What do we do about my baseboards/shoe molding, door casings etc?

Do we have to remove them? Do I need to replace them? Can we just leave them in place? Great question and often asked!

80% of the time, we are working in historic homes with the original baseboards, shoe molding, wainscotting and we leave them in place but are very careful to do as little damage as possible (bumping into them with our machines and/or getting any type of stain or finish on them). We are conscious to respect your home and your woodwork. We will mention that sometimes there needs to be some touching up, especially if we are staining the floor black and all the woodwork is white.

Quite often removing these moldings, opens up other areas that will then need painting, like the baseboards or potentially even the walls, if you are installing a shorter baseboard than the existing ones. We want to avoid that added headache for you. Some clients have already decided that they are replacing the shoe molding, or even the baseboards, after our project is completed. That’s great, removing them before we start our work (we can do that for you) will give you the best result in that case. We can then sand under these areas, leveling them up, so when the new base and/or shoe molding are installed, they will sit flush to the newly refinished wood floors.

Quite often the shoe molding in older homes has taken so much abuse over the years, with vacuums running into them, children bumping into them, then denting or chipping the paint can occur, then, often, this is the best time to remove and replace them. We offer that service too!

A lot of clients also ask, “Should I paint these items before or after we get our floors installed/refinished?” We strongly recommend doing this work, after our work is completed. If you get it done, first, allow for some touch ups after the fact!