How To Level Baseboards On Uneven Floor
If the floor is uneven lift up the board until it is level so you ll know how much flooring compound you ll need to even it out.
How to level baseboards on uneven floor. In old houses you often see the fanciest baseboard in the front room downstairs says this old house general contractor tom silva. Cut the base to run around the toe kick the outside miters can be done now or after fitting to the floor if cutting miters after set the top of the skin against the fence not the bottom against the fence. If you see some cut a few braces from 4 to 6 in. Making the cut is not a difficult process.
Use a metal putty knife or scraper to gently pry baseboards off the walls. Baseboard for very uneven floors imo tall base on severely out of level floors looks best set level. First hold the base molding against the wall after you cut it to length and look for gaps. With the right set of tools you can duplicate the unevenness in the floor on the bottom of the board creating a baseboard cut specifically for your floor s changing levels.
Take everything out of the room so that the floor is completely clear. What we do is shoot a laser around the room and try to come up with some happy medium on height and then hold everything to that height. Remove all of the furniture appliances and baseboards from the room. Floors are rarely perfectly level.
Lengths of scrap baseboard and put 45 degree angles on the ends. You must make the same cut on your baseboard similar to the level. Then we use a 1 4 thick plywood toe skin finished to match the cabinets to cover the base. High and 3 8 in.
If the area is very large use a long straight 2 in 4 in 5 1 cm 10 2 cm board and set your level on top of it. Uneven floors usually require baseboards to be cut in such a way so that they fit the walls and floor properly. When you are dealing with uneven floors one option that you have is to use self leveling compound. We level the toe kicks with shims.
Most standard baseboards these days are 3 1 4 in. Baseboards were often three piece affairs consisting of a flat plank a decorative cap molding and a rounded shoe molding to cover gaps along the floor. When the floor is uneven you must cut the baseboard along the bottom to create that flush setting. This compound can potentially be utilized on a concrete slab or a wood subfloor and it works well when you are dealing with dips in the floor.
If the uneven floor is due to floor joists that have warped or twisted over time or were incorrectly installed the only way to level the floor is to remove the subflooring and shim the joists. Thick which makes them pretty doggone flexible.