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Flooring Home Repair Remodeling

Gaps in Baseboards help!!!!

2 years ago

Hi Everyone,

My contract is telling me he cannot fix the gaps in the baseboards he installed. The gaps are where the baseboards meet the floor. It looks good in some spots but not so much in others. How do you fix this???

Featured Answer

palimpsest

2 years ago

This is one reason that people apply shoe mold or quarter round at the floor. It is a bit more flexible and can be adapted to irregularities. I am putting minimal base and some recessed base in now and that needs to be scribed which is above and beyond the norm and very tedious. Some people caulk but I generally don't think that looks great, it can emphasize rather than conceal

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Comments (7)

cat_ky
2 years ago
Pictures would help.
PRO
User
2 years ago
You have to be purchasing a high level home to have a trim carpenter scribe base to a floor. After you close, I’m sure you can pay a finish carpenter to remove that and redo all of the base trim, and scribe it to the floor. But you’re not getting a production builder to even consider that.
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"Once the floor was installed, could this issue have been addressed when installing the baseboards?" Of course, the baseboards should have been scribed and installed to the floor, not hovering over. Now you would need to either a) install shoe mldg or b) remove the baseboard and then scribe it to the floor.
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Comments (10)
Typically you do not want a complicated profile as a shoe. For the reasons G&S says and why your current cove is not a good profile. In addition to those reasons, at the baseboard to floor transition, an intricate profile like your intended example will create a shadow. So a lot of that profile will be hidden from those shadows, and it is too low to see that profile from a straight-on eye level. It will collect dust bunnies and debris and will be hard to clean. The cove profile you currently have needs to be removed no matter, as I don't see how you can add something under it to fill the +/-1/2". If you try to, it will look as bad as your last pic you provided.
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Jennifer Svensson
2 years ago
Mine are like that as well because the floors are not completely even. Some friends suggested I put shoe molding (it’s smaller so more flexible) but I decided I preferred to keep the gaps rather than to install additional molding. After a while I stopped seeing it. Hope all works out.
emilyam819
2 years ago
You won’t notice it in a month, since the gap’s shadow blends with your darker floor. Mine is like that and I’m glad I didn’t bother with the additional molding.
Izzy Mn
2 years ago
Don't caulk, that would look horrid. Quarter rounds are the answer. Or try Emilyam's suggestion.
PRO
Uptown Floors
2 years ago
Caulking isn't that bad.

Here's a good technique for someone that can master a caulk gun.

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