Quarter round moldings
are installed against the existing baseboard.
The purpose is usually caused by two
reasons. One is the actual hardwood installation
needs space to expand and contract so a gap is
purposely left to allow for this. Also the
actual finished floors may have mild undulations
in it because of the subfloor condition. This is
not an installer error because they are not
responsible for perfectly flat subfloor
conditions.
Quarter round itself
usually measures 3/4" x 3/4" but there are other
variations depending of what look you prefer.
For hardwood floors, nearly all prefinished
manufacturers offer a prefinished quarter round
molding in that size.
Tools Needed
If you're looking at a
very small job, you may only need to use a miter
chop saw. For instance a 10 x 10 foot room will
probably only need about 34 lineal feet of
quarter round (calculated at 4 walls multiplied
by 10 feet minus two standard doorways of 3 feet
each) In these modern times the work will go
much quicker if you add in a cool pneumatic trim
nailing gun, but that will need a compressor
too.
I find it hard to
understand why so many do it yourself sites
suggest using actual finish nails, a hammer and
a drill to install quarter round. The drill is
intended to create a hole the nail can penetrate
without bending. This is important on harder
species but not necessary if you're using pine.
The problems with this method are two fold; it
takes longer and secondly you sometimes loose a
tight fit where two pieces come together in
corners or at mitered seams.
I think most of us that
may handle a project like this can afford to go
out and buy or rent tools that can speed the job
up and look great upon completion. This leads us
to compressors and the finish trim nailer. With
trim installations you want to use the thinnest
gauge nail possible, sometimes called wire
nails. You can find them in one and two inch
lengths. For our purposes anything over one inch
will suffice. The beauty in wire nails is
they will not leave a gaping hole like the
standard eight penny nail the DIY sites suggest.
No large amounts of putty will be needed. The
hole created is smaller, it will be less
noticeable before and after it's filled with a
matching putty.
Compressor selections are
numerous. Realistically you may not even need to
buy one. Maybe a friend down the street or a
relative has one. In any event, they are handy
to have around the house when the job is done,
and can be purchased for under $100.
Where to Start?
Let's use an example of
two rooms with a closet and hallway shown on the
right.
Sorry, we don't
have any
graphic
artists on board for now so we'll have
to settle with some homemade illustrations.
Cream colored pieces shown are quarter round. In
step one, we've cut two lengths of quarter round
with two outside miters on each end away
from the corner. The cuts on the other ends,
intersecting with the corner will appear the
same, unless you choose to use the coping
method.
Depending on what method
is chosen, fasten the first two pieces with a
finish nailer but nailing into the baseboard and
not the floor on a 45 degree angle. It's best to
start in the corner while at the same time
making sure the fit is tight and snug. Once the
desired fit is achieved, fasten with trim
nailer, and work your way to both ends nailing
every 12 inches or so. Keep downward pressure on
the quarter round so it's flush with the floor.
Without doing so, you may find a few unwanted
gaps and you'll have to start all over.
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