Framing Details for Wood Shrinkage

Early in my carpentry career, I was asked to remove all the trim from the third-floor hallway of a 140-year-old house we were renovating. All the baseboards in the hallway were touching the floor, except for one piece, which was 2 inches off the floor. It didn’t make sense until I had removed the baseboard in the hallway. While most of the walls consisted of plaster and lath over studs, the wall behind the base that didn’t touch the floor was plaster over a brick chimney. When the house was originally built, the air-dried framing lumber dried and shrank, and all of the third floor dropped except for that one piece of baseboard fastened to the chimney. Today,