Quarter round -- yes or no (cross posted in flooring forum)

10 years ago

We are in the midst of a renovation of the back of our house. So far so good -- with many, many ideas and solutions from this forum and gardenweb. As background - our house is 1870's with beautiful baseboards without quarter round. Renovated kitchen -- it was an old addition from early part of the century so never completely matched front of the house-- will also have large (8 inch tall) baseboards. Couldn't completely match up all the trim but renovation is a separate area and short of having custom made -- good enough. Would you add quarter round -- yes or no? Powder room is done so I have an example of both, plus a picture of baseboards original to house. Keep in mind this is an old addition - probably a porch at some point that we have expanded and am renovating.
Thanks for any advise

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Comments (10)

jloleary
Original Author
10 years ago
With quarter round
Fori
10 years ago
It looks good either way. If the floor is all new or otherwise flat so that there aren't any gaps, I'd be tempted to skip the quarter round. I am not sure if you need the quarter round to be "proper" though!
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Hi yes im here. Lol. More problems eh? Well so you have some gaps huh? I had a feeling this was going to happen. Everything you explained to me about the GC this doesnt suprise me. How big are the gaps? Any way you can take a photo of the worst looking area? There are a few issues one reason you are showing gaps is the guy who installed the base didnt wait to put the base back on after the floor was in. If he had waited he could have shaped and bent the base to fit tight against the floor. And the other issue could be the floor may not ve completely flat. Without seeing a picture i cant say that for sure. Right now im going with the first cause. If you absolutely do not want base shoe. You Need to muster up the strength and demand that they adjust the base. Thats the first start. Now given your previous issues with him it may not go smooth but explain to him your disgust with the quarterround look. Now after they adjust the base and if you still have gaps bigger than 1/8th of an inch. That probably means the subfloor is not flat and in that case you need to decide if you can live with the gaps or go install the base shoe. Good luck!
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I'm replacing all of the floors in my house, which currently has quarter round. I'm also replacing the baseboards with 51/4 baseboards and no quarter round. To me the quarter round is nothing more than a dust collector and the new baseboards will cover any gaps. Your pics look better w/o quarter round. If you have no gaps, I'd go w/o quarter round.
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I see, apparently there is no convention with how the door casing and baseboard meet either. I'm not doing this, a flooring contractor is. The door casings are pretty much flush with the baseboards (not perfectly). They installed quarter-round cut blunt that ended right next to the outer edge of the door casings. It looked "unfinished" to me so I asked them to change it. They said that in 20 years of floor replacements they have never cut them at an angle. It seemed far-fetched to me. In the rooms that they are not working in the quarter rounds are cut at an angle. Given that the baseboards and door casings are undercut to make room for another layer of flooring, what might look best is to continue on with the quarter round to the INNER edge of the door casing either cut straight or an angle. The trouble with that is that the door casings vary a little in shape and in how they mate with the baseboard even though they appear to be the same style. That means some time-consuming carving if we go that way. Thanks for looking and for your comments.
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eaga
10 years ago
Do you live in my house? :-). We have and 1876 home with newer addition for kitchen, large ornate baseboards, etc.

Your baseboards are beautiful! I think the baseboard without the quarter round looks more formal and polished, and that's how we left ours in the older part of the house. It just looks, to me, more well-crafted to not have QR. In my experience, QR is used to hide a gap between the floor and the baseboard, and I would not add it unless it was necessary. That said, the view with the QR looks quite nice and kind of repeats the large bead detail (if that's what it's called) at the top of the baseboard. Also, since it will be in the newer part of the house you might not mind an informal look. If you do add QR, consider whether it matches up well with the thickness of the door casings. We had to add it to the upstairs rooms, where the floor had been carpeted and we took it down to the original wood. We had to choose between a beefier QR that complemented the baseboard or a smaller one that met up evenly with the door casings. We went with the larger QR, and it's a little proud of the door casings, but we just chalk that up to 'character'.
User
10 years ago
The detail you are asking about is called a "base shoe" and is used when the flooring is installed after the base. A shoe is a bit more elegant than a quarter round because it is taller than it is wide.
sombreuil_mongrel
10 years ago
Quarter round is historically appropriate for 1870's baseboards. 5/8" or 1/2" R. best. 3/4" would be too chunky. What you have pictured is great.
Casey
mateo21
10 years ago
Personally... I don't like the look of quarter round, even if the floor is uneven - I don't mind a 1/16" - 1/8" gap as it's hard to notice unless you get down on the floor. I would honestly rather look at a 1/4" gap then qtr round, I don't think you need it based on the photos above.
kudzu9
10 years ago
I don't think you'll get consensus here. My view it that it looks unfinished without the quarter round, and I've never see an older house whose floors were so flat that there weren't gaps at the base of the large trim pieces. Quarter round is not just for esthetics, it's to address any gapping issues as well.
User
10 years ago
In my experience well built houses have no need for quarter-rounds or shoes but for less well built or renovated houses they are fine. But I would use a narrower shoe instead of a full quarter round to reduce the heavy-handedness of the detail. i would to want the bottom of the wall base to be a major eye-catching element in any house especially where the base meets the door casing.

This post was edited by Renovator8 on Sat, May 10, 14 at 19:12
stolenidentity
10 years ago
Quarter round - yes.
schicksal
10 years ago
No quarter round or shoe + use white caulk for the gap.

Quarter round -- yes or no (cross posted in flooring forum)

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jloleary
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Fori

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Quarter round -- yes or no (cross posted in flooring forum)

Comments (10)

jlolearyOriginal Author

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jloleary
Original Author