Remove and reinstall, replace entirely, or leave in place and add a shoe. Cost, paint lines and the height of the new floor all feed into this.
Score the paint line before pulling anything, then remove in labelled lengths so pieces go back to the wall they came off.
Cut to the room as it actually is, cope internal corners, mitre external ones, and scribe the bottom edge where the floor is not level.
Fix into studs, set the nails, fill the holes and caulk the top edge so the run is ready for its finish coat.
Wood, laminate and most floating floors are installed with a perimeter gap so the floor can move without pushing against the walls. That gap is deliberate and it stays. Baseboard, or baseboard plus a shoe moulding, is what conceals it, and the trim is fastened to the wall rather than to the floor so the floor underneath is still free to move. Nailing trim down through a floating floor is the quiet cause of a lot of buckling.
Baseboard is the last thing installed and the first thing anyone notices.
Confirm what the floor manufacturer required at the perimeter and whether the chosen trim profile actually covers it on every wall.
MDF trim, thick paint build-up and old brad nails all reduce the odds of a clean removal. We say where reuse is realistic before anything is pulled.
Check the floor against a long straightedge. Where it falls away, the bottom edge of the trim has to be scribed or a shoe added rather than leaving a tapering shadow gap.
Older Calgary walls bow and lean. Long straight runs need the bow taken up in the fixing, and external corners need the actual angle measured rather than assumed to be ninety degrees.
Door casings, stair skirts, cabinet ends and hearths all need a resolved detail where the baseboard meets them, including end returns on open ends.
Flooring Experts Calgary installs baseboard and shoe moulding in Calgary homes once the new floor is down, covering the perimeter expansion gap the floor needs.
Every new floating or nailed floor is installed with a gap at the perimeter so the material can move. That gap is intentional and it stays there. The only question is what covers it.
Removing the existing baseboard and putting it back down onto the new floor gives the cleanest result. The trim sits on the finished surface, there is no shoe line, and the room reads as though the floor was always there. It costs the most in labour and it carries a risk, which is that old trim does not always come off in one piece.
Replacing the baseboard entirely is the choice when the existing profile is dated, when it is MDF that will not survive a lift, or when the paint build-up is heavy enough that removal will damage the drywall.
Leaving the baseboard in place and adding a shoe or quarter round is the quickest and cheapest route. It works, and it is what most installations end up using. The consequence is that the old paint line stays where it is, and the shoe covers the gap below it. In a room where the new floor is noticeably thinner or thicker than the old one, that reveal can look like an afterthought.
One technical point that applies to all three. Trim is fastened to the wall, never down through the floor. Nailing baseboard or shoe into a floating floor pins it and stops it moving, and that is a common quiet cause of buckling a season or two later.
Rooms are not rectangles and walls are not flat, and Calgary's older stock makes the point emphatically. Pre-1960 inner-city homes and much of the 1960s to 1980s bungalow ring have walls that bow along their length and lean out of plumb, and corners that are somewhere near ninety degrees without committing to it.
That has three practical consequences for trim.
External corners get their actual angle measured rather than cut at forty-five degrees and hoped for. Internal corners get coped instead of mitred, because a coped joint absorbs a corner that is out of square and stays closed when the wood moves.
Long runs need the bow taken up in the fixing pattern, pulling the trim to the wall at the right points rather than leaving a visible wave.
And where the floor itself is not level, the bottom edge of the baseboard gets scribed to follow it. This comes up most over basement slabs, which in this city are frequently out of flat because expansive clay moves basement floor slabs far more than it moves footings. A run of baseboard cut dead straight against a floor that falls away leaves a tapering shadow, and the eye finds it immediately.
The finish quality of a baseboard run is decided at the joints.
Long walls need a scarf joint rather than two butted square ends, glued and fastened so the seam closes and stays closed. Mitres on external corners get glued as well as nailed. Nail holes are set below the surface and filled, and the top edge is caulked to the wall so there is no dark line along the run.
Indoor relative humidity in Calgary routinely falls under 30 per cent during the heating season, below Health Canada's winter guidance of roughly 30 to 35 per cent, and chinooks make the swings sharper by shifting conditions within hours. Wood trim responds by shrinking, and external mitres are where that shows first as a hairline at the point of the corner.
Coping, gluing and filling before the finish coat all reduce it substantially. Some seasonal movement remains normal in a natural material, and a hairline that appears in February and closes in May is the floor and the trim behaving exactly as wood behaves in this climate.
If the baseboard comes off and goes back down onto the new floor, no shoe is needed. If it stays on the wall while the floor changes, a shoe or quarter round is usually the only way to cover the gap left underneath, because the old paint line will not match the new floor height.
Quarter round is a true quarter circle, equal in height and depth. Shoe moulding is taller than it is deep, so it projects less into the room and reads as a slimmer line. Shoe is the more common choice with a modern square baseboard.
Sometimes. Solid wood trim with a modest paint build-up usually survives removal. MDF trim, heavily painted trim and anything fixed with a lot of adhesive often does not, and long pieces are the most likely to break. We tell you which way it is likely to go before pulling it.
Because the floor is not perfectly level there, which is normal, particularly over a basement slab. The fix is scribing the bottom edge of the trim to the floor, or adding a shoe moulding that follows the contour.
Indoor air in Calgary gets very dry through the heating season, often under 30 per cent relative humidity, which is below Health Canada's winter guidance of roughly 30 to 35 per cent. Wood trim shrinks in those conditions and external mitres are where it shows. Coping internal corners, gluing mitres and filling before the finish coat all reduce it, and some seasonal movement remains normal.
Painting is agreed as a separate item rather than assumed. As standard we fasten, set and fill the nail holes and caulk the top edge so the run is ready for its finish coat.