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We had a situation where, for some odd reason, the previous owners had installed the baseboards over the SUB-floor, therefore, when they put hardwoods down, it came up 3/4" on the baseboard, making the baseboard look really tiny. Since we were replacing the hardwoods, we decided to go ahead and remove AND replace the baseboards (you can buy a contractor's pack yourself of primed pine 3.25" at HD for $50 per 120 linear feet...pretty decent deal). We considered just popping off the old and re-applying them, but the labor cost involved was not much cheaper and it probably would have looked like crap. This would also be a great opportunity to really overhaul your place and install 4.25" or 5.25" baseboards, which would look really nice (although your cost will go up). For me personally, if your baseboards look okay and are sitting on the hardwoods, I would just have shoe mold added and it will probably look really nice.
How did you get the baseboard removed without tearing things up?
By the way, I bought that exact same Contractor Pack at Home Depot a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, it's now $78 (unless you're buying composite instead of primed pine).
Personally, I remove the baseboards when I refinish floors. However, that's an OCD thing. Can't stand the thought of the entire floor not being refinished.
What about the floor under door jambs and casing? Do you take all that off too?
We had our hardwood floors redone right before selling our last house. 2 bedrooms/hallway/livingroom
not one inch of baseboards were removed, (good lawdy the thought of having damaged plaster and lath walls )
They were original 1920's hardwood floors and trim. They looked fantastic in the end, I don't know how they did it but there was no visible difference, they went right up to the edges of the baseboard (no shoe molding there) with no damage to the baseboards either.
We had our hardwood floors redone right before selling our last house. 2 bedrooms/hallway/livingroom
not one inch of baseboards were removed, (good lawdy the thought of having damaged plaster and lath walls )
They were original 1920's hardwood floors and trim. They looked fantastic in the end, I don't know how they did it but there was no visible difference, they went right up to the edges of the baseboard (no shoe molding there) with no damage to the baseboards either.
That's some great workmanship! Undoubtedly they were using palm sanders, or something of similar size.
We had our hardwood floors refinished a few years ago, and only the quarter round was removed. Looked perfect! The 3 companies that gave us quotes at the time all only removed the quarter round....
We had our hardwood floors redone right before selling our last house. 2 bedrooms/hallway/livingroom
not one inch of baseboards were removed, (good lawdy the thought of having damaged plaster and lath walls )
They were original 1920's hardwood floors and trim. They looked fantastic in the end, I don't know how they did it but there was no visible difference, they went right up to the edges of the baseboard (no shoe molding there) with no damage to the baseboards either.
We refinished three bedrooms, hallway, living room and dining room and did not remove any wood trim. We have the original 1899 oak floors. We too saw no visible difference in height, and the "refinish" was done right up to the edge of the shoe molding. The floors look fabulous! The only thing we had to do was repaint the molding, but we would have done that anyway.
How did you get the baseboard removed without tearing things up?
By the way, I bought that exact same Contractor Pack at Home Depot a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, it's now $78 (unless you're buying composite instead of primed pine).
Weird...wonder if the price increase hadn't hit Atlanta yet, as I just bought them two weeks ago!
As for not tearing anything up, I did look at the project the day after they removed the baseboards and noted some damage (mostly just the drywall paper peeled off in some cases...one instance of a hole in the drywall, probably from the prybar), but since it was all being covered up again by the baseboards, I didn't fret about it too much. Now you can't tell. I also opted for the white shoe mold (instead of stained, which we had upstairs) and it really makes the baseboard standout and contrasts nicely with the dark jacobean floors. It gives a bit more weight to the 3.25" baseboards, I think.
never seen base removed. the edge sander will sand right up to it perfectly. shoe is removed as it is so small and curved that the edge sander tends to ride up it
Wow, thanks for all of the replies. It looks like the opinions are as mixed on here as from the contractors who came out and gave us quotes. Two of them recommend removing the baseboards and two don't.
One who came out today says that he has a sander with an edge so thin that it can actually fit into the gap between the baseboard and floor. According to my wife, he was the most professional of everyone and actually says that he can refinish the floors in two days because he uses a water borne finish. I know that the water borne finish dries in just a few hours, but does it seem possible to do it that quickly and get a good result?
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