Caulking spindles

[Notch7]

Yes, it’s the mitres that are cracking on mine. I even said to the joiner to use glue, but they didn’t - could I squeeze some in now?

Mitres joints will nearly always crack a bit no matter what is done.

timber mostly shrinks when fitted into a centrally heated house and as timber shrinks in the width the mitre joints will open up.

 

[HouseFixer]

Mitres joints will nearly always crack a bit no matter what is done.

timber mostly shrinks when fitted into a centrally heated house and as timber shrinks in the width the mitre joints will open up.

Sounds logical, but the upstairs ones (3 doors and done 5 years ago) have never cracked. They were glued and I think I used 2 part. Also used bedec water based satinwood this time instead of Dulux water based - which should be better by all accounts - so there’s lots of differences to choose from. We’ve used mdf throughout, so shrinkage shouldn’t be such an issue I’d have thought.

 

[opps]

Yes, it’s the mitres that are cracking on mine. I even said to the joiner to use glue, but they didn’t - could I squeeze some in now?

I had a big space like that on a couple of my architraves, and ended up using a foam noodle filler that was pushed into the gap then caulked in place with Dunlop acrylic - that all seems to be holding well. Guess you can’t do that unless you remove the whole lot now though.

If the mitres are pretty tight, it will be difficult to get sufficient glue in.

You might be able to knife the gap slightly and force some polyurethane glue in. It expands as it cures- meaning that you will need to sand away the excess.

Alternatively, use a 0.5mm drill bit and drive in a nail from the top of the mitre downwards.