Positing MDF baseboards against pine baseboards is pretty easy:  MDF blows.  That’s not to say that installing pine baseboards is a piece of cake.  We’re saying that pine will make your life easier than MDF.

One thing that few remodelers mention is that MDF is heavy stuff.  Even though we’re not talking crown molding here, if you’re dealing with MDF crown molding that stuff is heavy to hold up.  But consider this:  hauling home 250 linear feet of MDF is a real job.  And in the process, you’ll end up breaking a board or two and/or nicking the stuff.

In the fight between MDF and pine baseboards, it’s pine all the way.

The reason why crown molding is hard is because: 1.) Crown is expensive. You don’t have a lot of room for error.  F*** up that length of crown molding, split the wood, whatever, and you’re out 35 bucks; 2.) Crown molding takes precision work bordering on woodworker skills more than remodeler skills.

Real crown molding–the hard stuff–requires angle cuts on a miter saw. You have to sometimes flip it around upside-down, and invariably you get the cut wrong. Boom, another dead piece of crown.

So, manufacturers have come up with simple crown molding. Let’s take a look at hard crown molding vs. simple crown molding:

But how are baseboards designed?  What’s their basic makeup?  And what’s all this about single-piece baseboards vs. built-up baseboards?

Refer to the picture below and to this key here:

Single Piece Baseboard – It’s a single piece, as opposed to a built up baseboard.  You can tell by looking at the top edge of the baseboard.  Some baseboards are constructed of multiple pieces, and the top part is always a separate piece.  This is a single-piece baseboard; a cohesive unit.

Baseboard Profile – The profile is probably the most obvious baseboard design factor.  Here you find two horizontal grooves which will catch the light and create attractive shadows.

Quarter-Round – The quarter round is less baseboard design and more baseboard practicality.  The quarter-round is a separate piece and it covers up the gap between the floor and the bottom of the baseboard.

Gap - Finally, it’s worth noting that another element of baseboard design is that it covers up the gap between the flooring and the wall.  This gap is necessary.

Why Removing Baseboards Isn’t So Bad

Because you’re installing flooring, you’re also raising the height of the floor.  This means that the baseboards simply get raised another half-inch, inch, or whatever up the wall.

Nail alignment stays the same.  You don’t have to guess where the stud are.  Because the baseboards are moving vertically but not horizontally, the nails will still hit the studs.

And this is the best part.  You’ll first need to score the paint along the top of the baseboard.  This leaves a horrid mess:  a deep gouge in your drywall.  But never fear, layering is here!  Remember, the baseboard is moving up.  So, it will effectively cover up the score marks.  All you need to do is make sure there are no bulges in that scored area to mess up your baseboard.

How to Remove Baseboards

Tools and Materials

• Pry bar
• Claw hammer
• Thin scrap of plywood (1/4″ thick and about 4 inches square)
• Utility knife
• Stud finder

Procedure

1. Score along the top of the baseboard with the utility knife.  Score several times lightly rather than one heavy pass.
2. Start at the stud closest to the end of the baseboard.  Locate with a magnetic stud finder.
3. Lay the wood square on the wall, just above the baseboards.  Make sure square is positioned at a stud.  This is where the nails will be.
4. Slowly, carefully tap the end of the pry bar into the top of the baseboard and pry back.
5. If it’s hard to pry back all the way, get it started with the pry bar and continue with the claw hammer.

Let’s back up a second… When you are installing mitered trim on your windows, you often run into the problem of these d**n 45 degree angle joints not holding together. This is the point where the two pieces of trim meet at 90 degree, or perpendicular, angles. You’ve cut the end of each piece at a 45 degree angle…

The trim may hold well to the window itself—all well and good—but it doesn’t hold very well to itself. Even if you can get these corners to look like they are joined, over time they will begin to separate. Trust me, they will. So, what do you do? Fill in with wood putty? Caulk? No way. Two nails solve the problem.

Simply lock-nail the two pieces of trim together. The way you locknail is by driving a finish nail into the side of one piece so that it enters the adjoining piece. And then by doing the same to the other piece. These two crossing nails gives your trim rock-solid holding capabilities. Be sure to sink them with a nailset.

No weird angles or expensive rosettes to buy here. Just cut the two vertical side pieces of casing so that they reach (but do not extend beyond) the top of the door opening.

Then cut a header piece (the horizontal top piece) so that it equals the horizontal door opening + the twice the width of a side casing + plus some whatever extra amount that tickles your fancy.

Butted door casings have a utilitarian look that can look cheap.  So, use real moldings, not dimensional lumber (i.e., 1x4s).

By that last time, I’m talking about the extra amount that extends beyond the side casings. It can be anything you want, but you’ll probably not want to go crazy here. This is all for show, and gives your butted door casing a little fancy finish: a quarter-inch on each side is enough.