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gap between baseboard and underlying wood floor

16 years ago

I had an engineered wood floor put in. Unfortunately the guy who installed did an awful job. I have someone else who seems very good at everything he has done so far who is putting in the baseboard. There is a gap between the baseboard and floor. Is this normal? Will he fill it in? I worked all day until tonight and was unable to call him.

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Comments (3)

Jon1270
16 years ago
He'll most likely bridge that gap with shoe molding, which is a slightly elongated quarter-round shape.
User
16 years ago
Agree with jon. If the baseboard guy is doing shoe, he is aware that the engineered wood has to have room to move---the installation instructions for that type of flooring specify leaving at least 1/4" to 1/2" space between the edges of the wood and the walls. That often means adding shoe molding to the baseboard. The shoe molding is attached to the baseboard ---NOT the flooring---to allow for the necessary room for the engineered wood to move due to humidity/seasonal changes.
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Scribe your base, or next time make sure the subfloor is flat.
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It’s not just your house, it’s every house that doesn’t have a molding to cover the bottom of the baseboard. Crisp square baseboard is the “in” thing right now, but people don’t realize how hard this is to accomplish without gaps. The proper way for that to be trimmed is with a shoe mold or quarter-round to cover the gaps. No floor is completely level. Your wide baseboard will not flex with the contours of your floor. A shoe or quarter will. You have two options: Live with the gaps or trim it out with shoe/quarter round. I lost a very large sell not long ago because of this. A lady was asking me if our floor would work in this scenario. I told her it really had nothing to do with the flooring, but the flatness to level of her sub-floor. I informed her that she would have gaps and that the only variable would be how large those gaps would be. She didn’t like the reality check and told me she would be buying her flooring from someone else… oh well Your builder could get a wider base, scribe the contour and cut the bottom to fit if it's really bothering you that much. Alan Ward - WeShipFloors.com
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Need advice how best to fill gap between baseboards and wainscoting
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Comments (14)
An alternative idea: This probably won't work if the wainscot if a thin luan-type of sheet good. If it is real wood, it may work if the bow has some movement to it. Drive an oversized hole in the baseboard. Large enough where the diameter of the hole does not catch the threads of the screw, but small enough where the countersink of the hole still catches the screw's head. Run a deck (NOT a drywall screw) screw through the hole and if the wainscot is of sufficient thickness, the threads will grab the wainscot and pull it towards the baseboard. The patch and paint the screw holes in the baseboard.
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Comments (4)
If your hearth is stone or brick, the correct thing to do is grind out a groove at the bottom and slip the flooring underneath the hearth. Too late now, tho.
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jennye
Original Author
16 years ago
Terrific! Thanks so much!

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