# Where to end quarter round??



## Tom5151

Hello,

I just installed all of the door casings, window casing, crown and baseboard in our cabin up north. Everything is knotty pine. We went for a rustic look. All of the trim is 3/4 knotty pine. That means that the door casing and baseboard are all the same thickness or flush where they meet. We will have wood flloors and I will be using quater round to finish. My question is, where should I end the quarter round when I come to the door casing? My thought would be to end it where the baseboard ends rather than cover the bottom of the door casing. I am thinking about putting some type of bullnose or rounded effect on the end of quater round to ease the hard edge. 

I am just curious if any of you have done anything like this and how you have handled it.

Thanks.


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## rrbrown

Tom5151 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I just installed all of the door casings, window casing, crown and baseboard in our cabin up north. Everything is knotty pine. We went for a rustic look. All of the trim is 3/4 knotty pine. That means that the door casing and baseboard are all the same thickness or flush where they meet. We will have wood flloors and I will be using quater round to finish. *My question is, where should I end the quarter round when I come to the door casing? My thought would be to end it where the baseboard ends rather than cover the bottom of the door casing. I am thinking about putting some type of bullnose or rounded effect on the end of quater round to ease the hard edge. *
> 
> I am just curious if any of you have done anything like this and how you have handled it.
> 
> Thanks.


Yes you should end it at here the door trim starts and you are absolutely correct about the end cut. I usually would nip off the corner not the whole thing just about 1/2 of it. leave a small flat spot close to the base and 45 the rest, then if you want you can sand the points and round it off.


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## Gene Howe

rrbrown said:


> Yes you should end it at here the door trim starts and you are absolutely correct about the end cut. I usually would nip off the corner not the whole thing just about 1/2 of it. leave a small flat spot close to the base and 45 the rest, then if you want you can sand the points and round it off.


+1.....or mill the base, but that would sorta detract from the rustic look.


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## BigJim

I agree, it should end at the door trim but be sure the flooring is under the door trim and there are no gaps visible. When I stop the 1/4 round or shoe mold, I do like Richard does or return it into the base.


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## GeorgeC

rrbrown said:


> Yes you should end it at here the door trim starts and you are absolutely correct about the end cut. I usually would nip off the corner not the whole thing just about 1/2 of it. leave a small flat spot close to the base and 45 the rest, then if you want you can sand the points and round it off.


 
Ditto.

G


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## cabinetman

I would stop it at the casing. A simple self edging would work, or a 22½*°* or a 45*° *bevel would work depending on taste.












 









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## Longknife

I'm not sure if I understand this correctly. Why is there a need for a 1/4 round at all? As I see it the baseboard is a trim and adding a 1/4 round to it would be trimming the trim?


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## cabinetman

Longknife said:


> I'm not sure if I understand this correctly. Why is there a need for a 1/4 round at all? As I see it the baseboard is a trim and adding a 1/4 round to it would be trimming the trim?



Adding a trim to the base is called a "base shoe". Its purpose is to trim variances in the floor to the base. It's usually ½" thick by ⅝"-¾" high. Shoe can vary as to size and shape.












 









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## burkhome

Tom5151 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I just installed all of the door casings, window casing, crown and baseboard in our cabin up north.
> Where a bouts up north? I would end at the casing and cut a return into the baseboard.


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## Longknife

cabinetman said:


> Adding a trim to the base is called a "base shoe". Its purpose is to trim variances in the floor to the base. It's usually ½" thick by ⅝"-¾" high. Shoe can vary as to size and shape.


New to me. I've never seen it made like that over here. To me it seemes like a bit of "overkill" but preferences are different. When we use 1/4 rounds it is as a trim itself, not as an add-on to another trim. Our baseboards also usually have the bottom edge in a slight angle so there is a sharp edge to get good contact with the floorboards.


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## Fishbucket

The Flooring should have went down first, it would have been best to have the floor under the base and casing. no need for the baseshoe. 
Now, I would stop it 1/4 of the way over the casing with a nipped end. I think that 'ties' all the moulding together.


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## Fishbucket

Longknife said:


> When we use 1/4 rounds it is as a trim itself, not as an add-on to another trim..


Back in the early 1900 it was used the way described. Then stopped with wall to wall carpeting. Now with the infiltration of plastic floors it's used more. Mostly because DIY homeowners don't want to remove the base and casing prior to "upgrading" the floors. :thumbdown:


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## rrbrown

Fishbucket said:


> *The Flooring should have went down first, it would have been best to have the floor under the base and casing.* no need for the baseshoe.
> Now, I would stop it 1/4 of the way over the casing with a nipped end. I think that 'ties' all the moulding together.


I agree that it is good to do that if you can. Just for making the flooring go in easier. I would still put the shoe no matter. The door jambs should be high enough for the flooring to go under or you cut with a jam saw. This works with door casing also. The flooring then will go up to the base and the shoe will cover the flooring. I think it would make it look out of place or weird.

That's normal procedure for me and for the industry as for as I know, around here anyway.


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## JAKESCHS.COM

*Trim*



rrbrown said:


> Yes you should end it at here the door trim starts and you are absolutely correct about the end cut. I usually would nip off the corner not the whole thing just about 1/2 of it. leave a small flat spot close to the base and 45 the rest, then if you want you can sand the points and round it off.


That’s exactly what I would do and have done on several of my trim jobs.
Good answer. :thumbsup:


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## Tom5151

Thanks everyone,

I think I am going to go with end caps or returns. I did a little more research on that and I like that look the best and it looks fairly straighforward to do.

To give you a little background, I chose to put in the baseboards and door casings before the flooring. I know this is not typical but the reason is because there will be a combination of carpet and hardwood on the floor. I wanted to allow about 3/8 of an inch under the baseboards for carpet tuck. If I would have installed the baseboard on top of the 3/4 inch floor, I would have had a 3/4 inch gap under the baseboards where the carpet will be and I didn't think the carpet would cover that sufficiently. I toyed with the idea of putting the floor in first and then just notching the baseboard so that I still ended up with a 3/8 carpet tuck gap. But this is a very old cabin and the floor is not exactly level so that would have been more work than I wanted to do. So I decided to put baseboards in first. I also used a scrap piece of 3/4 flooring to set the proper gap under the door casings so that I can slide the finish flooring in under them. I will then finish with shoe molding where all the hardwood floor is. 

Probabaly not a standard approach but it worked out well.

Thanks for all of the help and suggestions guys. :thumbsup:


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## Longknife

Fishbucket said:


> The Flooring should have went down first, it would have been best to have the floor under the base and casing...


To me that's the obvious way to do it. If not, then I fully understand the need for a 1/4 round. I can understand if a DIYer do it that way but a carpenter would never get away with it. If it's used I agree on the above said way to do it.


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## Longknife

Tom5151 said:


> Thanks everyone,
> 
> I think I am going to go with end caps or returns. I did a little more research on that and I like that look the best and it looks fairly straighforward to do.
> 
> To give you a little background.....


I posted my last post before I read this. I by no means meant to critisize you. You had your good reasons to do it this way.


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## Tom5151

Longknife said:


> I posted my last post before I read this. I by no means meant to critisize you. You had your good reasons to do it this way.


Oh no problem at all. I didn't take it that way at all. I appreciate all of the advice and input. :thumbsup:


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## rrbrown

Fishbucket said:


> Back in the early 1900 it was used the way described. Then stopped with wall to wall carpeting. Now with the infiltration of plastic floors it's used more. Mostly because DIY homeowners don't want to remove the base and casing prior to "upgrading" the floors. :thumbdown:



I don't know about that. It has been done like that way before what you called "plastic flooring". It's not used with carpet of course but has been used with wood flooring since way before I was born. In the New Orleans area all the historic homes have the shoe over hardwood. I would say that maybe it was changed to that over time but allot of the historic buildings are supposed to be restored to period time. I would think it is more of a cultural influence that has grown to common practice. Just my .02


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## rrbrown

Longknife said:


> To me that's the obvious way to do it. If not, then I fully understand the need for a 1/4 round.* I can understand if a DIYer do it that way but a carpenter would never get away with it. If it's used I agree on the above said way to do it.*



See that might be true in Sweden where you said they don't use shoe often. Here in the US shoe is used for both practical and aesthetic reasons. It also is done on a regular basis by professional trim carpenters. It is preferred to put the flooring under the base if possible (at least by me) but it don't work that way most of the time. In new construction it may work out more often. Sometimes it depends on how the job is run, who gets there first etc. In theory doors should go in over the flooring because you have to cut the jambs most of the time anyway. However the doors usually go in first and then the base using spacer blocks to allow for carpet and or flooring. Tile and wood flooring usually end up with a gap either under and/or between the base and flooring, Shoe is added to finish that area off. Builders don't like allot of workers trampling all over there new carpet and wood flooring if they don't have to.


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## Longknife

rrbrown said:


> See that might be true in Sweden where you said they don't use shoe often. Here in the US shoe is used for both practical and aesthetic reasons. It also is done on a regular basis by professional trim carpenters. It is preferred to put the flooring under the base if possible (at least by me) but it don't work that way most of the time. In new construction it may work out more often. Sometimes it depends on how the job is run, who gets there first etc. In theory doors should go in over the flooring because you have to cut the jambs most of the time anyway. However the doors usually go in first and then the base using spacer blocks to allow for carpet and or flooring. Tile and wood flooring usually end up with a gap either under and/or between the base and flooring, Shoe is added to finish that area off. Builders don't like allot of workers trampling all over there new carpet and wood flooring if they don't have to.


Good thing about this forum is to learn new things. Procedures that might be obvious to you are done differently in other parts of the world. Not to say that one way is better than the other and aestetics is all a matter of preference and what you are used to. 
What I meant to say in my remark was that if I hade done a job in that way it would have been considered as scamp work and my abilities as a carpenter would be questioned. If you do it it is a natural thing. Funny thing with cultural differences :yes:


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## cabinetman

Longknife said:


> Good thing about this forum is to learn new things. Procedures that might be obvious to you are done differently in other parts of the world. Not to say that one way is better than the other and aestetics is all a matter of preference and what you are used to.
> What I meant to say in my remark was that if I hade done a job in that way it would have been considered as scamp work and my abilities as a carpenter would be questioned. If you do it it is a natural thing. Funny thing with cultural differences :yes:


Cultural differences make for interesting differences. I don't think it's an "all the cases" type of application. I've done installations where base shoe wasn't specified, or needed. Then, there are those times when it's a necessity. It really boils down to the aesthetics.

In an installation that requires new flooring, leaving the base moulding, and installing all the new floor under it seems counterproductive. I've never seen it done that way. Of course that doesn't mean it isn't done that way.












 









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## burkhome

I think the advent of laminate flooring in the States has really popularized shoe moulding. It is quick and easy to lay the floor and pop down some quarter round. Our home store industry markets the two together. I have pulled base up at times before puting the floor down and used no shoe moulding and I have done it the quick way. Just depends on what is expected.


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## Shamus

As mentioned, just do a return pc.

Couple examples;





































We work on turn of the century homes. Most base is 8" tall and all have several profiles.
Once you do a few rooms with this type of build-up you can handle just about anything.


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## BigJim

That's some good illustrations Shamus. 

Here is one for you, years back I had a fellow who wanted shoe mold in a bedroom that was going to get carpet. Strange fellow but that is what he wanted so we held it off the floor 1/2 inch like the rest of the base.


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