Shoe molding helps complete the look of the wall.
is a thin piece of wood that hides the gap between your baseboard molding and your flooring. Any unevenness in your hardwood floor will show as gaps beneath your baseboard molding, but since shoe molding is so small it can easily conform to these imperfections to hide them. Shoe molding is sometime called "quarter-round" since its profile is of a quarter of a circle. Installing shoe molding is almost exactly like installing baseboard molding but it is much easier to work with so it should take you a much shorter time.
Instructions
1. Measure the installed baseboard molding to determine how long each piece of shoe molding needs to be.
2. Cut the shoe molding pieces to length using your miter saw. To cut an end of the molding for an inside corner, rotate the saw to 45 degree towards the molding. To cut the end for an outside corner, rotate the saw 45 degrees away from the molding. If a piece of molding needs to end where there isn't a corner, like when it runs into door trim, cut the molding with the saw at 0 degrees.
3. Move a piece of shoe molding to where you will install it. Place the corner of the shoe molding at the point where the baseboard molding and the hardwood floor meet. Push the shoe molding down with a wood block to ensure it is touching the hardwood floor.
4. Drive 1-inch finishing nails through the shoe molding and into the baseboard molding. Place a nail about every 12 inches. Keep pushing down with the wood block before you drive every nail to ensure the molding is conforming with the floor.
5. Place a small dab of wood filler in each nail hole. Push the filler into the hole and then scrape off any excess with your knife. Use wood filler that matches the color of your molding if you want to hide the nail holes.
Tags: baseboard molding, hardwood floor, shoe molding, shoe molding,