Foam Is Where the Art Is

Gary Dymski | Home Work

October 23, 2003

Until recently, my only experience with architectural millwork had been with crown moldings. But after installing a ceiling medallion and a wall niche made from polyurethane foam, I'm hooked.

Created from resins that generate a chemical foaming action, polyurethane foam is pressed into factory molds to form all kinds of millwork that once seemed exclusive to wood - moldings, pediments, pilasters and spindle blocks, for example. The finished product is light, paintable, almost impossible to differentiate from painted wood, and resists rotting, splitting and peeling. Because of its weather- resistant properties, polyurethane millwork is excellent for outdoor applications, like door entrances and window trim. More and more, for the sense of style and elegance it provides, polyurethane millwork is being used indoors, as well.

In our home, we installed two pieces of millwork with superb results - a ceiling medallion in the formal dining room to help highlight a lighting fixture and a wall niche in an area that bridges our living room and downstairs hallway.

Installations are a snap; construction adhesive eliminates the need for nailing, and very little cutting of drywall or the millwork items was needed. My only real obstacle was a stud in the middle of the narrow wall where the niche was to rest. This wall, about 30 inches wide, didn't need the middle stud for support, so it was removed with a reciprocating saw. (More on this later.)

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Several companies make polyurethane foam millwork, including Fypon Molded Millwork, Focal Point, Style Solutions and Balmer Architectural Moldings. Company Web sites are chock full of photographs, installation instructions, product catalogs and design tips. Our wall niche, about 15 inches wide, was $335, and our 28-inch wide medallion was $114. Both were manufactured by Fypon, of Stewartstown, Pa.

The first step in installation is to prepaint the items. Our woodwork and door trim is a white semigloss, so we painted the niche and medallion to match. Most polyurethane millwork is prepainted a flat white, so no primer is needed.

For the medallion installation, we needed to cut out a center piece using a sabre saw so the light fixture could be attached and wired. To help with such a cutout, trace the outline of a round electrical box in the middle of the medallion. Drill a starter hole, then cut out the center piece with the sabre saw. Polyurethane millwork cuts and finishes almost exactly like wood, so you can sand any rough edges when you've finished cutting.

Depending on the size of your medallion, you might need to nail it into a stud. Our medallion was so light, we didn't need nails. Several beads of a quick-set construction adhesive were applied to the back of the medallion, and we held it in place for a minute or two. After that, it was stuck to the ceiling for good.

Wiring the new light also was simple (study the manufacturer's instructions, to be sure), with one exception. The medallion adds depth to the fixture box, so longer mounting screws (which attach the fixture to the electrical box) for the new fixture will be needed. Before you begin to wire and mount the new fixture - or even if you reinstall the old fixture - pick up a few different sizes of mounting screws. These screws are typically No. 8-32 machine screws of 2 1/2 inches or longer.

Finally, a thin bead of painter's caulk was applied to any gaps where the medallion edge meets the ceiling.

Installing the wall niche was a bit more labor intensive but still surprisingly easy. These niches are installed by cutting away a portion of the wall. Many are designed with a recess and a molding that overlaps the cutout area. The niche we selected had a concave area that was about 14 1/2 inches wide, which allows the unit to fit perfectly between two wall studs, 16 inches on center. (On center means the nails of the two 2-by-4 studs are exactly 16 inches apart when nailed to the center of the stud.)

The niche comes in two pieces - a top recessed portion and a bottom shelf. Like the top part, the shelf is designed to fit snugly between two wall studs.

In our case, we did not put the unit between two studs. Fitting the niche between any two studs would have placed the unit off-center. To fix the problem - because we definitely wanted the niche in the middle of this wall - we cut away the center portion of the stud, as well as the drywall. First, we cut away the drywall with a utility knife and wallboard saw. To get proper dimensions for the cutout, we placed the back of the niche against the wall, then traced lines with a pencil. Remember, the niche is light, but having a helper hold it in place makes tracing lines a snap.

Once the wallboard was out, the center portion of the stud was removed with a reciprocating saw. The niche was light enough to attach to surrounding wallboard using only construction adhesive.

We traced more lines in pencil on the wall to get the cutout for the shelf portion of the niche. Once the shelf was pushed into place, we needed very thin wood shims to keep the two pieces together. A small level was used to check the shelf for plumb and level. After trimming away a bit of drywall and making sure everything fit snugly, the unit was put back into the opening with beads of construction adhesive on the back edge of the overlapping molding. This is all we needed to secure both portions of the unit.

When the adhesive dried, we used a small brush to touch up any of the white paint marked during installation. Also, some spackling and painter's caulk was used to seal and hide all gaps.