Can you install flush baseboards without replacing your floors?
Installing modern flush baseboards usually requires pulling up existing flooring, as traditional thick baseboards hide the raw gaps left between the floor edge and drywall. Attempting this retrofit while keeping current floors leads to difficult installation hurdles and visible gaps, causing many homeowners to abandon the project.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Adding another layer of drywall to bring the walls closer to the flooring
- 2Replacing the flooring around the perimeter of the room
- 3Incorporate floor-level LED lighting to mask gaps in hallways
- 4Pulling up the existing flooring and reinstalling it to eliminate gaps
- 5Abandoning the flush trim idea and choosing a different style of traditional trim
- 6Replacing the flooring around the perimeter and trying to match the old product
- 7Incorporate floor-level LED lighting in hallways to work the gap into a design detail
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We’re planning a remodel and love the look of flush baseboards and flush doors. The catch: we really want to keep our existing flooring.”source ↗
“I looked at doing this and ended up deciding it was too hard.”source ↗
“We’re planning a remodel and love the look of flush baseboards and flush doors. The catch: we really want to keep our existing flooring.”source ↗
“Our current baseboards are fairly thick and hide an inconsistent gap between the edge of the flooring and the drywall.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 6How to install flooring around intricate door trim and molding
- 28How to tile over an uneven subfloor without tearing it up
- 2How to install vinyl flooring around a base cabinet without molding
- 5How to fix squeaky flooring joints along the wall
- 12How to fix a poorly installed floor transition strip
- 5Can I fix a damaged baseboard or do I have to replace it?