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Gap between hardwood floor and baseboard, is this normal ?

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

Hi all,

I recently just bought a brain newly construct house from some well known builder (Not sure if I can call them out here). However, when they deliver the house, I notice there are quite a lot of place that have gaps between hardwood floor and baseboard.

There are around 15+ gaps overall, spread all over on 1st and 2nd floor. The gap height varies from 1/8 to 3/8 inches which give me an illusion that my floor is a waves. (because sometime is perfect fit) Example, see picture below (all the red sticker are the gap that I had identified)

Is this NORMAL for a new house ?

I email the builder, the builder said the gap is within industry standard, therefore there is no issue with it, so they are not going to do anything about it.

Did anyone know what is the "industry standard" for this kind of tolerance ? (Campbell, CA)

Any information would be very appreciate, it's bother me like crazy now. Paying so much, big mortgage, and gap is normal, something didn't sound right here.

Thank you very much in advance

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Comments (3)

PRO
WeShipFloors
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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
User
8 years ago
ill tell u what , "scribe" fitting that much base would have only taken a few extra hours, maybe A little longer than adding shoe.

they simply didnt "scribe" it in and that may not be in the scope of their contract w/you..
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Remove that thin, tan strip and put in a wider piece that covers everything. If this is outside your skill set, any competent handyman should be able to do it.
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User
8 years ago
Good comments. The only think I could add is that quite often, contractors may not have a carpenter that's versed in scribing baseboard.

My advice is to install shoemold and paint it to match the baseboard.

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