Since I Rock and Rolled on trim…who raises the base up to allow for carpet, who slams it to the floor?…..can I get a show of hands; thanks everyone!
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I raise it for carpet.
I ran miles of trim. I always used a scrap of base as a spacer for the rug. Standard 11/16th colonial casing of course, in cookie cutter houses.
Custom homes with newer or better Berber and the like, is up to who's signing the check. If they want it to the subfloor, that is where it goes.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..
Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
I/2" up for carpet, but the number is personal preference.
To the floor...someday, somebody might not want cartpet there...
What d'you reckon - they'll go back to lino? Heck, anything else is thick enough to fill that gap. Well, maybe not laminate, but that's their own taste(lessness)Ciao for niao
***I'm a contractor - but I'm trying to go straight!***
Actually, I just popped off that msg - forgetting that people build new houses with plywood, etc, subfloor - stand corrected!
Raise it 1/4" to 3/8". Berber is not very high--the carpet guys need just enough space to tuck the edge of the carpet under. Looks terrible to see the base up too high.
Mike
Ever see thick padding and the thin tackless stripps ( why do ythey call it that, it is all tacks)? I hate that look, but my tastes are not always normal either I guess..(G) Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
Ever see thick padding and the thin tackless stripps ( why do ythey call it that, it is all tacks)? I hate that look, but my tastes are not always normal either I guess..(G)
Don't you know tackless strips come in different thickness? Always match your strips to the thickness of the underpad.
Sphere, I think there aren't too many people would notice things like that. I do but most of the times I don't give a hoot.
If you NOTICE it, you DO give hoot..just my observation of course. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
Urrrrgh, can I just let it slip through and pretend I didn't see anything?
Shouldn't have told you these things.
I gotta go measure mine...boy the wife will be PO'd when i pull up the tarpaper....( I am not kidding, they had tact less holding on 30 or 60 lb FELT roofing as a flooring, here, have MY shoes for a day..)
Actually Tom, I have never seen any "tacklessfullof tacks and looking fora thumb to make bleed" over 5/16 in the wood mode.
Do they actually make it fatter?
BTW..I DO know why it is called that, I was just Phishing... Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
BTW..I DO know why it is called that, I was just Phishing...
You know I know.
Do they actually make it fatter?
I know you know.
HEEEE YAW
Seems like we're swimming in morphine..
(see like threads)... Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
OK, I'll bite, why is it called tackless?
I know what you mean about the thick padding and thin tackless strips. Kind of the equivalent of planer snipe on the end of a board.
Mike
I think they call it that because you don't have to use carpet tacks to hold the carpet down (like they had to before), hence "tackless". The strips have tack so you don't have to attach (attack) with tacks. I need more coffee.
Oh, the Queen City is Cincinnati, isn't it (not 'Frisco, ha ha)?
Edited 6/10/2005 8:05 am ET by Danno
Danno nailed it..or tacked it as the case may be..LOL
Often even Linoleum was tacked down. My house has millions of itty , bitty smash yer thumb trying to drive them little bastards.
Mebbe a 1/4" long and head the size of a pin head , they are CUT nails type shank with a hand made "upset" head.
Upset is a smiths term for swageing or changeing the shape of metal to a new profile along it's length..( for the uninitated). Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
My place had those tacks in the linoleum, 100's of 'em.
Who drove those little buggers in. What a miserable job!
I always thought the same thing about the poor guy that had to nail up all the lath, back in the day.
I'd like to have seen them go at it, I bet those guys could fly!
thanks all...that's what I thought too....the carpet guys don't seem to care one way or the other..
back in the day we ran honest to God 1x with ogee cap on the floor...stuff was big enough that you didn't lose it when the carpet went in....come to think of it we almost always ran real 3/4 oak, too.....those were the days....
They don't care because it ain't them that has to replace the BB when their knee kicker tags yer Base. Over and over.
I use a blunt "stair tool" to tuck the last frayed end under, kinda like a brickies chisel, but not sharp. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
'They don't care because it ain't them that has to replace the BB when their knee kicker tags yer Base. Over and over."
Never mind the kicker, you should see what a carpet layer nailing tackless into a slab with a hand maul can do to your BB.....
LOL..I have. Actually, I have done the exact thing myself ( once)..then I bought a Remington PAF. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
JR, is there something besides 1x that is used as baseboard?
Just kidding, I guess I'm just lucky that 90% of the base I run happens to be 1x6 or 1x8 Poplar. 80% has a basecap. And there's lots and lots of real 3/4" hardwood flooring.
BTW, where is the Queen City? (noticed it in your profile.)
Mike
Bankrupt Buffalo, in the heart of disfunctional Erie county, New York.....
Normally I raise it 1/2'', but after a stint as a punchout man on some developments in Md. I started thinking. why raise it? My first intuition says it will be easier for the carpet man, but I'm not sure about this now. The worst thing to me in a new home or remodel where there is floor line disrepencies, and running the base in production mode. You could come up wiht a peice of bease that needs lowered to look Ok, that's after caulk paint and obviously carpet. For the last couple of years I've been dealing with hardwood situations only we've been raising the base 3/4's but I seriously thinking or lowering it to the floor. Actually this situation I will confront soon in the next month. And I will be dealing with MDF base board for the first time. It seems as (thinkning now) the flooring guys will beat the crap out of this stuff. I'll have to post a question. I've had to lower base before beacause installers and muself missing that the gap was to big. Live and learn I guess.
If its a cheap little 3 1/4" base I raise it a 1/2". If its 5" or better I just take my liberty and be thankful I dont have to scribe it to the floor.
Carpet does'nt need to be tucked under anything. the only reason to raise it is to get more of your moneys worth out of the base. Taller baseboards just look better
If its hardwood the base should be scribed in after the floor or your gonna need a shoe mould.
Raise, down on the floor looks cheap and unfinished.
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
The height depends on what type of carpet is being used. IMO ~7/16 is OK for most residential applications. On the other hand, I went in an appartment building that was being built and that had that thin industrial type carpeting in the hallways. Maybe like that indoor/outdoor stuff. I think it was glue down as the floor was aparently concrete. All the base - 4 floors, ~325' halways each floor had the base set at around 1/2", leaving a 1/4" gap. I asked if shoe would be installed and was told no. BARF!!! A big screw up in my opinion.
Raise it
for standard base a scrap piece makes a good spacer.