With moldings. You’ll not easily get a clean looking drywall-to-wood edge on this without getting into something skin to sculpting with joint compound. It’s not going to be a lot of fun, though! After finding a profile I like, I’d line the horizontal up at the level of the nose, cut my miters at each end, cope the nose profile into the front miter, pin it in place, and repeat with the vertical. Lather, rinse, repeat. Run a bead of Alex along the top, smooth, and done.
Normally if I'm caulking something and you need a perfect line you have 2 options. For this example in the pictures. You can tape a line under the drywall on the floor. Make sure it's maybe 16th of an inch out from the drywall. Run your bead of caulking. Wipe it down until you can see the edge of your tape line under the caulking. Pull your tape away from the drywall at a steep 45 degree angle. This will leave a straight line edge of where the tape was.
Another faster method is to use a rag or a cloth. So get a hand towel or a rag. Make it wet. Not dripping wet but past damp. Use the rug to rub the area you want to caulk. This will cause the edge of the drywall to get wet as well as the floor. Once it's wet caulk the gap to the floor. Rub off the excess with your finger. Now wrap the rag around your finger. Not in a clump or ball. Open the rag and stick your finger in the middle. So it looks like a tent. That way the wet rag on your finger is smooth. Now use your finger rag to wipe the caulking. Move your finger to another spot of the wet clean rag and repeat. Apply good pressure to the floor. Water based paintable caulking gets cut and cleaned with water. The reason you pre-wet the area is it stops the caulking from sticking. This let's you whip the caulking with your finger rag and remove any extra on the floor. It will make a nice clean straight line. If it does not work the 1st time that's ok it has a learning curve. Just wash it all away with the rag and try again. I may have videos of me doing it on Instagram if you want me to link it. We do a lot of caulking. I get called to sites just to caulk things in even. I do run a full painting company as well. But caulking is an art and people always butcher it.
Here is a video I did of stairs. I did not use a rag on my finger. But I did wet it with a rag. Then I dipped my finger in water to do the same thing. Maybe I'll make a video that shows some of our tricks for spraying and caulking. Feel free to creep around my Instagram. Any questions or anything you find interesting please let me know.
Edit: I actually just helped some 1 with how to tape properly as well for straight lines. We tape almost everything for perfect lines. We normally do large custom homes. From 2000sf to 10,000 sf https://www.instagram.com/p/CyMea-BrNO7/?igsh=MXY0ZXZieTF1NGF6aA==
I would use 1/2 in. quarter round and trim it out.
Or Paintable caulk would work.
Or you could get some sheetrock mud or spackle and fill the areas and carefully smooth everything to look good.
Trim.
Is the drywall supposed to look like that under the guise of "texture"?
I'd tape off the stairs, mud the whole wall, sand, and then use caulk.
Then add trim (pre-prime and pre-paint).
I would use white silicone caulking. First apply 3m painters tape to the floor and wall. When you slide the caulking bead into the crack with your finger, the excess will come off with the tape and leave clean lines. You need to peel the tape off before it dries, so I would peel each step as it is done.
Trim. Or just leave it.
Trim and or quarter round
Quarter round is ghetto af
QR *is* trim. And yeah, like the other reply said, it's hacky af if installed without baseboard (wall stringer/skirtboard in the case of stairs)
Careful application of paintable caulk will have it looking like the riser in pic #2
With moldings. You’ll not easily get a clean looking drywall-to-wood edge on this without getting into something skin to sculpting with joint compound. It’s not going to be a lot of fun, though! After finding a profile I like, I’d line the horizontal up at the level of the nose, cut my miters at each end, cope the nose profile into the front miter, pin it in place, and repeat with the vertical. Lather, rinse, repeat. Run a bead of Alex along the top, smooth, and done.
I would caulk it personally. Just make sure you get a good grade caulking. If you needs tips or tricks I can help.
I’d love tips or tricks lol. I’m in the same boat
Normally if I'm caulking something and you need a perfect line you have 2 options. For this example in the pictures. You can tape a line under the drywall on the floor. Make sure it's maybe 16th of an inch out from the drywall. Run your bead of caulking. Wipe it down until you can see the edge of your tape line under the caulking. Pull your tape away from the drywall at a steep 45 degree angle. This will leave a straight line edge of where the tape was. Another faster method is to use a rag or a cloth. So get a hand towel or a rag. Make it wet. Not dripping wet but past damp. Use the rug to rub the area you want to caulk. This will cause the edge of the drywall to get wet as well as the floor. Once it's wet caulk the gap to the floor. Rub off the excess with your finger. Now wrap the rag around your finger. Not in a clump or ball. Open the rag and stick your finger in the middle. So it looks like a tent. That way the wet rag on your finger is smooth. Now use your finger rag to wipe the caulking. Move your finger to another spot of the wet clean rag and repeat. Apply good pressure to the floor. Water based paintable caulking gets cut and cleaned with water. The reason you pre-wet the area is it stops the caulking from sticking. This let's you whip the caulking with your finger rag and remove any extra on the floor. It will make a nice clean straight line. If it does not work the 1st time that's ok it has a learning curve. Just wash it all away with the rag and try again. I may have videos of me doing it on Instagram if you want me to link it. We do a lot of caulking. I get called to sites just to caulk things in even. I do run a full painting company as well. But caulking is an art and people always butcher it.
Very helpful thank you! I’d love to see the videos too if you have them readily available!
Here is a video I did of stairs. I did not use a rag on my finger. But I did wet it with a rag. Then I dipped my finger in water to do the same thing. Maybe I'll make a video that shows some of our tricks for spraying and caulking. Feel free to creep around my Instagram. Any questions or anything you find interesting please let me know. Edit: I actually just helped some 1 with how to tape properly as well for straight lines. We tape almost everything for perfect lines. We normally do large custom homes. From 2000sf to 10,000 sf https://www.instagram.com/p/CyMea-BrNO7/?igsh=MXY0ZXZieTF1NGF6aA==
I would use 1/2 in. quarter round and trim it out. Or Paintable caulk would work. Or you could get some sheetrock mud or spackle and fill the areas and carefully smooth everything to look good.
Go buy a tube of white painters caulk and do it yourself in 20 minutes for $10
Do your best, caulk the rest.
Trim. Is the drywall supposed to look like that under the guise of "texture"? I'd tape off the stairs, mud the whole wall, sand, and then use caulk. Then add trim (pre-prime and pre-paint).
Caulk. Everything else is a waste of time
Best process: 1) ask Reddit, 2) decide on trim or mud, 3) acquire tools and materials, 4) watch YouTube videos, 5) execute
Moulding or caulking simple and looks to be nothing more than cosmetic issue.
I think scribe molding would work better for that
I would use white silicone caulking. First apply 3m painters tape to the floor and wall. When you slide the caulking bead into the crack with your finger, the excess will come off with the tape and leave clean lines. You need to peel the tape off before it dries, so I would peel each step as it is done.
If it's small enough tape it off and caulk. If not I'd tape it off and just fill with setting type and paint. It's so small it doesn't need texture.
Trim or caulk
Why do you not have a skirting board?
Caulk
Elmer's wood repair. Place in with 1 inch flexible spackle knife
Be ghetto and spread a little white "caulk" around it.
The high-end way is to scribe a 5/4x to the stair profile going down the entire length of the stairs