Do You Need Quarter Round With Hardwood Floors

1920s home and all floors were leveled in new rooms.

Do you need quarter round with hardwood floors.

This gap will help ensure your flooring has enough room to expand and contract throughout the seasons. We ve written a fair amount about installing baseboard and quarter round for hardwood floors and the right finish nailer for doing this job. Everything you need to consider when choosing a stain color for your hardwood floors. One recurring question from fellow diyers tackling this project is whether you should lay quarter round that matches the wood floor or just paint the quarter round white to match the baseboard.

The answer is a simple yes. Install the base shoe quarter round molding over the expansion gap created by your new hardwood flooring. If you have several layers of paint it might look worse if you remove the quarter round. We just finished a gut reno of kitchen powder and mud rooms.

One of the most common questions people ask is if they really need the base shoe or if it s just an add on. I asked my husband why none of the new baseboards had quarter round molding thought carpenter forgot and he commented if the floors are level you don t need it its more to hide uneven floors and gaps. The repercussion of not installing at the correct gap length is way more expensive and looks way worse then installing a quarter round base to your molding. If you type baseboard in a search in the living room photos you ll see examples of each way with and without quarter round.

So for those people living in places not relegated to the size of a box you must use quarter round to cover an expansion gap for hardwood floors. Is there any reason to use quarter round when installing hardwood floors i am going to have oak floors installed not prefinished and want baseboard molding put up as well. I have one wood floor installer who insists on using quarter round plus the baseboard for my floor installation whereas my contractor and another floor installer say it s not necessary. There could be regional preferences but i like quarter round.

For example the trim below would be a major pain to re finish and look anywhere near decent. My personal inclination would be to remove the quarter round myself have a professional do the floor sanding and then re trim it and paint it myself. The installers want to put up quarter round in addition to the baseboard moldings. Do i really need baseboard molding.

I like it to match the baseboard but i notice in the south in newer homes they are matching the quarter round to the floor. He will take up all floor mounted heating vents tape over electrical outlets and other jacks cover ceiling fans seal the room off from the rest of the house with plastic. Usually the contractor will remove all the doors opening into the room pull up quarter round and base molding and remove or drive into the floor all protruding nails.