Baseboard Installation

[Lainey17]

We had ceramic tiles installed throughout our home, which was quite expensive. We didn't realize the installers had ruined our baseboards until the job was paid for and the installers had left. Here we are with beautiful tiles but no baseboards and the dust accumulating in our home is horrific. We called them and asked about the baseboards. They said they would be happy to install new baseboards, at a very high price I might add, but said they had "made it clear to us before work began there was a possibility the baseboards would be ruined" and it wasn't their fault. Neither my husband nor I remember the conversation, but I'm not going to get into a horse-shoe tossing contest with them.

How hard is it to install baseboards? We are willing to do it ourselves to save money, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[kactuskid]

Installing baseboard is not hard, but it really depends on alot of factors to make it look nice. You will need at minimum a miter saw and a coping saw. If your walls are out of square then a power mitersaw makes a world of difference in being able to cut the correct angles. Also if your ceramic tile floors are higher than floors that abut these, then the new base will need to be shortened in heigth in order to be at the same height as the existing base. Below are a few links that'll give you tons of details so you can decide if this is something you want to tackle on your own.

http://www.handymanclub.com/document.asp?dID=823

http://www.homestore.com/HomeGarden/HomeImprovement/HowTos/HowTos/CRHO_InstallingSinglePieceBaseTrim.asp?poe=homestore

[JCA1]

Of all the trim in a house the base boards are the easiest.