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.

If you decide to not take out your baseboards from the wall, install your floating wood floors with expansion space required by your flooring manufacturer. Then you can use quarter rounds to hold your floating wood floor down and cover the space. If you decide to remove your base boards first, install the floors, then put back the base, you may use quarter rounds or not since your existing base will hold down the floating floor. I like the baseshoes plus baseboards better than Quarter rounds. Thank you!

Appreciate the responses. Do I need to worry about adequate expansion room for the new hardwood if I don't remove the existing baseboards and just use shoe molding? We had the house built 20 years ago and the hardwood and carpets were installed underneath the 4.5 inch baseboards. I really don't care to lose a portion of the height of my baseboards by using quarter round or shoe molding. This would result in a "mismatched" look when compared to the baseboards in my other rooms. My preference is to have the baseboards removed prior to the new floor installation. I just have to decide if it makes more sense to try to preserve the original baseboards for re-installation or have new baseboards installed and painted. Here are some pics of the trim and baseboards in the 2 rooms that will have hardwood installed. Both rooms were recently painted, but I don't mind repainting baseboards as long as I get the best quality installation of the new floors and baseboards that look like these again when done. Dining Room Great Room

Update: I picked Bruce Ameican Home Walnut laminate and went w/ painted white shoe molding, not quarter-round. I thought about removing the baseboards. But this laminate can be removed and re-installed to replace any damage, and if it was run underneath the baseboard, I figured that would be trouble. I had a dilemma deciding what to do in front of the front door (painted or stained) and went w/ the painted there, too. It looks strange to me because you can see the black from the weatherstripping on the bottom of the door between the white door and the white molding, but I'm hoping that soon I won't even notice. I'm still looking for rugs, so if I get a thicker rug there, hopefully it will distract my eye.