We are building a house and I noticed this builder uses wood color quarter round on white baseboards when they install wood floors. I have asked if they could install white quarter round and the sales counselor said he had never had that request before and says the wood colored makes it a more finished look. He is checking with the builder to see if we can get the white but I was curious what others were doing.

We've always done white. Interesting though. Don't know that I've ever seen wood color

Wood color wood be stained quarter rounds right?

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Wood color wood be stained quarter rounds right?

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Not necessarily stained so it probably isn't "wood". I think these quarter rounds match the engineered hard wood flooring.

This is an existing house from builder:




This is more of what I am wanting:

The floor installer will likely cut the base boards so the flooring slips in underneath after they skim the floor. The quarter round will be out in after the floor is installed. Staining the 1 quarter round to match the floor would be done by the flooring guy. To paint it write can be done, but your contractor will bring the painter back in.

Or that's how I recall things going when my parents built their home. Their is stained to match the wood floor.

Ours is white to match the baseboards. Our flooring company requested the paint color used for the baseboards from us and pre-painted the quarter round before installing.

I think white quarter round looks better

I've never been a fan of stained 1/4 round. To me it looks strange because it creates the effect of the floor on a vertical surface. On my jobs I will prepaint the quarter round when painting the rest of the house so it matches the baseboard perfectly. It actually should be cheaper for them to use paint grade finger joint 1/4 round instead of having to buy solid stain grade.

I have seen it done and don't like it. Personally the trim is part of the baseboard and the floor should be horizontal only. I have started seeing stained more often though and cannot figure out why

It should be white because it is part of the trim (baseboard), not part of the floor.

My vote is no quarter round. Install the baseboards on top of the wood flooring and make sure that all cuts end 1/4-3/8" from the drywall.

It seems I am not in a minority in going with white for the quarter round.

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My vote is no quarter round. Install the baseboards on top of the wood flooring and make sure that all cuts end 1/4-3/8" from the drywall.

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This would be my preferred way but didn't think about it in time. They have already installed the baseboards , trim, and painted.

I've had both but I definitely prefer the quarter round to match the baseboards rather than the floor. Seems like it's more common for builders/flooring guys to do the opposite, though. I'm guessing since a lot of HW comes pre-stained, it's easier to get trim that matches the wood, rather than having to paint it to match whatever paint color the builder uses (I've seen very little true-white trim lately. It often looks white compared to the paint color but is actually some sort of off-white or cream color).

If it were in the main living areas, I'd insist that it match the baseboards. In my current house, I only have wood in the bedrooms, so the stained quarter round is tolerable.

At least the baseboard looks vertical enough near the bottom... I've seen people remove carpet and install hardwood or tile in rooms that have the baseboard with the sort of generic semi-detailed profile cut into it and then end up with a huge caulk-filled gap because the shoe molding doesn't fit up against it very well.

BTW make sure they at least use shoe instead of quarter round.

I'm no expert, but my opinion is it should be white, because the floor molding is supposed to mirror/represent the base of the column in classical Greek architecture (all the moldings are intended to do this as I understand it). There's a great article on it on thisiscarpentry.com.

I have white & I prefer the looks of the white as opposed to the wood.

Why use quarter round on a brand new install?

The only thing I can think of is it is "easier" on the builder. They have the trim guys come in and do all the baseboards, shelving in closets, pantry, hang doors, etc at one time. Then the painters come in and do first coat.

The builder of my Katy house did the same thing so it must be a new builder way of thinking. We had tile in that house so it didn't click to ask about it on this one where we are getting wood installed even though I know you can do the baseboard after tile as well.

Maybe it is a true custom home builder vs semi-custom builder difference.

No quarter rounds is the winner here. It has a cleaner look. Sure, they have to do things slightly out of their preferred order, but it looks much cleaner. I built a house with quarter rounds and didn't like the look. On the next house, I made sure I didn't have quarter rounds.

If you can have them skip the quarter round and use an upgraded baseboard. IMO quarter round is used to hide short cuts along the wall. I just installed new nailed down hardwood in my house last summer myself. Left about 1/4 to 1/3 inch between wall and then installed a 6 inch baseboard and it looks so much cleaner IMO.

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Why use quarter round on a brand new install?

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because it allows for less precise cuts along the walls. If you know you are going to have 1/2-3/4" of trim covering things from the baseboard, you don't have to be as precise, which would take more time. More time costs more money.

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Why use quarter round on a brand new install?

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because it allows for less precise cuts along the walls. If you know you are going to have 1/2-3/4" of trim covering things from the baseboard, you don't have to be as precise, which would take more time. More time costs more money.

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Not sure about this because buying, cutting and installing quarter round also costs money. It should not take any more time to get an accurate measurement assuming the installer knows what they are doing. I installed a subfloor and hardwood last summer about 1500 Sq. feet and it went fairly quickly doing it myself.

I think it is obvious why quarter round is used. It 100% hides any gap between the top of the flooring and the baseboard molding. Flooring height varies - engineered is sometimes as thin at 3/8 and up to about 5/8 inch.

My existing flooring (being replaced) has hardwood quarter round the color of the flooring. We are changing to white for the new flooring. Although our existing molding matches the flooring, I think white will look better by emphasizing the flooring itself.

I believe the reason why builders use quarter round isn't just so the floor person can be more sloppy in his cuts. It's because the builder can get the trim guy to put the baseboards down with the other trim work at the same time.
For example,
1) Trim guy comes in and puts baseboards, crown, etc in. This allows the painters, etc to do their tasks.
2) Flooring guy comes in and puts in wood/tile to butt up against the baseboards.
3) They put in quarter rounds.

Whereas if you put wood/tile up the sheetrock, then the trim guy has to come in after the flooring work (to do it right). The pros of this method is the baseboard is on top of the flooring (making the baseboard taller) vs losing the thickness of your flooring.

If I were building now - I'd have no problem with quarter round. I want all trim and painting done instead of my expensive floors getting trashed by other contractors with ladders, heavy shoes, and dropped equipment.

Well got my answer from the builder. For some reason they are unable to make the change to white. This comes from the "Construction Area Manager".

Guess I will have to replace or just live with it.

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I believe the reason why builders use quarter round isn't just so the floor person can be more sloppy in his cuts. It's because the builder can get the trim guy to put the baseboards down with the other trim work at the same time.
For example,
1) Trim guy comes in and puts baseboards, crown, etc in. This allows the painters, etc to do their tasks.
2) Flooring guy comes in and puts in wood/tile to butt up against the baseboards.
3) They put in quarter rounds.

Whereas if you put wood/tile up the sheetrock, then the trim guy has to come in after the flooring work (to do it right). The pros of this method is the baseboard is on top of the flooring (making the baseboard taller) vs losing the thickness of your flooring.

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Winner.

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Well got my answer from the builder. For some reason they are unable to make the change to white. This comes from the "Construction Area Manager".

Guess I will have to replace or just live with it.

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If you really want white, ask him to credit the cost (ha!) or prime and paint and leave it uninstalled.

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Well got my answer from the builder. For some reason they are unable to make the change to white. This comes from the "Construction Area Manager".

Guess I will have to replace or just live with it.

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If you really want white, ask him to credit the cost (ha!) or prime and paint and leave it uninstalled.

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Yeah nice laugh when asking to get credits...We have built twice and neither would give credits for something we "deleted" or "removed".

We are going to have them proceed with the molding that matches the wood and let it go for now. If we get bored then we will start removing the shoe molding and redo with white.

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Well got my answer from the builder. For some reason they are unable to make the change to white. This comes from the "Construction Area Manager".

Guess I will have to replace or just live with it.

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If you really want white, ask him to credit the cost (ha!) or prime and paint and leave it uninstalled.

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Yeah nice laugh when asking to get credits...We have built twice and neither would give credits for something we "deleted" or "removed".

We are going to have them proceed with the molding that matches the wood and let it go for now. If we get bored then we will start removing the shoe molding and redo with white.

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Is this a custom house ?

Sounds like no, or semi.

I would say semi-custom but it is built by a "tract" builder. Ashton Woods is the builder. We started with their plan and we did some structural changes inside the home and they let us pick pretty much anything under the sun as far as cabinets, counters, tile, etc. When we built in Katy we used another builder that only let you pick from their "stock", so we felt like we had to settle on the design items for that house.

Overall Ashton has been great to work with and we would build with them again even with this minor issue.

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I would say semi-custom but it is built by a "tract" builder. Ashton Woods is the builder. We started with their plan and we did some structural changes inside the home and they let us pick pretty much anything under the sun as far as cabinets, counters, tile, etc. When we built in Katy we used another builder that only let you pick from their "stock", so we felt like we had to settle on the design items for that house.

Overall Ashton has been great to work with and we would build with them again even with this minor issue.

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If the biggest complaint you have with a builder is having to paint some molding, I think you've found a pretty good one.

I'm a PM for a production builder in Houston. It's a time/cost issue. The wood flooring company installs the stained shoe when the engineered floor is installed. Keeps things simple instead of giving the painting subcontractor more to do (and screw up). If there was more demand from clients I'm sure more builders would consider it but it's not something that I've ever seen brought up until I saw this thread.