Including materials? What type of baseboard is being installed?

Its not rocket science but to get a tight fit (without globbing caulk everywhere) you do need a certain level of competency. If it's just a "modernist" 5 1/2" mdf - not so much.

Taking any job skill for granted will often extract its own price, but don't assume price is quality. References and/or see a previous job.

The floor installer may have it priced high because they'd rather not do it.

You specified the material, size, thickness. Price will increase over 5".

> The total length is about 380 linear feet. The quotes range from $1500 to $3000.

Ah ok,

installing 380' of baseboards -- describes its all. Material eg Stain grade, paint grade, width, painted, trim around the doors already installed, type of install conventional, modern inset.

The baseboards are 4.5" primed finger joint pine. All quotes are based on installation cost w/o painting, merely installation and patch nail heads. We need to find others to paint the baseboard. So, we'd like to know how the price variation is justified.

Is this O/B? Get several quotes on both the hardwood floors and baseboards and references. It's not rocket science to install both just experience. 'higher cost on the baseboard installation.'..the contractors is trying to rip you off.....period! You are in CA....that's in a different world of cost of up charges!! The one that wants to charge 3k is just trying to find out what they can get away with.

"The floor installer may have it priced high because they'd rather not do it."

Agreed. Day in and day out hardwood Installers rarely handle baseboard. Shoe or quarter round yes.

CA must have license over $500. Workers comp if there are employees.

I don't assume they would operate at the same skill level. I just wonder what the skill level is required for such a simple project. The shape of the baseboard is a quite basic rectangular one. The material is separate from labor and all are licensed contractors. Or, I can not picture the quality difference of the finished projects. If one contractor points to me some specific details (such as miter vs. cope at corners) and asks for more, I need to think if I am willing to pay the extra to get that kind of finish. So far, I have no information to make the decision.

I learned the very hard and very expensive way that when a homeowner does not do their research prior to meeting with contractors, it becomes very obvious very quickly. In those situations, expect to be taken advantage of price wise.

That being said, you are looking about about $3.94-7.90/linear foot for installation. That seems outrageous but you are in the highest market in the country. Contractors can charge what they like. I just looked up what I paid for installation of 5.25" fingerjointed primed baseboard a few years ago near Nashville and I paid $0.80/linear foot. That was with one of THE best trim carpenters in the area in a very hot market. He did an amazing job (coped corners, etc.).

Usually trim comes in 16 foot lengths so you're looking at 16-20 full lengths. If you look at your wall lengths, you can kinda tell how many cuts they'll have to make. Heck, you might even consider renting a saw from your local big box store and trying it yourself...lol. Baseboard is NOT that hard to do and DH and I have done it many times on small projects.

Costs are very local......don’t get hung up on cheap prices in some markets that will never be reality in other markets. Nashville would not be a good comparison to a higher priced market, just got back from there and there is a reason that city has one of the highest % of people moving into the area.....reasonably priced homes, etc. (at least for now). .80 a linear foot would never happen in our area, and we aren’t one of the most expensive citiss. Better to get your price comparisons locally rather than an online forum where you will be put on the hunt for the last unicorn.

Do the baseboards yourself. It's very simple. Go to you tube to see how it's done. You might enjoy it, I like working with my hands.

We can not get here materials for $.80/ft for 5 1/4" baseboards, nor can I have it installed. In fact here, in Midwest, it is just under $2/lf installed. SF bay area - costs will be higher..?

Here's a good YT vid on coping.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcRynzABxHI This tool.

Here's examples of the skill.

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and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdRSWI92kYU

We paid $2.75/linear foot for A+ work with 5" baseboards. This was for our entire downstairs which is around 1100 sq ft.

So in your case that would be $1045. Most contractors don't like doing baseboards so the high quotes are probably for that reason.

FWIW, the $0.80/ft I posted was for labor only.

@HU-129... - I think you missed where I said that the OP would pay whatever contractors charged in the SF Bay area because it is the hottest/most expensive market in the country. No where did I insinuate that the OP would get my pricing. I only gave it as a point of reference for my area of the country.

I paid $1.41/ft for my baseboard material so in all, I paid about $2.20/ft for labor and materials. My labor was likely lower because I was having all trim and doors installed (casings, doors, baseboards, wainscoting, entertainment center, etc.). It was a large job and took weeks to do. Smaller jobs are going to pay an upcharge as is the case in most situations. Of all trimwork, though, baseboards are the easiest, IMHO. Under no circumstances would I pay what he's being quoted because DH and I have some skills under our belts; however, the OP may not be so inclined and may have more $$$$ to spend than we do. To each his own.

Silly videos, to be perfectly honest miter and coped - both work equally well. In my current house we have a mixture of coped and mitered and you can not tell the difference, one does not work better than another, with mitered we do not simply cut them at 45, we measure angle (e,g. 89 degree corner) with digital angle finder and cut 44.5 miters. Modern saws can cut very precise miters to .1. If you have weird inside angle than I cope.

Midwest --approx 250 linear feet installed by hardwood installer for roughly $300.

Again, NOT California!

In mass we're getting at least $5-$9.20

Something's fishy.

Wait for it.............................any moment now.....................................

I don't know of many, if any hardwood installers that would take on the floor and the base. It's not their forte.