, is it spelt "Crown Molding" or "Crown moulding". I always thought it's molding, but this company spells it "moulding" and I noticed a few other companies do as well.

Rick

In my opinion MDF is not even good for Fire Wood, but it is cheap and in production home building this is what gets used the most. I deal with trim/mouldings and doors in the custom home industry and 9 out of 10 builders use the plaster crown for the houses that are being built. The plaster is not affected my humidity so the corners will not split and crack. Also with plaster it is glued to the wall, not nailed. I have seen in the past houses were they used MDF and the crown is "wavy", what I mean by this is that MDF mouldings are very flimsy and hard to keep straight. From dealing with carpenters that trim the houses that I sell to, they hate using MDF as it is hard to cut a nice mitered corner as well. So to answer your questions, in my opinion Plaster is much better then MDF. The other option is to use a paint grade hard wood like American Poplar. This is what I sell to my builders. I am "thinking" about putting up some crown moulding in our house after we move in. I will be using a the Poplar hardwood.

Ken

Ken/NKMAC, but is the styrofoam normally part of the plaster molding? I.e. it's crown molding that mostly looks styrofoam except with the plaster on the outside of the molding. Is that how they actually do plaster crown molding? i.e. a styrofoam/plaster combination like that?

Rick

I have seen it done with both. The solid plaster is obviously the better option but is very very $$$$$$$$. The styrofom backing/filler is just a less expensive option, not to mention much lighter and easier to handle. In terms of staying "in place" I believe they would behave the same. Was the styrofoam embeded in a dark grey resin / glue with a smooth white finish on the profile of the moulding? That is the what I have seen.

Ken