I believe there will always be small gaps between floor/baseboards unless your new subfloor is completely level. However, walls/ceilings rarely are. As for those door casings, those should have gone on after the flooring was in so they could bring it down right on top of the flooring. Were those new casings or existing ones? I'm asking because they look a little rough. In any case, those need to be redone.

That gap is normal, and it's the reason they make shoe moulding (like quarter-round, but not quite). Shoe moulding flexes and is able to follow slight imperfections in the floor. Your house doesn't have that moulding.

Wood is a natural material and hoping for perfection is a fool's errand. The joists aren't perfectly straight (they often have a crown), the plywood on them and the glue used to affix the finished floor can cause variations,

Finally, consider this: The actual problem may be that that trim isn't perfectly straight (it's just cheap 1x3 or 1x4 stock) and it may be rising and falling along a perfectly flat floor.

In the second photo, I see that they applied caulk to the top seam after painting, so that's visible, and the jambs don't look good.

Are they going to add shoe moulding?

I just finished up my attic last year and decided to skip the shoe molding for a cleaner, more modern look. I have a similar gap however mine is not as nearly significant. I am living with it. However the gap at your doorway is completely unacceptable and They need to come back and fix it

Thank you for the feedback. This is all brand new and I'm super disappointed in the finish work. I'm struggling with how far I can push the builder because they claim a lot of this is 'normal.' We weren't planning to put the shoe molding on since it is a very modern style, but the gaps look awful in some areas. I feel like I may need to have a third party 'expert' come in to advise on what is normal and what is not. This is just one of a very long list of issues.

That door frame is absolutely not acceptable and IMO all this trim should have been installed after flooring I have a 1956 MCM ranch we changed all the baseboards to a simple 1. X4 and no where do we have the gaps you have , there are many modern homes that do not require shoe molding and IMO this needs to fixed

We have a very modern style too and our builder who is usually very flexible with our wants/needs insisted we would not be happy without a shoe molding for this very reason. We finally agreed to go with a very subtle squared off shoe molding and am glad we did. After we finished it looked fine in our modern structure. Next time I went to our lake house (which has no shoe molding) I noticed all the gaps to the floors there and was glad we did the shoe molding.

You got me looking at our baseboards! We also have some gaps (baseboards put on after flooring), the largest about the thickness of a quarter. Once your furniture is in, it won't be noticeable, and as another poster has said, it's wood, installed by humans, it can never be perfect. The door molding has too big a gap, and that should be replaced.

This is why you can not do a modern aesthetic on a budget. There should be no base molding there at all, or that cheap casing. That's a cheap compromise from a builder, bad architectural details, and a low budget.

Perfect workmanship museum reveals are incredibly expensive. For a reason. You'd be talking adding another 100K in mostly skilled labor to get a properly trimmed out modern look. Money that you would never see. Because it isn't made to be seen. It's made to be simple and unseen.

In conventional framing you will always have a dip in the floor here and there because of variation in the joist size, even when engineered lumber is used, and if foundation or sill plate has a slight dip in it the result will be the same.

That being said, if you told the builder that you don't want shoe molding, like Sophie said it would involves a lot more work to make sure there is no gaps and there would be extra costs involved. If this was a standard installation 98% of the time you will need shoe molding to hide slight deviations.

As the door jamb and casing goes, that should be reinstalled because the door jamb and molding was cut to much.

I agree that the trim on the floor is normal...but the door trim is POORLY done/finished and should be remedied.

Yes, there are issues here but the bigger problem is it shows the lack of craftsmanship the builder has. You are taking close up pics of isolated areas and i am sure the overall picture is better.

This is the issue today people have zero clue what quality is.

The gap from floor to molding is acceptable but with straight stock like that was easily avoidable. If that so called carpenter carried a simple plane and even leaned on the piece as he or she was installing they could be avoided.

That door jamb, caulking and lack of prep of the trim is poor. Sorry but I would just hire someone else and get it done right. The extras money will save tons of aggravation with arguing with someone who just won't get it.

Today to become a carpenter you watch HGTV and buy a couple tools never needing to apprentice or learn a trade. People like shiny eye catching things and 95% of home buyers would accept that work rathe then pay say the extra $5k to have their house properly trimmed and painted by a true professional.

There are so many real tradespeople losing work daily to illegals who undercut the job pricing and delivering this type of work. Homeowners gladly accept it all to save a couple dollars.

I am glad you see an issue here but go hire a professional licensed carpenter and painter who actually shows up with his crew. Difference is I WILL FIX IT vs I WILL HAVE THEM FIX IT.

GOOD LUCK!!

This trim work does have some installation issues. But everything can be fixed. Those should be pretty easy fixes for your builder.

I would only change the door area. I assume this is a bookend throughout? The baseboard and floor won't be noticeable once your furniture is in.

I had my guys caulk all the baseboards to eliminate the gap.

Caulk it; it will disappear inexpensively.

White Silicone Caulk would make the gaps go away try it one small area and you would see the results

Thanks And Happy Holidays

Purewal Contractors Inc

Anyone see the DR Horton article on Nightline last night? Might have been replay. Look for it. Must see before you build.

The flooring by the baseboards are normal gaps without shoe mould. The door jambs will need to be addressed.

Use paintable, not silicone caulk in this application.

I've had paintable caulk between baseboard and a concrete floor over 4 years now and no failures. If it fails, you can install the shoe. Always try the least expensive, easy, and easily-reversible solution first.

Joseph, that baseboard been in your favor if you got away with it for 4 years,especially in Florida...

There has to be a barrier between concrete and wood simply because the temperature differences between the wood and concrete will always lead to condensation and eventually the wood will rot (not to mention other conditions which can promote rot).

I'm surprised you being from Florida ( I have a place there also) we know first hand, because it's mandated by all print specifications and by all building departments in Florida and pretty much everywhere else throughout the country.

It has always been an industry standard to separate wood wood that comes into contact with concrete in any structure by using PT material or a barrier in between to prevent direct contact.

Maybe you mistaken composite trim with regular.

Good luck

Whatever you decide to do w/ baseboard, that door is unsat. That looks to be ~1/4" gap. Is casing on opposite side same? If so, someone either mismeasured or hung jamb too high. If opposite side is on floor, either the floor isn't level or they hung jamb crooked. Whatever the cause, it's shoddy & needs correcting.

GN Builders:

Paintable caulk is a barrier between concrete and wood.

Poor workmanship. The flooring needs to be able to breathe and shifting a bit is not a bag thing but the baseboards are not up to 'snuff' or at least the installation of them is not. If this is a brand new build you should make them come back and do it correctly. If it is a new installation, get the contracted back out there. Do not let anyone convince you that they are 'suppozed' to look that way. Most unfortunate it happened.

Lets see hack using tube of caulk or real carpenter scribing to floor and using a plane? Calling has it's place but come on caulk between a baseboard and a wood floor?

Yeah, paintable caulk between a baseboard and a wood floor. It isn't the end of the world. Very cost effective and it you don't like it you get shoe mold. What's not to love?

When was the last time you had a dinner party and your guests, in their car as they're leaving, said "Great food and conversation, but the caulk between the baseboard and floor just ruined the evening for me."?

Joseph, you only apply caulk where the gap is, the rest of it still in direct contact with concrete.

For the sake of argument, using caulk as a barrier would make it even worst, because it might keep the moisture from getting into the wood, but at the same time it will keep the moisture from getting out and it will rot the wood from inside out.

You see that in many cases with wood columns, when installers put them directly on masonry slab or on top of a masonry column and they would caulk the top and bottoms of the column without leaving means for moisture to escape.

That being said, a general rule, no regular wood should be in direct contact with masonry because that is a substandard practice.

The last thing you should do is put on quarter round. Unless you like the single wide trailer house look. This is shoddy work. You will have some gaps on the floor. The door casing is someone's screw up. And the caulking along the top of the trim is crazy it should be a thin thread not smeared up your walls. And all the nail holes should be filled.

There are so many BAD contractors out there who think they know what looks good and offer subpar solutions to their lazy, crappy work/mistakes. Then either disappear or avoid fixing it. Sue them for a refund and hire someone better

jomo1989:

The marketplace is giving buyers exactly the contractors they have demanded.

Because that's a 3/4 inch thick base also known as a 1x3 or 1x4, you cant bend it very well Iike 1/2 baseboard. When installed, you'll need 2 people, one to hold it down to flex over tile and the other to nail it. 2nd, that is the crappiest prep and paint work I have ever seen. The nail holes in that pine wood needed to be patched twice then sanded. Looks like they caulked the nail holes smearing along tththe side and was not cleaned properly. 3rd, they did a crappy job brushing on the paint. Those moldings should have been sprayed, not brushed. Modern styles are high end finishes, to fix it, all trim needs to be sanded and sprayed. The gap? Well, you'll need to cut the caulking, use a mallet to hammer it down and hold it down while someone nails it in. You'll need to caulk it again , repaint it etc. God is in the details. If you have smoothwall finishes, I can only imagine how bad they rolled that looking at the trim. My company is Fine Point Painting. I fix stuff like this all the time.

Definitely don't caulk base or jambs to the floor.

this is 2 years old. I'm sure they've already done something.

Why is this old post reappearing after all this time?
Show us what you had done to fix the issue.

I see that this was written a long time ago, but I was looking up how to fix gap between floor and door casings (I just had a new floor put in) and this is what came up. If you get this would you mind telling me what you ended up doing to rectify the problem. Please. I would really appreciate any help I can get here. thank you!!

I will just tell you that using caulk as a gap filler is not a good solution because caulk gets very dirty. People attempt to paint over it, but this is very difficult at the interface between flooring and base board.

My floor is a rough tile and there is a base board with a toe kick. However, I have these small case baring moths (look like sunflower seeds) that hide under the gaps between floor and toe kick. I thought about some sort of silicone caulk but after reading others comments, I'm not sure what to do, now. I live in Florida. The moths are very hard to get rid of. and blend in with the gray tile.

OP - did you ever fix this / come to some sort of resolution?

New construction but not quality construction. Lazy workers. I hope some caulking filled the crevices and a nice rug added color and texture. We would like to see what you finally did.

Workmanship is trash.

the practice of installing flooring before baseboard is now done for expediency. It is an unfortunate departure from a traditional method of sequencing baseboard, door jamb and casing before flooring where flooring is fitted tightly to these elements usually with a 15 degree undercut at the flooring which was often scribed in to fit perfectly tot he rising face of the baseboard, jamb and casing. The old method made for tighter more stable construction. It sickens me to see this new fangled crap method of flooring first but it is universally accepted and has been for some time. The flooring industry has embraced this lousy trend since it sells material to the installers who make better money with the flooring first method. It is a sad C change in in our built environment.

What ended up happening here

Who's the builder? Kbhomes?

That caulk job on top of the baseboard is very sloppy and needs to have the paint touched up over the caulk to look like no caulk smear. The door trim is too short as everyone agrees. I am surprised by how it looks like a sloppy caulk job over than door trim area. It's not smoothed well and then there's the as the chipped wood on the edge. I would not only have them redo any doorways that look like that at the floor, but also a rectangular base shoe instead of the traditional rounded look.

SIX YEAR OLD POST..............

@millworkman Thanks. I didn't even catch that. It's annoying when I'm scrolling through current posts and really old ones are mixed in.