I have a tile and baseboard question regarding our new home!?
January 26, 2012 by
Filed under new construction jobs
First of all…thanks for any advice given as our new home is really becoming a nightmare. So, here goes in regards to the baseboards:
If you look at most of our baseboards, primarily, the corners, they are sooooo chunky. It appeared to me, before doing some digging, that the “construction crew” litterally painted over all material on the baseboards, i.e. giving the lovely look we have. So, upon contacting the builder, they said that we should expect some damage and that there is nothing they could do without damage to the baseboards (uh..replace them then!). So, today I decided that I would fix one edge to show them what a proper baseboard should look like. Once I peeled of the paint, I discovered, yes they did paint over any material on the baseboards…and, that the horrible caulk job throughout the home is because of the grout next to the baseboards. It appears as though they put the tile up to the side of the baseboard and not under…IS THIS PROPER FLOORING PROCEDURE???
We bought this “inventory” new home and closed about 3 weeks ago. As far as I know, these Lennar homes all have tile as opposed to laminate floor. Due to them abutting the tile to the baseboard, the caulk line where ever there is tile required more caulk therefore looking chunky on the top and bottom of these baseboards…this is just one of the problems with the house. I am beginning to see the whole “sub-contractor sub-contracting issue” people are talking about. I just want to know the proper procedure so when the DM comes through tomorrow, I know what I am talking about since my husband will be at work…they seem to think I have no clue though we have remodeled our prior home before moving. PS>>>all you answers are very helpful.
Baseboards go in before flooring. However, they are supposed to leave a gap to allow for the flooring to be installed underneath the baseboards. Did they originally plan for vinyl in that area, and then you guys chose tile instead? This would mean the gap would not be high enough to slide the tile under the edge of the baseboards. And, they were too lazy to pull the baseboards out and redo them. Either way, they should have gone around the edge with quarter round, though, to clean up the look.
don’t pay until it is properly done, or ask them to put a quarter round at the bottom of the molding to cover the mess.
Floors should go in before baseboards.
Generally if you were tiling then the flooring should go down first and the baseboard fitted over this, there can be issues where you have various flooring types that join together but are different thickness’ but a quality builder or finisher could scribe the base board to suit. Even if the base board was fitted prior to tiling then the tile installer should allow for this by scribing the tiles to the base board to leave an equal gap around the perimeter of the tiled area for grout or caulk, generally no more than say1/4 “. either way it sounds to me like you have a right to complain and the contractor should put it right, the excuse that “you should expect some damage” is basically B.S