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I live near a bog. Our house heaves in the winter - BAD. We get large horizontal cracks along ceiling. We thought of ceiling molding to cover it but continue to read "nail to wall studs". Well that will only pull the molding away from the ceiling during the heaving.

I would like to nail to just the ceiling and have the molding "float" along the wall (this worked in a tiny bathroom but we used 1 3/4 poly trim - really lightweight and it has worked beautifully). I do not want this thin molding in the rest of the house. We love the 3 1/4. BUT nervous to spend that kind of money on something that won't hold up.

Any suggestions to fastening to just the ceiling that will give a durable hold???

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  • I'd be much more concerned about the heaving than the aesthetics. That sounds abnormal and a sign of poor foundations.
    – DA01
    Commented Feb 1, 2016 at 22:01
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    living on a bog has many "abnormalities". 22 houses in area built over 100 years (different styles and builders) and ALL heave. Crawlspaces and full basements alike. Thanks for the concern but not really warranted.
    – Charlie
    Commented Feb 1, 2016 at 23:41

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There's no reason that you can't fasten crown molding to ceiling joists... except that they'll probably only be present along half your walls. Unless you happen to have a hip roof design, the other half will run parallel to the joists and you probably won't have backing. In that case, trim screws with hollow-wall anchors may work, or nails backed up with project adhesive.

It's also possible that you have a narrow ceiling backer at the corner (denoted below with #), to which you could fasten a larger backer (denoted with *). It might have the same angle that your crown molding does on the back. You'd then fasten your crown to that. 

##_________
|*/ /
|/ / 
| /
|/
|
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  • Thanks. The backer was all that I could think of too as I was concerned about the tilting out from the wall at bottom over the years. The backer would firm it up and no messy adhesive damage to drywall if I removed it later. Some reverse angle nailing to be extra sure of no sagging. Thanks again.
    – Charlie
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 0:04

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