Help! DIY home improvement problem: baseboard not right height for wood floors.

[DrPizza]

You're worried about a 1/16" difference at one point - the transition to the kitchen?? No one but you will ever notice. Personally, I think that any attempt to shave 1/16" off the molding all the way around a room is insane. You're not pulling that off without some much more expensive tools - at least not well enough to have it look better than not doing anything.

 

[slugg]

The home minister/dictator/tyrant has spoken: we shall get NEW baseboards throughout the entire area and put quarter round over the *tiled* area to hide the gap from the height difference.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have a few transitions around my house, I was not the one that installed the baseboards but think they were just cut to fit around transitions. Not at home now, but here's a pic:



There's also quarter round which I think makes it look nicer anyway so don't know why she wont go for it.

I'm curious now how it was done, I'll have to take a closer look when I get home.

 

[CPA]

Ah, yes. Forgot to mention that the female home minister/dictator will not allow quarter round.

Who the heck doesn't use quarter-round on a wood floor? It's a must.

 

[Humpy]

The home minister/dictator/tyrant has spoken: we shall get NEW baseboards throughout the entire area and put quarter round over the *tiled* area to hide the gap from the height difference.

You're almost there now. Don't buy or paint the 1/4 round for the tile until the end when you are sure about it. If it really is as small a difference as you say I bet you'll see that you don't need it. One, the tile floor is likely to vary in flatness by at least a 1/16th so you are worrying about nothing and two, I think you should caulk that joint anyways. For a floor that gets wet mopped it keeps crap from getting behind the base and creating a dirty joint/line that you can never really clean.

Who the heck doesn't use quarter-round on a wood floor? It's a must.

Its different for different styles of house. I've built Santa Fe style houses with no base at all over a wood floor. The floor went in before the plaster. In modern designs people have wanted crisp square lines at the floor where profiled moldings wouldn't work. Personally I don't like quarter round at the floor. To me it looks like a compromise.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Go find some of these soldier posts. They work well for problems like this. Just but one edge of it up to your higher floor and then run your baseboards into it.

 

[slugg]

You're almost there now. Don't buy or paint the 1/4 round for the tile until the end when you are sure about it. If it really is as small a difference as you say I bet you'll see that you don't need it. One, the tile floor is likely to vary in flatness by at least a 1/16th so you are worrying about nothing and two, I think you should caulk that joint anyways. For a floor that gets wet mopped it keeps crap from getting behind the base and creating a dirty joint/line that you can never really clean.

I like it.

Question: what if we were to simply bend the baseboard down against the tile, but over a stretch of a few feet? Do you think it'd be noticeable? It's one continuous wall; this is not going through a doorway or around a corner. Open-concept floor plan. I'll have pics tomorrow night, or Tuesday maybe.

 

[Humpy]

I like it.

Question: what if we were to simply bend the baseboard down against the tile, but over a stretch of a few feet? Do you think it'd be noticeable? It's one continuous wall; this is not going through a doorway or around a corner. Open-concept floor plan. I'll have pics tomorrow night, or Tuesday maybe.

Most base can easily be tweaked up and down a little as needed. I like to use the baseboard as an opportunity to make things appear to be straighter than they actually are. If the base is a different color tone than the wall I would keep the base straighter because variances will show more. If the base and wall are the same color then it won't show as much if you followed the variances in the floor more closely.

You are way better off than a lot of people if the transition between the wood and tile is only a 1/16" step. I would do just as you are asking and gently bend the base down over a few feet, or whatever looks good to you, to make up for the height difference. Assuming this will be a painted baseboard it is perfectly acceptable to use a some caulk and paint to make the little inherent gaps and inaccuracies disappear.

 

[fstime]

You're almost there now. Don't buy or paint the 1/4 round for the tile until the end when you are sure about it. If it really is as small a difference as you say I bet you'll see that you don't need it. One, the tile floor is likely to vary in flatness by at least a 1/16th so you are worrying about nothing and two, I think you should caulk that joint anyways. For a floor that gets wet mopped it keeps crap from getting behind the base and creating a dirty joint/line that you can never really clean.



Its different for different styles of house. I've built Santa Fe style houses with no base at all over a wood floor. The floor went in before the plaster. In modern designs people have wanted crisp square lines at the floor where profiled moldings wouldn't work. Personally I don't like quarter round at the floor. To me it looks like a compromise.

I agree, shoe-moldings or quarter round looks cheesy and I would not use it for a new project.

 

[mugs]

Ah, yes. Forgot to mention that the female home minister/dictator will not allow quarter round.

It's shoe moulding, not quarter round. It's a quarter of an oval.

Your wife is an idiot. Aside from generally being considered to look good, shoe moilding serves a purpose. Floors are usually not perfect, shoe moulding flexes better than baseboard to cover any gaps between the moulding and the floor.

That said, if the difference between tile and hardwood is only 1/16" you can just put a joint at the transition and sand it to hide the height difference.

 

[Meghan54]

I agree, shoe-moldings or quarter round looks cheesy and I would not use it for a new project.

May look cheesy, but they're there for a purpose. Part is like what Mugs stated, to cover uneven floor/wall transitions, and I guarantee the OP is going to find out his sub-floor isn't all that flat.

But it also prevents heavy crap from getting pushed all the way to the wall and damaging the baseboard/wall. Much easier and cheaper to replace trim moulding than baseboards or walls themselves.

We've got hardwood floors throughout our house and the two guest/spare bedrooms didn't have moulding between the baseboards and floor. We immediately put it in and it looks vastly better.

But to each his own.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

If your buying new baseboard then throw it on a table saw and cut that 1/16 off. It would literally take 10 minutes and look like nothing ever happened.

And for the record, around here no one uses quarter round. I think its ugly and I would never put it in my house. I've been painting homes professionally for 6 years(not tract housing, multimillion dollar mansions) and I've installed alot of wood flooring on the side.

 

[spacejamz]

pretty happy with the quarter round on my baseboards...not a fan of it when the quarter round matches the wood planks though...

 

[Drako]

Who the heck doesn't use quarter-round on a wood floor? It's a must.

LOL, it's a must? Quarter-round is good for covering up fuck-ups, but is far from a must.

 

[Zargon]

LOL, it's a must? Quarter-round is good for covering up fuck-ups, but is far from a must.

wait 10 years till your house sags

there is a reason any home of real age has a shoe molding on wood floors

 

[Drako]

wait 10 years till your house sags

there is a reason any home of real age has a shoe molding on wood floors

My house is 60 years old, with all hardwood except in the bathrooms.

I did have the baseboards "adjusted" about 20 years ago when I had the floors resurfaced and repaired. :biggrin:

 

[Zargon]

My house is 60 years old, with all hardwood except in the bathrooms.

I did have the baseboards "adjusted" about 20 years ago when I had the floors resurfaced and repaired. :biggrin:

more power to ya if your house isnt sagging enough to require it

when they adjusted what did they do?

hand plane them to fit? same thing

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Alternative solution. Use quarter round around the perimeter of the room so you don't have to put the wood floors "under" the base boards. Just leave an expansion gap all the way around the room and the quarter round will cover that gap.

After much research on my own part for wanting to do this I can say that this quoted post is THE solution. It is what any expert will tell you to do.

If you attempt to do anything else, it's your own ballgame. You're opening a can of worms out of complete stupidity that can result in fucking up your entire edges. I highly recommend you tell your woman to quit being stupid.

 

[Drako]

I highly recommend you tell your woman to quit being stupid.

Best solution yet.

OP, let us know how this works out for you. :biggrin:

 

[amdskip]

I didn't use quarter round on my hardwood. I think it looks better without it and says the installer did a good job and didn't need molding to cover up screw ups.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find quarter round adds that extra bit of "finish" touch. It also hides the carpet nail line that old houses seem to always have. It's funny how at one point hardwood floors were in, then carpet was in, and now hardwood floors are in again so people just rip out the carpet and discover this beautiful floor and wonder why the hell it was covered in first place. :biggrin:

In several years there will be some new study saying that exposure to stained hardwood is bad for the health, then people will be covering it with carpet again. :awe:

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

After much research on my own part for wanting to do this I can say that this quoted post is THE solution. It is what any expert will tell you to do.

If you attempt to do anything else, it's your own ballgame. You're opening a can of worms out of complete stupidity that can result in fucking up your entire edges. I highly recommend you tell your woman to quit being stupid.

I'm an expert, and I say to do it correctly so you don't have to use quarter round.

Its not that hard to cut the caulk on top of the trim with a razor, then pull it off, pull the nails out of it, place the hard wood floor, put your baseboard back down, Spackle, caulk, and paint. Maybe you need to run it through a table saw first to cut that 1/16" of an inch off, still not that hard.

 

[slugg]

Quick update before I leave this thread for a long time...

I'm not too thrilled with the existing baseboards. I can get a hell of a deal on new baseboards, so cheap that I can do the entire house for pretty much negligible cost. So we're just going to do that.

As for the height difference, we will raise the new baseboard to the height of the wood floor, then put shoe molding in the tiled region. I'm in the process of moving and we haven't really gotten started. I'll post se pics in a couple weeks. Thanks, all!

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

Just caulk the gap under the tiled area. Mask a straight line on the tile with masking tape, hold back about 1/16-1/8" from where the base meets the tile, once you have the room masked off then caulk the point where the tile meets the baseboard(filling the gap). peel the tape and you will have a perfectly straight(as straight as your masking) line.

I've done 100's of homes like this and never had a single home owner that wasn't impressed with it. Do not do this on the hardwood area, you want your hardwood to be free floating for expansion/contraction reasons(sure you already know this, just have to state it anyways).

 

[Doppel]

Post a picture for heaven's sake.