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recently I have a contractor installed hardwood floor in my house. However, after the baseboard are reinstalled back, there are huge gaps between wall and baseboards. They said it is normal and let myself do the caulking. But about 30% of the gap is pretty huge and hard to caulking. I uploaded a few pictures using a coin to measure the gap. Could anyone help and tell me if this gap is normal or not? Thank you!

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    That's not huge, if re installing used trim at a new level there may be a difference in the surface that is causing some of the gap. I would want the 1 a bit smaller but to get it tight the trim may need to be cut because of its new height.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Dec 2, 2018 at 19:03
  • Was old base board caulked and that old caulk left on the wall? Perhaps the new base is not nailed to studs?can you push the base board back to the wall? Is the gap everywhere or just in certain spots like near corners?
    – Kris
    Commented Dec 2, 2018 at 21:20
  • Hi Kris, I can see in some places through the gap the old caulk on the wall was not cleaned well. Most gaps cannot be pushed to the wall. The gap is almost everywhere, not limited to corners.
    – Dark.Passenger
    Commented Dec 2, 2018 at 22:39
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    Reinstalling old baseboard requires attention to old caulking and paint build up. Also the back side may have splinters at old nail holes that need to be scraped away. I always spend the extra few bucks it takes to buy new baseboard. I would seriously consider pulling it off scraping wall and putting new down. It will look way better than trying to rehab what’s there
    – Kris
    Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 0:24
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    To extend to what @Kris was saying and that is new will look better unless you are wanting the rustic/old world look. If the baseboard is real wood, then repurposing it may be a better choice. If not, then new will be better. Also, paint it before it goes down so you only need to caulk and touch up the nail holes.
    – Micah Montoya
    Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 13:10

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If the new hardwood floor was about 3/4" thick, there may be no way to nail the baseboard trim to the 2X4 plate. That new height of the finished floor raised the trim above that 2X4 plate. You may need to locate the studs and use them as your nail surface. This is common when you add a second floor on top of another floor. You could also try nailing near the bottom of the trim, on a downward angle to try and "grab some wood" near the bottom of the trim boards. A nail gun may help in this process.

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That could probably be a little tighter, but isn't terrible. (The underlying reason for a bit of a gap is that walls aren't perfectly straight or plumb.)

Where I work, caulking is done by the painter, and these gaps will caulk perfectly fine.

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