Adding baseboards over...

We are having wood floors put in our home right now. They didn't pull up the baseboards however. Our baseboards weren't extremely tall anyway and I have a feeling that after they add the shoe molding they are going to look pretty short. I was wondering if there are baseboards out there that you can actually put over your old ones. i.e. the top of ours that is left is pretty small. Maybe there is something that is beveled out on the inside so it would fit over the old? I don't know.....

Thanks!

Craig L.

 

not that i'm aware of,depending on the contractor it is common for the installer not to remove the base and just put the shoe mold or 1/4 round on top.Now i prefer to remove the base cause i don't like the look of shoe mold but that is purely personal and both ways are considered acceptable.

The problem now is that these should have addressed BEFORE the installation was started and not after.How far along are they?If too far along to have them stop and remove the flooring to remove the base and start over then i'm afraid you are either stuck with the outcome as far as the base goes or hire someone to come in and raise the base or install new taller base

 

If the new flooring is being installed under the existing base, just rip the old base out. Any decent lumber yard (or big box) should have a nice selection of baseboards in various widths in either paint or stain grade. Be forwarned that stain grade oak gets a little pricey.

 

belive it or not dave i have seen this same problem before..... not sure if you will have to go this route, hopefully your installers havnt gotten too far to fix it for you.... before i started installing flooring i worked for a guy who trimmed out new construction and remodel jobs.....we did a house with this same problem and it does look kinda dumb...anyway what we did was take a jambsaw....not a hand saw but an electric jambsaw and hold it almost flush with the floor. put a piece of cardboard underneath teh saw so not to scrath the floor....then you can take the old base off.......yeah you will have to put down shoemold or 1/4 round to hide the cut area but its a fix to your problem. we had to do this because they had the wood tight against the base

 

Hey all.

Thanks for replies. Yeah, they are way too far along now. The floor is all installed. It was one of those situations where he said the wood wouldn't come up too high, but I am afraid it does. Don't get me wrong, it's not like there aren't any baseboards left, but not much.

Oh well. The floors look good though.

Thanks!

Craig L.

 

if your trimwork is painted, here's an inexpensive and simple trick for "building up" your baseboards:

just add a small (narrow) piece of trim a couple of inches above your existing baseboard, and then paint that wall space in between (and the new piece of trim) the same color as the rest of the woodwork. you won't be able to tell that it's "wall" and not just a nice, tall baseboard, provided the wall is nice and smooth - you might have to skim coat that area first.