Quarter round or remove baseboards?

Question

Hey BP community, I was hoping to get your opinion that I’ve been wracking my brain with lately. I bought a starter home a few years ago with the intention of renting it out at some point and in the process have been trying to learn how to do some work on my own. At some point I would like to install some LVP in my living room/dining room area. My question is do I opt to go the quarter round route and not remove the baseboards or remove them?

I’m leaning towards the quarter round route as it seems like something I could tackle on my own, but wanted to get everyone’s opinion on this. If I remove the baseboards I’m hesitant to do it on my own and would probably hire someone to do it.

For people that aren’t the most handy that have done this themselves, how difficult was it? What are some things I should watch out for?

Again I just want to reiterate this would be for a future rental. Anyways I appreciate any feedback, this community has been awesome!!

David Lee Hall, III · Answer

I look at a few things with this:

1) Do I want to learn

2) What is the cost of the added work

3) Will one of the options look out of place

#3 is up for debate but IMO, if you have short baseboard (3.25” standard) and you add a quality underpayment and thicker LVP, once you add your qtr round you could easily loose 20% of the height of your baseboard. I have this in my personal kitchen where prefinished wood flooring was installed over linoleum and quarter round installed without removing the trim. Guess what? It looks completely off when compared to carpet baseboard in adjacent rooms and the reveal compared to the door trim. If you have taller trim this often isn’t an issue. The 10” baseboard in my 1906 rental kitchen just got qtr round.

#1: if you want to learn, might as well do it now. Square base is easy with butt joints. If you are doing paint grade you can just miter and caulk other types. Coping is only really needed on stain grade (this can be argued).

#2: if your budget doesn’t allow it, you know the answer before you start!

Wayne Brooks · Answer

@Michael Giangiordano Installing New baseboards, cutting and mitreing, takes some practice. But....if you carefully remove them you can put them right back when you finish, as you haven’t changed any lengths. This EAY easier than cutting new boards. And yes I agree, the quarter rounds will make the baseboards look Squatty and “off”.

Steve M. · Answer

I would pull the baseboard.  If you pull it carefully you can do it without breaking it.  Mark where it came from on the back.  You can pull the nails through the baseboard from the back with channel lock pliers, or tap them out the front.  Then it's just a matter of filling holes after you reinstall them.  You could even use the same holes with slightly larger nails.

Mike Reynolds · Answer

Trim carpenter here. I wouldnt do 1/4 round, I would do shoe mould. But, if you can do shoe mould, you can do base. It will be the same miters as the base. If you cant do the base you cant do the shoe mould.

Shoe mould is not as pronounced as 1/4 round. It doesnt stick out as far It is also architecturally more correct.  1/4 round is amateur time and not used for base by a professional. Shoe mould is.

I am one of those that will argue about the coping.

Rule #1: You should cope it unless you built it yourself and know without a doubt it is square.

Rule #2: You built it yourself and had a bad day so you missed your measurement and the room is not square anyway. Too late to go back now so you have to cope it. What, do you think you have stock in the caulk company or something?

Seriously, you got this no matter what you decide. Dont be afraid to do the base because it is not much harder than the shoe slash1/4 round. You will have to buy a fairly good miter saw so if this is a one off job your better having it done for a coupla hundred bucks. Thats what a good miter saw will cost you.

James Salvant · Answer

I am a State Licensed GC and we do a lot of renovations and insurance work.  I can tell you from experience installing shoe molding or quarter round will be the easiest.  If you try to remove the base, which if fingerjointed (paint grade) will break or some will break or all will break.  You won't know until you attempt to remove.  If a couple of pieces break, can you match the profile?  If not, then you will need to replace and now have mismatched base boards from the rest of the home.  That may not be a big deal.  The 2nd thing to consider is when you remove the base boards, will you damaged the drywall above the base level.  You will need to removed the caulk line from the drywall.  When you re-install the base, you will need to caulk it to the wall.  How good can you caulk to where you have a nice transition from base to wall.  When we do an insurance job that requires removal of the base boards, we figure on painting the walls to ensure that the transition from base to walls is crisp and neat.  If you don't paint the walls, you may have an obnoxious caulk line that rolls up the wall when smooth it out with your finger.  To recap, I would leave small gap recommended by the product manufacturer and install shoe molding to hide the gap.  Shoe molding in my opinion looks better than quarter round.  Good luck.

Collin Maas · Answer

I say pull the base.  I notice every house I'm in where this wasn't done, just doesn't look correct to me.  This is great learner project.  Some things I have learned

Use caution pulling the base- you may damage the wall as you pull it off.  I like to put an old drywall trowel between the wall and base to pry against.

Pull the nails through the back.  Get a nail pulling pliers I use mine all the time. Think of it as an investment.  If you do crack or break a piece of trim don't panic- glue it back together I've even been successful with just dry fitting them together and nailing in place

I like to under cut the wall so the new floor will fit underneath the drywall or plaster. Use an oscillating tool.  Under cutting the wall let you fit the flooring under the wall (keep the 1/4" space for expansion) and the trim will sit on top nicely. Put the oscillating tool on top of a scrap piece of flooring and cut the entire perimeter of the room-good time to get the door jambs as mentioned above.  this will be a bit of a dusty mess but worth the effort IMO.

My biggest problem with the LVP is putting in the first couple of rows as it likes to move around.  I like to screw in the first plank in a location that will be covered by the trim-take the screws out after the floor is completely done.  Used hot glue on a concrete slab install and "knocked" it out when finished. Screws worked better if you have a wood subfloor.

Use a finish nailer to reinstall the trim in it's original location.

Think you will be happier that you took the extra time.

Michael Giangiordano · Answer

@David Lee Hall, III

@Bonnie Low

Thank you for the responses!

I don’t mind paying a little extra to make it look nice and this is something I’d definitely like to learn how to do on my own. I like to this call this my trial and error house.

Theresa Harris · Answer

If you carefully take the old ones off and label the backs along with the bottom of the wall so you know where each one goes, you should be fine.  You are going to have to cut the angles if you add quarter round.

What is on the floor now?  You may have enough space between the subfloor and the baseboard that the flooring will fit under it.

Mark Cios · Answer

Agreed with above. If you have short base to start with and you add a shoe, it will look like you put door trim down as a baseboard. If its wood base, it probably isn't caulked and you can easily pry them off, usually once you get it started you can usually get the rest up by hand and not cause any wall damage. If it is caulked, cut the caulk so it doesn't tear the paint. Base is relatively cheap so just buy new base and shoe(it looks more complete when you install both). When you buy new base, just get one that's slightly taller than the existing so that it covers any caulk/wall damage you may have caused. Cutting base is easy and if you get white trim vs wood you don't have to be as precise and you just caulk it and paint it. The saying goes, "I hear you can caulk up to a foot"

Quarter round or remove baseboards?

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