# Plinths, How High?



## downdraft (Mar 6, 2009)

I installed 6" & 3/4" mop-boards (baseboards) made of birch in the home I just finished building. I routed a Victorian style design along the top edges (dust catchers), and added quarter-round along the floor edges.

I plan on attaching _*plinths*_ to the bottom of each door frame (which is also birch and 3" 1/2" wide) where the baseboards meet the door frame. The plinths will also have a similar routed edge.

Question: 

Would it be appropriate from an _esthetics_ point of view to make the plinths taller than the baseboards, say about 1"1/2" to 2" taller? Orshould they be the same size as the baseboard? I want this to look professional, and not like it was done by an amatuer (even tho I'm slightly this side of the amatuer rating







). Nor do I want the plinths to compete with the baseboards.

THNX

Downdraft


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Plinths height.*

I assume you are referring to the decorative squares or rectangles at the base of the casings to which the baseboard mouldings abutt. If you make them the same height as the moldings even a slight difference in height will show.I'd make then slightly taller so a "mistake" won't look like one. I don't think I'd go more than 1/2" maybe 3/4" but more will look "too tall for the width of the door casing. My opinion, as is all the advice here, is free...yaaaa!:laughing: bill
question: are your baseboards a total of 6 3/4", it's not clear to me in your post. I know it's spoken that way but it's not written that way in my experience! bill


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Downdraft,
Here's a link for a site with a bunch of different pictures of plinth block installations. You should be able to get some ideas from it.
http://images.google.com/images?sou...&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

Mike Hawkins


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## Willie T (Feb 1, 2009)

Apply the Golden Ratio to them, and see how it looks.

This means multiply the width you decide upon by 1.618.

Or divide the height you want by the same number, 1.618.

EXAMPLE: If you choose a 4" width, the height would be about 6-15/32" to achieve an aesthetically pleasing balance.
***************************
That's a super simplified explanation; there's a ton more to it, but this will suffice for this kind of work. If you want to delve more deeply into the subject..........
TRY THIS PAGE.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Golden Ratio Application*

If the width is 3.5, then 3.5 x 1.618 = 5.663, which is less tall than the baseboards. Personally, I wouldn't do that. I'd want them a little taller, like I suggeasted earlier. Choice is yours however. Try a mockup. One taller by 1/2 " one equal, one shorter by 1/2" or so. Get the wife and family in to vote, yea or nay. For a tie breaker, if you have a male dog, measure how high he can leave his "mark" I'd go with that for sure!:thumbsup: Loyalty is worth a lot these days.:yes: bill
Firehawk's post had some great pix and quite a few were higher than the baseboard, I'd stick with the dog. A man needs a friend who doesn't have a computer!


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## creative novice (Jul 25, 2008)

*plinth heights....*

Aesthetically, in my opinion, i would do as woodnthings stated, .5 - .75" taller. I was taught that the eye should be able to flow through a room. So, if your eye were to follow the height of the baseboard....flow slightly up the plinth and then up the door frame. the idea is to flow....literally, envision and move your eyeballs as if they were looking at the horizontal base board, and then as if you had to stop your eye movement to follow the vertical versus with a slight increased height at the plinth your eye would glide up and over the plinth and (here is were the analogy falls short) then up the door frame. Jerky eye movement versus smooth eye movement! Are you adding any other details(corner blocks) to the door frames? again, a slight increase in width/height so the eye flows.....How big are the rooms in this house? 

I do agree that you should do a mock-up 

and then there is this other thing i suggest when trying to decide if what you are choosing is what you want (be it wallpaper, paint, brick, fabric, drape style).......STAND BACK, SQUINT YOUR EYES ALMOST CLOSED....IF WHAT YOU SEE THROUGH YOUR MOSTLY CLOSED EYES IS WHAT YOU WANT TO STAND OUT, THEN YOU WILL LIKE YOUR CHOICE. weird, but it has worked for me for alot of years on making choices!

whatever you decide....i am sure yo uwill do a good job! POST PICS !!!!


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Design School?*

Way back, before bricks and wallpaper I attended U of Illinois, and studied Industrial design. This is the same "trick" they taught us to be able to see "the big picture"... 
"and then there is this other thing i suggest when trying to decide if what you are choosing is what you want (be it wallpaper, paint, brick, fabric, drape style).......STAND BACK, SQUINT YOUR EYES ALMOST CLOSED....IF WHAT YOU SEE THROUGH YOUR MOSTLY CLOSED EYES IS WHAT YOU WANT TO STAND OUT, THEN YOU WILL LIKE YOUR CHOICE. weird, but it has worked for me for alot of years on making choices!" BTW, Julie did you go to Design School too? Or were you fortunate to be born smart?:laughing: bill


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## creative novice (Jul 25, 2008)

*thanx....*

....BTW, Julie did you go to Design School too? Or were you fortunate to be born smart? bill[/quote]



no, first born brother took most of the smarts and then used that to set the fate of his 3 little sisters by "allowing" them to play with his mercury......:yes: early-mid 60's....who knew kids' chemistry sets would have toxic chemicals in them!!!
i just have a creative side in me that needs to be let out alot, mainly due to job related stress and frustration and a creative side that i was the only one in the family to get ( 4th and last child got the leftovers, .....brother: brains, sisters: looks, me, the need to challenge self to get what i want!)


design school would've been a choice had i not fallen in luv at a too young age!
my schooling as far as this forum goes was:
watching my dad putter around in the garage (because the 3 older siblings found me to be hyper, talkative and a brat), but dad wasn't much of a repairman/carpenter....
"interior design class" in 10th grade
wood shop in 10th grade
marriage, motherhood, housewife and student by 11th grade
which lead to more of same, cert pharmacy tech for 14 years, + college tagged onto the end of that......psyc bs degree mixed with some nursing classes....

my husband didn't have alot of patience with repairs/building...
so as the years went by i started to attempt repairs and "building" on my own. i have a very clear (to me) taste and preference for what i like in decor etc. and i love figuring it out, trying it, accomplishing what i wanted in the style i like. i have high standards! and, while we have never been short on money, we also didn' t have alot of extra, so i would get in my mind what i wanted and then go for it!

where i came up with the "squint" idea, i don't know...i actually thought it was my idea, but have heard others use it lately too...doesn't matter, works for me!

women at work tease me and say i can do anything, (i can't) and often ask me if they can "fix" this or that and how would julie do it...and i tell them they can also do anything. i just have a knack for figuring it out and enough guts to go for it!. i guess by age 46 i should have some experience! 

can't do auto mechanics tho! 
have a great weekend...its slightly warm here ...50 or so. cloudy. BUT NO SNOW!!!!!!!


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## clampman (Oct 20, 2006)

I use to put them 1 1/4" higher than the adjacent baseboard cap when using 4" casing and base of 7 1/4" on the flat with another 1 3/4 or larger cap on top. 

All the plinths I used had profiles going vertically not horizontally.


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## skymaster (Oct 30, 2006)

based on Willie' golden rule should be 6.75 times 1.618. :} that wood mean a plinth block of 10.9215". INMHO I wood make a sample plus one inch see how it looks. If Rosette blocks are any indication they are usually plus .250 to .375 from trim size.


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## skymaster (Oct 30, 2006)

based on Willie' golden rule should be 6.75 times 1.618. :} that wood mean a plinth block of 10.9215". INMHO I wood make a sample plus one inch see how it looks. If Rosette blocks are any indication they are usually plus .250 to .375 from trim size.

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/526401.html

this should help, read all of it some good answers


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## Webster (Mar 6, 2009)

I agree with Clampman..... 1 1/4" or maybe 1 1/2" above the highest point. You want to see that they are there.....but at the same time, not too over powering.
Be sure to use 5/4 stock is the baseboards are 3/4".


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## garyger (Oct 23, 2008)

My baseboards total height is 7 1/2 inches with the plinth block at 9 inches long. The door casings is 3/4 thick , 4 1/4 wide and the plinth block is 1" thick , 4 3/16 wide with a small radius on the top edge. The baseboard is original to my house which is a 100 yrs old. If I had batteries in the camera I would take a pic for you.


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## Willie T (Feb 1, 2009)

skymaster said:


> based on Willie' golden rule should be 6.75 times 1.618. :} that wood mean a plinth block of 10.9215". INMHO I wood make a sample plus one inch see how it looks. If Rosette blocks are any indication they are usually plus .250 to .375 from trim size.


Negatory.....

You're talking about the HEIGHT of the base, so you would DIVIDE the same dimension of the plinth block, (the HEIGHT) by 1.6.8. A light 4-3/16". This gives you the "ratio".

And you can increase (or reduce) each dimension accordingly (simultaneously) until you have a pleasing look.

All this 1.618 does is give you a historically proven ratio of aesthetic proportions.

EXAMPLE: You decide to increase the 6.75 height by 10%.
That's now going to be 7.425.
So you likewise increase the width (calculated to be 4.17) by 10%
The width will increase to about a heavy 4-9/16".


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*I'm So confused!*

Guys: Seems like we have many approaches to this question from the dog to the Golden Ratio. If we knew nothing else, that is to say, there were no baseboard height in the question, then my understanding is to use the width of the casing as the determining factor, since that's all we know. 3.5" x 1.618" = 5.663" , the "pleasing ratio" for the casing. By making the plinth a long skinny rectangle, that is to say, taller than the baseboard by much more than 1'', it looks out of proportion to the casing width or "not pleasing". I don't know if the "golden ratio" would apply directly in this case since the casings are so much narrower than the baseboards. If memory serves, the casings on Victorian and older homes of the lumber baron times were wider than 3.5", since lumber was more plentiful then, so the plinths could be made taller and still be in proportion. Just my thoughts, I'm stickin' with..... you guessed it...the dog!:laughing: I'm leaving now,:boat: bill


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## clampman (Oct 20, 2006)

When I had a crew in Ct, I'd say we installed probably 400 plinth blocks per house for about 17 years. The crew is still installing them though my old partner is now the boss. I've never had an architect make us change the heights I set them at, nor snivel and whine about the heights.

The height I arrived at was the shortest that worked. If the base on one side of the door had to be scribed, and wound up 3/16ths lower than the other side, then the percentage difference between the top of the base cap and top of plinth from one side of the door to the other is 15%. With a plinth only 1/2" taller than the base the percentage difference is 37 1/2%.

The closest horizontal line to compare plinths to is the bottom rail of the door when closed. It looks better for the tops of the plinths to be level. This means that the difference between top of the base and top of the plinth will vary slightly if scribing is necessary for the base or if the floor is out of level a bit.

The "golden rule" does not apply to individual components of a whole. If it did, a 7 foot tall door casing would be over 4 feet wide, or a 2-0 door would be a llittle over 3 feet tall.

One thing to remember when planning for plinths is that the lower door hinge must be mortised higher up the jamb than many lumber yard pre-hungs will come. If the barrel of the hinge is lower than the plinth, you may need a jamb to plinth reveal of as much as 5/16th to clear. The casing will sit back another eighth to 3/16ths from that. Therefore, your casing could well be sitting on an 11/16ths jamb by only a quarter inch or so.

Below is a quick sketch in plan view of how I had my plinth stock milled for the casing sitting on top of it. I would have an apprentice whack plinth stock into 2' lengths squared on each end. 

He would then run each end over a router in a table to put a 1/16th to 3/32nds chamfer on them. Next he would leave two of these next to each doorway or cased opening, That would leave a left and a right for each side of the door. They could then be cut to length and installed any time - usually after the casing was shot on.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Clampman*

EXCELLENT!:thumbsup: bill
For those inclined to search into this Golden Ratio further: Google-"golden ratio examples" you will find this as well as others.
http://hotmath.com/hotmath_help/topics/golden-ratio.html


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## downdraft (Mar 6, 2009)

*Plinths/how high?*

One should be careful what he prays for! :icon_smile: All the advice and ideas were very useful in reaching an appropriate choice. I first "squinted my eyes..." and got a pretty good idea what "right" would look like. Then I routed 6 sample plinths of different size, eliminated 2 at a time and chose between the final 2 after puting them on the "mock up". I finally chose 1/2" taller height, plus a slight "reveal" in width to hide joints between the plinth and the baseboard joint. While the plinths look good, and also hide a few imperfections, they do not compete with the upper casing that I routed to be like layers you would make for a fireplace mantle. Golly I do good work!:laughing: Thanks

Downdraft



creative novice said:


> Aesthetically, in my opinion, i would do as woodnthings stated, .5 - .75" taller. I was taught that the eye should be able to flow through a room. So, if your eye were to follow the height of the baseboard....flow slightly up the plinth and then up the door frame. the idea is to flow....literally, envision and move your eyeballs as if they were looking at the horizontal base board, and then as if you had to stop your eye movement to follow the vertical versus with a slight increased height at the plinth your eye would glide up and over the plinth and (here is were the analogy falls short) then up the door frame. Jerky eye movement versus smooth eye movement! Are you adding any other details(corner blocks) to the door frames? again, a slight increase in width/height so the eye flows.....How big are the rooms in this house?
> 
> I do agree that you should do a mock-up
> 
> ...


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## creative novice (Jul 25, 2008)

*glad we could be of some help...now where's those pics!*

downdraft...glad we offered something of assistance! If you like it then that is what counts! NOW Where are the pics?...i think i speak for more than myself when i say.....we are project picture hogs!


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## Deadhead Derek (Dec 15, 2008)

Willie T said:


> Apply the Golden Ratio to them, and see how it looks.
> 
> This means multiply the width you decide upon by 1.618.
> 
> ...


yup. the other thought is if you make the plinths wider than the casing for the door, that which they are wider ( say a 1/4" per side) is the height that you go above the top of the base. I tend to go to the golden mean for everything though.


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