When I had my hardwood floors refinished, (throughout the house except for the kitchen and bathroom) I pulled all the baseboards out before they started work. Most contractors use a drum sander for the main areas of the room and a round edge sander for the edges, so if they're not careful you can get a little unevenness on the edges. If you pull the baseboard/base shoe off, that unevenness will be covered when the new ones go back up. Plus it's a lot easier to paint the trim when it's not on the wall. Then all you have to do is putty and caulk (if needed) and touch up the paint when they're installed. I'm way too unsteady with the paintbrush to feel comfortable painting in place, even with masking off, YMMV. The easiest way to remove the trim is to run a utility knife LIGHTLY through the paint at the joint and then use a thin trim pry bar to remove the base. Just try not to damage the base or wall behind it. Also, put a piece of cardboard or thin wood behind the bar to make sure you don't mar the wall or baseboard. Good luck and enjoy your refinished floors! Bri

That's basically what he told me but said there may be some places with a gap that for most wouldn't be noticeable. He seemed more concerned about the possible scuffing the baseboard. The only reason he mentioned this was because the painter was there working when he came to give me the estimate. I think he was trying help me avoid the painter redoing and suggested he wait to do the baseboards.. once when the floors were done which may not be an option for me. Thanks

We would categorize most of these as minor installation issues. The BUCKLING on the end boards is not supposed to happen. Was the board fit UNDERNEATH the baseboards or did they REMOVE the base boards and install up to the drywall? The milling issue with the plank that has a poorly aligned end edge should not have been installed...but you mentioned the amount delivered to the house was VERY tight on square footage. Someone probably made the executive decision to put it in and hope for the best. The H joint - just the one - is not nice but nothing 'exciting'. If this happened throughout an entire room now you have cause to worry. The scratches should not be there. The pin hole isn't nice either. It was either there because someone nailed through it or it was there because it came from the factory that way. Hard to say but certainly annoying. The BUCKLING needs to be fixed. That can NOT be left in place. These get pulled and reinstalled. And if that means removing the baseboard again...then not your fault. As for the rest, I would ask for discounts. I know you want perfection but the building industry doesn't have that word in it's repertoire. Getting discounts is a nice bonus. Having money in your pocket at the end of a renovation is a HUGE advantage. Now for the tile, I would be careful with the subfloor structure. Tile on wood is allowed....so long as the subfloor has the appropriate deflection rating. That is when the joist measurements (on-centre measurement) is added to the TOTAL THICKNESS of the subfloor (two layers at least) to get a deflection rating. The tile you have ordered/purchased has a MINIMUM deflection rating. The subfloor will need to MEET or EXCEED the deflection rating. And THAT'S where 'underlayment' comes in. Plywood is regularly used to 'stiffen' a subfloor to achieve a deflection rating. Unfortunately they are doing the tile LAST....which means it is entirely possible the tile will sit HIGHER than the hardwood. I'm not sure if it will or if it won't. You will need to speak with the GC (flooring guy you hired...not his subs).

SJ McCarthy, thanks for the tips about cork vs foam. We're not house project newbies - we've done drywall, built-ins, moulding, baseboard, window framing/trim, etc - and actually installed nearly all the baseboard in our house so removing and reinstalling is a non-issue. Our house has just five rooms. The hardwood goes from the living area straight into the bedrooms (continuous) so no transitions there. Where it transitions to tile in the bathroom and kitchen/dining area already have drops (the hardwood is lower than the tile) so adding laminate on top would make the floors more even or just reverse the drop slightly if anything. Edit: We measured and there is currently a 15mm drop from our kitchen to hardwoods already, so adding laminate on top would help there. The interior doors are ones we already replaced and trimmed to fit (so nothing new there), but it would be ideal to not have to shave them further. I would love to find a floating floor that can go over what we have without requiring us to shave the doors more so that when removed the doors wouldn't have a weird gap over the hardwood. Update: Hubby informed me that the four doors we have that open over the hardwood each cost about $30, so shaving them further is a non-issue and replacing them in the future is also a non-issue. The door frames trim is already higher cut (we cut little spacers to put under them to make them flush with the floor) because carpet had previously been installed over the hardwood. I'm not opposed to using a different material other than laminate either, I just don't want to have to move myself and everything out of the house only to pay a lot to have our floors redone and then have them look worn in another few years. With a floating floor we can do the install ourselves and do it piecemeal, one room at a time, which is logistically a bit more manageable. We also wouldn't mind changing the up the color of our floors a bit, so laminate would allow us to do that while maintaining the integrity of the existing floor.