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The work belongs to finish carpenters, and many flooring installers offer it as well. What separates a good job is fit: tight inside corners, clean ends where baseboards meet door casings, boards that follow a floor that dips and a wall that bows, and a gap-free line along the floor that still leaves a floating floor free to move.
This page focuses on baseboards and casings: the order of work with new floors, shoe moulding and quarter round, materials for each room including basements, style and proportion, fitting to crooked rooms, and whether old trim can be reused. The trim and moulding page covers painting, winter gaps and matching historic profiles.
Replacing baseboards with new flooring: the order of work
When baseboards and floors change together, the sequence decides how clean the edge looks, and it shifts a little with the type of flooring going down.
- Removal: the caulk and paint line along the top of each baseboard is cut first, then the board is pried off against a wide block so the drywall or plaster isn't crushed.
- Labelling: pieces that will go back up are numbered on the back as they come off, since each was cut for one particular wall.
- Hard flooring: hardwood, laminate, vinyl plank and tile go in first, with the gap at the walls their instructions call for, and the baseboards are then set on the finished surface.
- Carpet: baseboards usually go on before the carpet, held slightly above the subfloor so the installer can tuck the carpet edge beneath them.
- Door casings: casings and jambs are undercut so the new floor slides beneath them instead of being notched around each profile.
- Finishing: shoe moulding or quarter round goes on last, followed by filling, caulking and the final coat of paint.
Shoe moulding vs quarter round vs taller baseboards: covering the gap at a new floor
Floating and nailed wood floors stop short of the wall, and something has to hide that gap. Quarter round is a quarter circle in section, so it projects as far from the baseboard as it stands tall. Shoe moulding is taller than it is deep, so it covers the same gap with a slimmer profile that many finish carpenters prefer. Both flex enough to follow a floor that dips between joists.
Either one should be nailed into the baseboard rather than down into the floor, so a floating floor can still expand and contract beneath it. The other option is to skip the extra moulding and set new baseboards thick enough to cover the gap directly on the finished floor, which gives a cleaner line but only makes sense when the baseboards are being replaced anyway.
Baseboard materials room by room: MDF, pine, hardwood and PVC for basements
Baseboards take more abuse than any other trim, from vacuum heads, boots, toys and wet mops, and in a basement they sit right where water shows up first. That makes the room, more than the style, the best guide to the material.
- Living rooms and bedrooms: primed MDF is the usual choice for painted baseboards, with a smooth, knot-free face that paints cleanly.
- Entrances and busy hallways: finger-jointed or solid pine, or a hardwood, shrugs off knocks better than MDF and can be touched up rather than replaced.
- Rooms with stained floors or stairs: hardwood baseboards in a matching or complementary species keep a stained look consistent.
- Kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms: PVC or thoroughly sealed wood stands up to mop water and splashes at the floor line.
- Basements on a concrete slab: PVC or another water-resistant baseboard is the safer pick, since MDF and bare wood draw moisture from a damp slab and swell after even a small flood.
- Wood in any damp area: every face, including the back and the bottom edge, is sealed before the board goes on the wall.
Baseboard height, profiles and door casings that work together
Baseboard style is largely a question of proportion. Taller baseboards suit high ceilings and older homes, while low, simple profiles fit modern rooms and basements with lower ceilings. Whatever the height, choose the baseboards and door casings together, because they meet at every doorway in the house.
- Casing thickness: casings are normally a little thicker than the baseboard, so the baseboard ends neatly against the casing's edge instead of standing proud of it.
- Plinth blocks: a small block at the foot of each casing gives a thick baseboard something to stop against and suits traditional interiors.
- Flat stock: plain, square-edged boards for both baseboards and casings, often with a heavier head casing over each door, a common look in craftsman-style homes.
- Built-up baseboards: a flat board topped with a separate cap moulding, which follows wavy walls better because the thin cap can flex.
- Consistency: one baseboard height and profile across the main living areas usually reads better than a different choice in every room.
Fitting baseboards to crooked walls, sloping floors and open ends
Few rooms are square, level or flat, and baseboards expose every flaw because they run along the wall and the floor at once. Coped inside corners, which stay tight when a corner isn't square, are standard; on tall, detailed baseboards, cutting those copes is a large share of the labour.
- Sloping floors: in an older house, the carpenter decides whether the top edge should follow the floor or stay level, then scribes the bottom so the slope reads naturally instead of leaving wedge-shaped gaps.
- Bowed walls: a stiff one-piece baseboard can't bend into a hollow, so a built-up profile, a wall repair or a careful bead of caulk closes the gap.
- Open ends: where a baseboard stops at a cabinet, a hearth or an opening, the end gets a small mitred return rather than showing a raw cut.
- Rounded drywall corners: a small corner block or a short angled piece bridges the curve where a sharp mitre would leave a gap behind it.
- Registers and outlets: floor registers and low outlets are marked out before cutting so joints don't land right beside them.
Reusing or replacing old baseboards and casings, and lead paint in older homes
Old baseboards can often go back on after a flooring job if they come off without splitting and the new floor is about as high as the old one. A thicker floor, damaged or water-stained pieces, or a profile you never liked are good reasons to replace them. A single damaged length can be spliced with a matching piece, while replacing a whole room at once avoids an obvious mix of old and new.
In older homes, baseboards and casings usually carry many coats of paint. Health Canada says a home built before 1960 probably contains lead-based paint and cautions that sanders, heat guns and blowlamps turn it into toxic dust and fumes. Prying baseboards loose cracks the paint along the top edge, and the chips land on a subfloor that is about to be covered, so have the paint tested before a flooring or trim project begins in a house of that age, and ask how debris will be contained and cleaned up.
Baseboards & Trim: frequently asked questions
Should baseboards be installed before or after new flooring?
After hard flooring such as hardwood, laminate, vinyl or tile, so they sit on the finished surface and hide the expansion gap. With carpet, baseboards usually go on first, set a little high so the carpet can be tucked beneath them.
Should shoe moulding be nailed to the floor or to the baseboard?
To the baseboard. Nailing it down into a floating floor pins the floor in place, and when the floor moves with the seasons it can buckle or open gaps elsewhere.
Can I reuse my old baseboards with new floors?
Often, if they come off intact and the new floor is close to the old one's height. Have them numbered as they're removed, and expect some touch-up of nail holes, caulk and paint once they're back on the wall.
What is the best baseboard for a basement?
Where the slab can be damp or the basement has ever taken on water, PVC or another water-resistant product is the safest choice. In a dry, finished basement, sealed wood works too, but MDF is best kept out of basements with any history of moisture.
Can a carpenter move my electric baseboard heater to install new baseboards?
The trim work, yes, but disconnecting, moving or reconnecting an electric baseboard heater is electrical work for a licensed electrician. Plan the order so the electrician removes the heater before the baseboards go in and puts it back afterward.
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Written by the LokalMatch editorial team. Reviewed by Zubair Afzal on September 10, 2026. How we write and check our guides