I recently bought around 650sft of laminate floors, to replace around 570sft of carpeted floors in our MN home. These will go in on the main floor, right above an unfinished basement.
I'm planning on installing these myself in the next 3 or 4 weeks, and am in the process of getting my act together (I strongly believe that planning is more critical than the actual execution of a project).
Being paranoid about doing an excellent job, I'm debating whether to remove and re-install the existing baseboard molding, or leave the baseboard in place and install quarter-round (or shoe, depending on what looks better) molding after the laminate is laid.
The laminate floor (with its attached pad) is about as tall as the carpet is now, and adjusting for an 1/8" gap in the vertical dimension, the baseboard will stay at the same height.
So, which is better?
- Don't touch the baseboard, install laminate 1/4" from the baseboard and use quarter-round to cover the gap?
- Remove baseboard, install laminate, and put the baseboard back.
I'm not averse to doing extra work to make sure this looks as professional as possible.