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We had 3/8" engineered flooring installed over our original floor in the hallway and landing. I asked the contractor to install around the door trim instead of cutting them down but did not anticipate that he would leave gaps of approx. 1" between the new flooring and trim. Help! He has installed shoe moulding over some of the trim to cover the gap and wants to cut up smaller pieces to fill in the others and then caulk. Please advise on what the appropriate fix would be. Does this require ripping up the engineered planks around the trim and recutting? What's currently there is unsightly. Please advise and thanks in advance.

shoe filling 1" gap between door trim and flooring?!

more gaps

here too

???

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  • Hello, and welcome to Home Improvement. Great pictures and question; let's see if one of our experts can help.
    – Daniel Griscom
    Jun 2, 2019 at 17:27
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    What was the reason you instructed them to not do it properly by installing under the door trim and jambs ?
    – Alaska Man
    Jun 2, 2019 at 17:36
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    “ I insisted the contractor not follow the instructions for installing the flooring properly and now I am dissatisfied with the results? Is this a case of you being a renter who cannot permanently alter the house in any way?
    – Kris
    Jun 2, 2019 at 17:42
  • He said he wasn't sure of getting a clean cut of the door (oversized, solid wood) and trim. He gave me the option of either cutting those and installing under or installing around.
    – I.L.
    Jun 2, 2019 at 17:42
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    I am sorry but it seems your installer is either not experienced or competent, or both. They gave you two bad choices: do it wrong or risk shoddy work. ( you got both ) It needs to be pulled and installed correctly by a competent installer. To scribe around that detailed trim will take a LOT of time/skill and you will still have a small gap. It needs to go under.
    – Alaska Man
    Jun 2, 2019 at 17:58

1 Answer 1

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I would have either

  1. removed the door trims, trim as necessary then refitted after,

  2. cut the door trims in-situ so that the new floor would slide under.

Have used both methods in the past - often depends on how hard it would be to remove the old door trim (sometimes they are so old they split), but cutting in-situ can be difficult - have used just a blade held in a rag as one solution.

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  • In-situ what is the full word you are implying here ???
    – Alaska Man
    Jun 2, 2019 at 18:06
  • @AlaskaMan I can spell, but can't type... :) cheers!
    – Solar Mike
    Jun 2, 2019 at 18:07
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    Aha Latin for on site ,in place
    – Kris
    Jun 3, 2019 at 1:22

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