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 |  | Medium: $170-$400 per room installed |  | High: $300-$800 per room installed |
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Also called base trim or base molding, baseboard is both attractive and functional. It can add a subtle but important final touch to a room's style while covering the gap between the flooring and wall. It also protects the wall's finish from vacuum cleaners, furniture scrapes and other bumps or kicks.
Typical costs: |
- Baseboards vary from a simple 1-inch-high round "shoe" molding to 6 inches high, with finishes ranging from plain to a sloped, grooved or rounded design. The taller and more elaborate the baseboard, the greater the cost.
- At 65-90 cents a linear foot, wood composite (MDF) baseboards 2-4 inches high average$50-$75 uninstalled for 80 feet in a 20x20-foot living room or $325-$450 for 500 feet in an average two-story home. Composite baseboards 5-6 inches high run $1.50-$2 a linear foot, making it about $120-$160 uninstalled for 80 feet and $750-$1,000 for an average-sized home.
- Prices run 85 cents-$150 for 3-4 inches high or $1.50-$2.25 for 5-6 inches high for baseboards of inexpensive woods such as pine or poplar, which works out to about $70-$180 uninstalled for a living room, or $425-$1,125 uninstalled for an average-sized home.
- It's about $2.80-$7 or more a foot depending on height and style for baseboards of solid cherry, mahogany, walnut or other high-end wood, averaging $225-$560 for a living room or $1,400-$3,500 for an average-sized home.
- Costs are $1.80-$8 a foot, depending on style and height, for polyurethane baseboards that are impervious to moisture, won't rot or crack over time and can be painted just like wood; it's about $144-$640 for a living room and $900-$4,000 for an average-sized home.
- Professional installation starts around $1.50-$2 a linear foot when included as part of a larger flooring or remodeling job, or $2-$4 for a stand-alone trim installation--making it $120-$320 for labor for a living room, or $750-$2,000 for for an average-sized home. If an older house has uneven floors and corners or unusual obstacles, installers may charge materials plus labor at $45-$65 an hour.
Related articles: Hardwood Floors, Refinishing a Hardwood Floor, Crown Molding, Carpet
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What should be included: |
- Installing baseboards is a relatively simple project, but requires careful measurements and precise cutting. HGTV.com provides instructions and Kelleher.com[1] gives a clear explanation of the "coping" joints needed to make some corners look good.
- The Family Handyman explains how to install baseboard on crooked or lumpy walls.
- The Stanley Complete Trimwork & Carpentry book[2] at $19.95 covers all types of trim molding projects.
Additional costs: |
- Installers often charge $45-$65 an hour to remove old baseboard. If the original baseboard was not installed properly, it can be painstaking work to remove it without damaging the walls.
- For remodeling situations, moving furniture out of the way may cost extra.
- If doing it yourself, there's always some waste involved, so buy at least 10 percent more baseboard than needed.
Shopping for baseboards: |
- Buy the best quality baseboard you can afford; the better the material, the better it will look when the project's done.
- Lowe's[3] sells a range of base moldings and offers installation services. Baseboard can also be ordered online from Hardwood-Moldings.com[4] and Vintage Woodworks[5] .
- Installation referrals are available through most flooring or hardware stores.
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What People Are Paying - Recent Comments |
| Posted by: TFC Flooring in winchester, CA. | Posted: September 4th, 2021 02:09PM |
| Number of Rooms: 5 bed 3 bath | Type: 2 story home |
| Contractor: Exaggerating |
“I can do around 800 feet in four to six hours if there is noting in my way?”ha,I laugh at that number..
Only way to do 800 feet by yourself. Is if you had a row of 3 single story new homes & just installed base on the the large rooms. Leaving out closets & bathrooms. Then you can say,”I installed 800ft.. for that one day.” Not including painting & caulking them.(because painters spray walls & baseboards after. I know as a flooring contractor).
Its retarded they install base first. Also Home Jipo,&Lose installers use 1/4(toe stubbers!)rounds.Makes flooring far from wall.Owners cant put a new baseboard.They must change flooring or put 1/4 stubbers again on a new base.
I paint my base first.Which takes almost a day to set up,prep&paint 2 coats.Then a good two days to install and caulk everything.
Id like to see 800ft installed, painted,and caulked in one day.On a two 2200sqft two story home with 45* cuts on every corner.(yourself!)
If you do that,I definitely would bow down. |
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| Posted by: Snortingordon in Hobbs, NM. | Posted: July 20th, 2019 07:07AM |
| Number of Rooms: 000 | Type: MDF |
| Contractor: BGM |
5 a foot for pine, mdf, poplar.
Hardwoods are 6-7 bucks a foot |
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| Posted by: Carolina Flooring Solutions in Murphy, NC. | Posted: September 24th, 2018 06:09PM |
| Number of Rooms: 6 | Type: |
| Contractor: Carolina Flooring Solutions |
I have 619 linear we installed 2 guys in 2 days and charged $1.15 per linear foot totalling $711.85. Do y'all think that was under priced or too much? |
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| Posted by: RedMist in Middlebury, IN. | Posted: December 15th, 2017 12:12PM |
| Contractor: Self Build |
Installing a mixture of 8", 4", and 2" baseboard at 900' and 3" door casings for 15 doors. Price is for raw wood which I will paint. No installation costs as I will bee doing it myself. The wood is being purchased from a small Amish shop near me. The wood profile is very simple with a 1/4" radius on one corner. I realize I could likely find less expensive wood elsewhere; however, I like their quality and service. |
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| Posted by: CrownInstaller in Clearwater, FL. | Posted: August 10th, 2016 10:08AM |
Base boards speed and quality goes with the talent of the installer. In most cases the installer is buying their materials wholesale.
I can do around 800 feet in four to six hours if there is noting in my way. big box stores charge average here $2.12 per linear foot for base boards. I charge $2.40 per linear foot. (5 1/4" base)I can do it because I buy from a volume wholesaler. your contractor packs are only 12' giving you a greater chance for seams and increasing the waste.
as for your MDF and particle board base, I will not touch that crap. I back all my materials and labor and those are a complete waste of your money. They don't last. |
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| Posted by: Dwayne Howard in Arlington, TX. | Posted: November 27th, 2012 10:11PM |
| Number of Rooms: 10 | Type: |
| Contractor: Just Asking |
The last line of information under "Typical Costs" should have been left out, or posted correctly. It'd take a whole crew of carpenters to install 500 feet of baseboard in half a day ! They won't be doing that for $520, much less for $180. |
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| Posted by: Handy Andy in Jacksonville, NC. | Posted: December 3rd, 2009 08:12AM |
| Number of Rooms: 3 | Type: Generic Base |
| Contractor: Lowes |
Just wanted to add...its a lot cheaper to buy a contractor pack of molding at lowes. Individual pieces will run you around $6-8 each. A contractor pack with 120 linear feet runs $44! HUGE difference. So make sure you ask for the pack. |
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| Posted by: Black River Construction in Hartland, MI. | Posted: September 24th, 2009 07:09AM |
In the paragraph on installation costs it states professional installation starts at $1.50 per linear foot. This seems correct, however at the end of the paragraph it states a 500 linear foot project should cost $180.00 to $520.00 for labor. At $1.50 per linear foot the job would start at $750.00 for labor. |
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External Resources: |
- www.kelleher.com/documents/Coping.pdf
- www.amazon.com/Complete-Trimwork-Carpentry-Stanley/dp/0696221144
- www.lowes.com/pl_Flooring_4294934373__s?Ntt=base%20molding&Ntk=i_products
- www.hardwood-moldings.com/
- www.vintagewoodworks.com/baseboards.html
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