No baseboard – Details
I have had quite a few people ask for details about how we did our bases without baseboard. First off let me say that it is completely different if you are talking new construction. New construction is easy, they make a 1/2″ trim piece that keeps the drywall floated off the floor. For our house, I simply used a 6″ drywall taping knife and smoothed the wall out to the floor. There were areas where I probably added as much as 1/2″ of mud to the base to try and cover the floor boards. As long as you take it up smooth for a foot or so you don’t really pick up on the added thickness. We were lucky that on all our doorways the wood casing came all the way to the corner. You really can’t make a corner out of drywall. For existing construction, one of the problems is that your finished floor doesn’t always go completely to the wall. There were plenty of area’s in our house that were like this. In the process of mudding they got filled in, and I simply sanded them flush and finished over them when I finished the floor. It really isn’t too noticeable. I did worry a little about how the base would hold up over time, but I figured it would be cheap to repair if I ever needed to fix it. To sum it all up, it’s not perfectly clean everywhere, but I still think it looks a lot better than having base. Price wise it cost less than $50 to do 800 square feet, but a LOT of sanding and mudding.
More pictures below.
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28 Responses to “No baseboard – Details”
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I’m sorry Creede, but it looks terrible, and you know it. The join between the wood and the mud will crack. Use a shoe molding of oak or similar, and it’s only what? 1/2″x3/4″?
i agree that it doesn’t look very good, but it probably looks better than having the baseboard. with existing construction, little things like this can be really hard to pull. it’s a strange decision to have to make, but all said, i think you made the right one. someday you may have the money and desire to replace the drywall and do it all right, but until then, this works.
When you step back and look around the room the joint between the wall and the floor is not noticeable. It’s not new construction and so it’s not perfect but with our sugarhouse we learned that even new construction isn’t perfect. We are pleased with the outcome of phase one, and think that some flaws give it character.
Sorry Justin, I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one. The look we were going for is clean an modern. While there are spots that are less than perfect, at least they look honest. I have seen plenty of floors with 1/4 round (shoe molding), and even done some myself in the past and I really don’t like the look of them. I guess each to his own.
I agree with both, but mostly Creede. It’s not going to be perfect and I like the fact that it is honest. There’s nothing hiding and when you’re just glancing around the room as most people will do, it will look great.
Wait… why dont people like a base board? Just that it looks more modern w/o one?
i have worked on a few modern house renovations with baseboards! a few options are 1X4 MDF painted the same color as the walls, solid wood 1X4 with clear finish (to match the floors) or even 1/4″ x 4″ raw steel strips (with clear sealer). i think all 3 have been successful in maintaining a modern aesthetic, but are probable more expensive (especially the steel & wood base options!) than the no-baseboard option.
I love the idea of having no baseboard, but yea, that pretty much looks terrible, and I know my perfectionist carpenter husband would never let it fly. There must be another way to achieve the minimalist look while still being able to properly disguise the joining of drywall and flooring. There is a reason why finish carpentry exists. Maybe just use tiny 48″ long dowels, paint them white, line them up end to end, and nail them to the floor?
Maybe a drywall casing bead along the bottom, the kind with a bead that you can run your drywall knife against. This will leave gaps anywhere the floor is uneven though, so you caulk it and paint carefully. If the floor boards are short of the face of the wall this really won’t help you because its not going to add much more than 1/8″ of thickness to the surface.
I’m a pretty big fan of rubber wall base, not the cheap vinyl stuff used in most offices, but the good solid rubber stuff. gives you a very simple and durable termination of the wall to the floor. Much easier to work with than steel strips, even wood.
I think that the thing that makes it look worse is how sloppy it is in spots…like paint spattered from the wall onto the floor that wasn’t cleaned up. Wasn’t it possible to mask off the floor so that the smudging and spattering didn’t happen so much?
I’d also like to know why baseboards are regarded poorly. All Japanese places have (contrasting) wood trim at the top and bottom and they are worshiped as minimalist heaven. I also don’t see how “honest” enters into it. Either it looks well-done or it doesn’t.
I’ve done my share of sloppy work, mind you. I just don’t display it for everyone to see and defend how bad it looks.
the speckles on the floor are drywall dust. Thanks
Hey, you mentioned “in new construction they make a 1/2″ trim piece that keeps the drywall floated off the floor.” Does anyone what this piece is called, how to install it? thanks
it looks horrible. i offer you an idea for a similar modern look but with the addition of baseboards, use flat 1/2 mdf 1x 8 or similar as baseboard nailed directly to studs. then drywall down to top or mdf base with 1/4″ or so expansion joint between(better an intended joint than an unintended crack). flashing of some form should be added to wall at position of joint before securing the base so as to seal the wall… i believe a baseboards function in a drywalled house should supersede any aesthetic inclination to go without. unless you’re living in a crack shack you really should have it. it can take various forms but for the sake of practicality it ought to be there. anyway, what you’ve done there looks pretty trashy. and will surely become more of a mess as the floor expands and contracts / and as people and furniture knock into it.
Just to clear things up for everyone who still think they need to tell Creede and I how crappy this looks– This is phase ONE. The only objective of phase one was to get rid of the grandma feel of our 1950’s vintage house and make us feel more comfortable in our own home. We know it’s not perfect but we are still going to be moving walls and doors and most of it will not be staying. For example the first photo shown is where we will be removing the wall and installing two huge sliders side by side. It was a quick fix, and phase two will defiantly be a more durable cleaner rendition of the same look. Thanks
LOL You guys are killing me. I agree that there are plenty of other solutions that may look better, but none that even comes close to touching this look for the price. Did you forget it’s Grassrootsmodern not highdollarnewconstructionmodern?
We love the way it turned out, and I guess that’s what counts since it’s our house.
I think it looks good.
PS: I was wondering if anyone can answer this question. If the long cut edge of horizontally-laid sheet of dry wall is to sit on the floor (or at least raised up by an 1/8″) should you fold some kind of tape around that cut edge to keep the integrity of the drywall together? I will be using base board since it’s a rental property but I am concerned that the chaulky “guts” of the sheet will tend to want to crumble and fall out. Does that sound paranoid?
Tony,
If you are using baseboard I wouldn’t worry about it at all.
I figured it wouldn’t matter since it’s the same situation as installing a sheet vertically (and the manufacturerer’s don’t tape the ends either). It’s just that a rookie cut edge is more prone to crumble than a factory cut end.
Thanks.
I do think that you did the best that you could with what you had to work with. And if this is truly a temporary solution, they you might want to check out the detail that we did on our project, if you don’t already know this detail…www.mid-centurymod-ification.blogspot.com.
T1,
Checked out your detail, it’s basically exactly what we did on our last house. Much easier to do with new construction…
Nice blog!
I think it looks great! It’s not perfect, and it may not work for the long term with joint expansion and contraction – but lots of older houses have these sort of imperfections that only add to their charm. And you cannot beat the cost!!
Many of these people seem to be taking a harsh perspective. I like your risk taking and experimenting. When you look at it close up and focus on it, like you do when you look at these pictures, the flaws are in your face. But with reference to the room as a whole, they’ll be pretty darn unnoticable. (Looks better than some finish work in an old building that some very high-end architects leased- but their big picture look was fantastic.)
Baseboards are evil and dumb, outdated and of no use like Republicans and religion.I like this look a lot and be it looks great in person. Bravo!
First, to everyone saying how horrible Creede’s nonbaseboard treatment looks, the details in the photo, the uneven flooring are actually not as noticeable when you see them. I’m sure it looks great!
Second, to everyone espousing the joys of baseboards, what do you think baseboards are for? For the most part they are there to hide an otherwise messy seam, not to enhance the room. 1/4 Round trim is always placed to hide a seam, and to me, that’s exactly what it always looks like if you notice it. I hate 1/4 round! But most base boards (exceptions might be ornate antique ones) really look like they are put in place to hide a seam.
I like creede’s treatment.
Check out tektrim.com for no-base and shadow line at the floor details
[...] No Baseboard Details – from our new house [...]
as long as you’re happy, it’s good. it’s not my cuppa tea and i’d have gone with minimal, squarish baseboards like the MDF ones mentioned above (not a fan of the 1/4 round you mentioned either). however, having just finished a drywall job in a very “flexible” eichler-built home, cracking will likely be a major issue. best of luck with the continued renno.
y’all are forgetting one thing: A baseboard not only hides a messy joint it provides the valuable function of preventing damage to the wall resulting day to day activity: shoed foot traffic, vacuum cleaners, etc.
Also, construction is nothing more than a series of sequential steps, each one employing ever more refined pieces of material and processes. Baseboards, produced by milling, are part of that process.
The drywall mud used to fill in the gaps at the wall-floor joint will crack and in a fairly short time it will look like hell as a result of expansion/contraction of the wood flooring and defleciton of the floor structure.
A possible solution would be a “negative baseboard,” i.e., hold the drywall up from the floor & install a profiled piece sheet metal directly to the studs. This would create both a shadow line and a milled edge that could make imperfections disappear.
Aloha and a big Mahalo! I was hoping to find out what those old ugly baseboards were used for, while doing a major renovation to a 1969 redwood single wall with solid oak floors I pulled out the baseboards and I DID NOT REALY want to see them ever again! so I am glad to see that a number of you agree…