Mitered butt joints, while more elegant than a standard butt joint, can be difficult to line up if the boards aren't aligned precisely square to one another, if the miters aren't cut precisely or if a board is slightly twisted, warped or cupped. Trim boards connected with mitered butt joints can also separate if the board being trimmed isn't square or if it expands over time, creating a gap in the mitered trim.
In most of these cases, a simple trick can be used to tighten the gap in the mitered butt joint. While it isn't the most elegant of solutions, many times it solves the problem with a minimum amount of effort. In How to Close a Separating Miter Joint, learn this tip for closing a separated miter, plus a method for disguising the "fix" after completion.
(c) 2012 Chris Baylor licensed to About.com, Inc.
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