We are in our 9th month in our newly purchased house (built in 1997). Upon purchasing, we had the w2w carpeting on the 2nd floor removed and pergo installed (2 young kids). Due to the nature of the product and the install (floating floor, existing base molding, etc.), we have a gap in places between the base molding and the pergo. As a result, I am installing a version of shoe molding to cover that gap. The profile we went with is more geared towards a top cap of a chair rail, but the wife likes it as it dresses things up nicely. The question I have is one of proper install in a specific location. At the top of the stairs, the top end cap of the Pergo meets up with the base molding. The shoe molding should run to the end of the base molding, but to that I would have notch the bottom of it. I am thinking that when I run the shoe, I stop it at the cap. What do you think? see the pick.

 

Guess it would have been a lot of work to pull the base molding and lower it, since that would have meant repainting....

I think it will look odd if you stop it at the cap. If the height of the shoe allows, I would scribe it and trim it to hug the cap, and even wrap it around the end of the base molding.

An alternative would be to install a corner block that is scribed to the cap and painted to match the trim, and then have the shoe die into the corner block.

 

Have an ossilating saw?
That would be a way to cut that stair trim in place in a few seconds.

 

Scribing the shoe to fit the cap is probably the best way if the shoe has enough height. If not you could cut the cap to butt against the shoe?

 

I guess it depends on what color your shoe molding is. If you painted the molding white to match the base molding then do an end cut and stop it at the stair nose. If you stain to match the floor, then you would scribe over the stair nose to end closer to the edge of the base.

 

I would want to see the moulding you intend to use before giving an opinion. Anything other than baseshoe could possibly look really dumb.

 

I apologize for not responding sooner. though I had subscribed to the thread, but looks like I did not. Anyway, The shoe will painted to match the base. I will cut a short piece and lay it against the base and take a pick tomorrow. I do have an oscillating saw, so the cut should be simple if needed.

As for removing the base and lowering it, yes it would have meant repainting, though IMHO, if were to remove the base, I would have replaced with something taller.

 

Here are two pics that show the cap we are using. Not the proper application, but the boss wanted something dressier than standard shoe.

 

That is baseboard cap. IMO it's too fat to be used in place of shoemold and I'd be concerned about dirt getting trapped under due to the profile.

 

I agree with Mark. It just doesn't look right. Wrong application and wrong style. I would go with a simple 1/2" X 3/4" base shoe. If you have a router or shaper you could make your own 1/2" X 1" that would give you more material to scribe to the cap.

 

Yep, I know what it is and what it is used for. Tried to talk her out of it go with something less obtrusive, but what the boss wants, the boss gets, plus we have 300' of this already painted. It is what it is.

 

Yep, looks dumb alright.

Since wives always get what they want, run it all the way to the end... cut the end like you are turning a corner and put a little return on the end. Then after the return is glued on and dry, notch it out over your board.

 

I would scribe the base shoe over the stair nose. It will leave thin material, so I would add a little clear adhesive caulk behind it for support.

If it was insisted this molding be used as shoe, I would at least rip off the bottom edge a little.
The ripping would reduce the round over that's against the floor and get the bottom more flat.

 

It would be easiest to scribe the base profile if you have a scrap piece of the stair nosing left over. Otherwise, a contour tool can be your friend.

General Tools 837 Contour Gauge Duplicator, 6-Inch - - Amazon.com

 

I actually some of the nosing left over, as the Lowes installer gave me a dinged up piece to use as a visual aid as we were trying to figure out how what we wanted for nosing.