Baseboards and Floor Molding

Baseboard, also sometimes called a mopboard or a skirting board, is a decorative board used to cover the sometimes ragged and uneven bottoms of plaster walls or drywall. From this modest purpose baseboards and the accompanying moldings have taken on a life of their own. Even a simple board with a cove molding on top and a piece of shoe molding or quarter round at the bottom resembles the base of a Greek column. And they can be stacked in layers just like crown molding.

Many designs of baseboard are available as well as sizes. Materials range from stain grade woods in pine, poplar, maple and mahogany to finger jointed paint grade pine. Cellular PVC baseboard and moldings are also available. These moldings last and take paint well, however hand nailing into the smaller moldings can be problematic. The variety of profiles runs into the hundreds but here as with many things, simplicity is a virtue. Basic moldings are easier to paint and keep clean as well as easier to match later on.

Shoe molding and quarter round are good for extending the bottom out to cover flooring that may be a little short of the wall. It is also good when putting down new flooring since the baseboard doesn’t have to be removed. Just lay the new flooring within half an inch of the base board and cover the uneven edges with shoe molding or quarter round.

When installing baseboards and moldings it is better to cope the inside corners rather than mitering them since nailing them in tends to open up the joint of a miter.