[visim14]

Hello,

Background
I have a 1950's home with plaster walls and cast iron baseboard style radiators. When I purchased the home, above the radiators running along each wall was quarter round caked with 50 years of paint. The quarter round was removed to paint the walls and radiators but never replaced.

Where the wall meets the radiator the plaster is unfinished and rough with a wood nailing strip visible. I toyed with the idea of replacing with new trim but due to the caps on the ends of the radiators it doesn't sit flush and to me is messy looking, not to mention it will make repainting the radiators in the future more work. I have attached two photos to show how it looks.

My question
Based on the images and the info above, can the gap at the bottom where the nailing strip is just be plastered over and smoothed so the radiator just meets the wall with no trim? Or would this perhaps not work, not adhere, look awful, etc based on prior experience?

Thanks!

 

[mark sr]

IMO using a small molding would look best - maybe door stop, it looks a little wide for quarter round. Not sure you could get a nice looking long lasting job with plaster or durabond.

 

[visim14]

IMO using a small molding would look best - maybe door stop, it looks a little wide for quarter round. Not sure you could get a nice looking long lasting job with plaster or durabond.

Thanks for the recommendation. I did experiment with adding some molding a couple years back to one room and ran into some issues due to the two endcaps of the radiator being slightly higher, a gap below the molding as well as making it more difficult to correctly miter the corners.

What would you recommend for those gaps below the molding and radiator? I'd use caulk against the wall but not sure if that would be appropriate to fill a gap the entire length of the molding between the end caps.

 

[mark sr]

If the tops aren't removable I'd caulk the bottom of the molding to it. Scribing the molding to fit better is also an option.