How To Make Gaps Under Baseboards Disappear With Caulking
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2023
- This Method is a game changer when it comes to fixing unsightly gaps under your baseboards.
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Thanks for watching:) 
Хобби
Really appreciate the presented contrast of matching the floor vs. the base board.
The gaps on my baseboard molding never bothered me until I watched this video😂. Thanks, now I got some work to do. Great video though.
If a shoe is not warranted, whenever I install base boards, I have always done it the "hard right way". I scribe my base boards to the uneven floor. I use a hand planer first , than belt sander. I make sure that I I beveled "angled" back towards the wall with the planer, thus I only need to sand a little to get to my scribe line up to ~ 1/32 error, then caulk
Note there is an old saying among old timers.
" Any tradesman can cut a board and install it square, level and plumb, But if you could take a "crooked board" and install it square, level and plumb, and in the same plane on a "crooked wall", then you are a craftsman."
When I worked as a carpenter, I got fired from almost every job, for "doing it too slow", but then they would rehire me to "fix the mistakes", I often thanked the other "fast carpenters" for providing me job security...
Although, yes I would fix this baseboard the way you suggested, unless the client wanted me to remove and reinstall the baseboard.
Thank you in general for taking the time to make all these videos. Super appreciate you sharing your knowledge and expertise!
If you really do, please click on the Thanks button. I did that.
Thank you! I appreciate you checking them out🍻
Also use about a half a coffee mug of warm water with about 6 drops of dish soap to dip your fingers in prior to each wipe. The caulk won’t stick to your fingers and makes a much smoother caulking job.
Thanks man, I'm about to do this exact thing and have struggled with sticky caulking in the past
Yes it works perfect!!
I’ve been a carpenter since 1977. I just learned a trick of the trade. I like the sharpie line on the caulking tube.
Thats because hopefully you have been just doing it the right way for 20 years and installing shoe
Awesome. That looks amazing. I did a pretty bad caulk job in a test closet. This is what I will do on the main floor. Thank you a million.
Matching the caulking color with the floor is a great idea. Thank you!
I've been waiting for a clip like this, I was Getting frustrated about the Gaps in My Skirting boards, all a thing of. The past now, thanks for this Tip.
I've been staring at the gaps between my baseboards and the floor for weeks, lamenting how I could fill them in. Your video was absolutely genius! I've been running around the house with all the supplies you suggested and filling in the gaps like a pro (also thanks to your video). My family thinks I'm crazy, but I'm thrilled to bits to be able to do this. Thank you so much for taking the time to create these helpful videos.
Excellent and timely for me. Well done.
Great advice as usual… the bloopers are the best!
Thanks for the video. It is timely. I noticed the gap as an issue only a few hours ago and was thinking about how to fix it.
don't do this if you have a floating floor, it will pull apart as soon as you walk on it.
This is a good point for sure. I should have mentioned this.
@@TheFunnyCarpenterwhat do I do if I have a floating floor? Ants are getting in my kitchen through the baseboard gap. 🤦🏻♀️
@@caitlinwong3128ants aren't getting in from under your baseboards. They're coming in from the outside, find the gaps there, baseboard gaps are only aesthetic issue
@@caitlinwong3128caulking isn’t a solution to an ant problem. Sort out the source first. Caulk later.
@@caitlinwong3128I thought this too “that caulking would fix the ant problem”. While it may fix it in some areas. The best solution would be to buy liquid ant bait. Let them feed on that few a few weeks first. This will get rid of them and after that if you still want to caulk the gap go ahead.
Thanks I live in an apartment and we had bug’s coming through the baseboards and the complex Guys came in without a caulk gun (just squeezing the tube by hand) and did a crap job around the windows so I’m tackling the baseboards this worked great thanks
I enjoyed the vid, but completely unrelated, i love your workshop storage setup.
I am planning to redo my workshop storage, and i HATE the fact that most content creators go so fancy and Instagram with their designs. It's a workshop, functional amd simple is the way it should be. No hardwood edging, just simple draws with simple cutout handles. Perfect.
Thanks for the informative channel and tips! Very helpful!
Great info and you definitely have the moves😮!
Wow, I would have never guessed to use the same color as the floor. Great tip!
Most of the time when I'm trying to patch, plug or putty I use a shade *darker* than the surrounding areas as lighter tends to stand out more. Maybe underneath the base is different?
Brilliant. Thanks for doing these videos.
You videos are getting even better. I'm proud you're Canadian.
Found your channel because my jobsite putting me on punch out in a 20+ floor building. I'll be watching many if not all your vids.
this is how I've always done it.. EXCEPT! matching the caulk color to the floor instead of the baseboard! how did I never think of that.. makes total sense!
Perfect video, I've been wondering about doing this and RUclips read my mind and recommended me this video! Didn't search/shop for anything either. Just been thinking about it!
That's happened to me a time or two. Google has mind reading capability. Freaking scary...
I must say, that is a great method, which I am now going to use
Thank you for these videos!
Quality video, superb instructions and greatly appreciated!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great technique. I find caulking tile floors with color-matched grout caulk to work great using this technique... especially since the gaps at the grout joints show way more than the tile sections themselves. It helps blend in the tile joints and ties in the floor to the base molding.
For me, anything less than 1/16" is never going to be noticed by anyone (but you - haha). I try to bend my baseboard down to match the floor as best possible when installing. Scribing base is a royal pain and takes a ton of time to get right.
I don't know about Dynaflex, but if Big Stretch is left unpainted, it will gather dust like crazy that you can never get off. It really requires painting.
I've run into that also; really gets dirty looking after a while.
Also yellows slightly, and collects gnats horribly. I love big stretch for what it does, but Phenoseal is my go-to caulk for non painted applications.
I’ll note I’ve also used hundreds of tubes of dynaflex, and it does do better at staying clean than big stretch, but still requires diligent cleaning every now and again.
This is true of all caulks. Came here to say this
Really great video, great tip!!!
This is magic. Thank you!
Great instructional video!!
Niceeeee!!!! Love your Spence of humor at the end😂❤
I love all your knowledge and tips. Could i suggest a video or two on dealing with stained or bare wood where paint can be covered up?
My wife and I finished our own basement and we did have gaps under the baseboard when we installed it. It seemed like a no brainer to just caulk the edges to make the gaps disappear. Maybe I should became a RUclips star too! We have used color matching caulk as well.
Great video thanks!!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩
Unfortunately I can't find elastomeric sealant in the shop, can I use acrylic silicone like Pattex? (yellow or brown in my case) or would it last a short time?
this was really really good
A flexible shoe mold looks nice and adds a nice finish.
I would NEVER have thought of matching the floor color rather than the baseboard color. Obviously, the floor color is 1000 times better.
Yes it’s quite a bit better, I’ve never liked the mood of white caulking along the floor.
I just said that same exact thing to myself as well, he says its just a small difference but it's a rather drastic difference when you know what you're looking for!
Same here. It would never have occurred to me to match the floor, and it looks SO much better.
This is a good homeowner tip. but if you are a pro, you just gotta be scribing your base to the floor. Or follow up with a shoe that can flex over the gaps.
How do you find a pro that knows and is willing to scribe?
I would say scribing is very situational. Small areas maybe scribe it, A large uneven area a shoe moulding would be best.
For sure! Carpenters that don’t scribe their base to the floor are hacks🍻
@@michaels3003 if they don't know how to scribe they are not professional trim carpenters, they are likely just out of work framers.
@@brodiewelbanks1141I agree. But I rarely have a say in the trim profile I'm installing, that's normally up to the customer, or the contractor paying me.
Excellent... Thanks!
Great video, thanks bro.
Worked like a charm! Thanks!
Thanks!
Thank you : )
Thank you very much
use paintable silicone. always the best choice. personally i would never try to mach the floor, i would go for the panel color. as the calk is going vertical to the panel, and not horizontal. Your calking job is also hollow, i would make it straight. we have a little cheap tool called a "cheese" it's a rubber square, instead of using the fingers. for perfection spray a light coat of soap water on it, to not make a mess.
Your ends are so funny!
When our new hardwood floors were installed they left a gap between the floor and the baseboard at the doorways of one-half to three-quarters of an inch. Since this would be too large to simply caulk, what do you suggest in order to fix this? Thanks for your suggestions.
I personally would use quarter round, but if I had to caulk I'd use a Cramer profilng tool. I used it to caulk the toilets to the floor and it was magical. No tape needed.
I’m no carpenter, but watch a ton of videos for DIY. I thought I heard it’s not good to caulk around toilets. They said if your toilet ever develops a leak, the water becomes trapped from the caulking will find its way under the flooring and cause big troubles.
I personally like the way the caulking fills the gaps around the toilet but don’t ever want to run into any issues.
They say to leave the back uncaulked. So it looks good but any leaks will find their way out.
Dont caulk toilets unless on uneven floors
Installing shoe/quater round is the right option. Especially if its a floating floor, like so many are.
This looks like it works nice on straight lines but how would you make inside and outside corners look nice and neat? How about around door casings?
i don't know man.... this method seems WAY more complicated and involving WAY MORE mess than how i accomplish this.
I literally have the same caulking gun BTW, love it.
I've been doing A to Z remodeling of old trailer homes for the past 3+ years now and i can caulk the baseboards and door and window trim for the entire home in less than about an hour.
One long swipe down the board no matter the length, then one swipe at about a 45 degree angle with one finger and that's it.
comes out perfect, no messy over caulking to have to clean up or anything.
Most of it is due to actively regulating the pressure on the caulking gun trigger and speed at which i drag the gun across the gap.
I guess just from doing this for so long you just become proficient and for lack of a better work learn the "feel" of how to apply it efficiently.
Or perhaps i'm just built differently .
LOVE the content!
one of my top 3 YT channels that really helped me build everything i have learned in the past years ;)
i have a sculpted porcelain tiles that look like real stone, there are areas that there is no way i could get the base board flush. i have tried a couple different times to caulk them. I may try this method. one spot in particular drives me nuts. good advise on tyring to match the floor color instead of the baseboard color. that may be tough too, but worth a try
I wish to add a new plynth/kickboard under a new integrated dishwasher. The floor in front is not level so the kickboard will need adjustment. Without a shelf to use to scribe the floor level onto the kickboard, how can I get this level? Any tips gratefully received!
👍👍👍.Thank you
Man love your videos!!
But please do a video on scribing baseboards instead of caulking them! We don’t ever caulk baseboards.
There’s a cool scribe tool called a “thingamajig”it the best scribe tool I’ve ever used for finishing carpentry.
What is this fascination with a bit of gappage? Being a fussy boat builder type, I did the trim in my house to my satisfaction. Turns out I should have painted it too because even after requesting NO CAULK due to it always looking dirty after a while, the painter still caulked it. Six years later I am starting to feel the need for a razor blading of all the caulked seams, even though the painter did a fairly decent job. That all said, this is great advice for "industry standard" trim jobs.
Wonder if it's same procedure if spacing is on the floor, renovate the space, but kept the old floor and I have little space between the floor and the trim
New sub here!! Thanks for great video!!
Thanks for checking out the channel
Magical!!!
Thanks Travis🍻
Nice video - pity about the hair (hiding under the hat?). this tip is a great solution I was looking for in the bathroom to resolve the seam between tiles on the bath and tiled floor. Thank you.
If you bought the 30, couldnt you buy a 21 milwaukee mag and change? At my local HD replacement magazines are on clearance
Since the floor is "floating" won't the caulk secure it and not let it expand and contract with the change in temperature? Or will the caulking crack?
If you put pressure on the top of the base before you shoot it to the wall you can eliminate the gaps on the install of the base.
Scribe it with a compass then trim the baseboard. That's what the pros do. I did. Works like a charm. Just follow the contour of the floor.
Thanks for the vid. I used an engineered hardwood flooring that has quite a bit of grain (Not a flat surface) and tried using tape but I couldn't get the tape to follow the contour of the grainy surface so it left little tunnels under the tape that the caulking would get into. any suggestions for how to handle this? I am not bad at caulking, so tried no tape and finger method, but the same thing happened since couldn't get my finger to close up on the grain either.
you need to press the tape down harder so it follows all the contours
This is the whole reason for color matching to the floor
I think the white caulking looks better. The floor-match caulking gives the impression there's still a gap there.
Glad I wasn’t the only one. I honestly thought I was seeing the molding and gaps again pre-Caulk.
Agreed!
Me too. It could look different in person, while not under direct lighting, atypical viewing angle for making a video, but as shown the white looked better to me.
How does the Dynaflex compare to the Alex Plus?
Does someone know if this is suitable for wooden flooring in combination with wooden baseboards?
I'm going to be installing PVC baseboards on top of a fairly rough concrete floor. We already bought white caulk. Maybe I'll try to exchange them for gray. This area will be used for dog training and boarding and may be hosed/mopped out frequently. I'm thinking silicone caulk would be best. And the floor may get painted. I assume we should do that first.
New to this kind of thing, but what happens with the movement of the floor when the wood contracts or dilates during the year? Wouldn't this get in the way of the movement?
no, its flexible
I would not use caulk under the baseboards on a floating floor. as it is designed to float, to move with expansion and contraction. If necessary, level the floor or scribe and cut or plane to fit. If the floor is in a wet room, like a bathroom or laundry room, and expansion is not significant, use clear calk to seal. and the bottom line of the baseboard remains straight and does not appear to curve to follow the floor.
cool video
A problem with caulking baseboards (something I did once and never again) is you need to do the whole house - whether there are gaps or not - otherwise it looks uneven; as though you are trying to hide you mistakes.
This is exactly right. You should never do it with white caulk for this very reason & it can look absolutely terrible, and using dark caulk to hide a dark gap is a waste of time imo.
Keep the gap handy for sweeping your dust under 😉
How do you cut the tip of the caulk tube? I know with a razor or the cutter in the gun, but I mean how much do you trim off and at what angle? Thanks.
For this it doesn’t really matter much. For other jobs it does though.
@@TheFunnyCarpenterwhen does it matter?
@@Perfectly_Balanced930 check out the video at the end of this video.
I dont used tape at all my caulking gun and my hand do it all really nice
Great timing for your post. Having 550 sq. feet of laminate hardwood installed next week. What are your thoughts or what would you recommend for a compact caulking gun? Thank you sir!
I like that red newborn one that I was using in the video. I think I have a link for it in some of my other caulking vids.
Thank you and I appreciate your valuable feedback!@@TheFunnyCarpenter
Where are all those useful and friendly spiders going to live?
I have never seen caulking the baseboards to the floor before
Thats because wood expands and contracts and unless you are using luxury vinyl and your foundation is super stable, that shit is going to pull apart and look like garbage.
That looks easy, first I'll just have to get my baseboards up to the bench and stand behind them. ;) in all seriousness, good idea. I find the problem with this kind of work is being older, crawling around the floor and not being able to get your eyeballs in the right place.
I lived in a newly built house for years and never knew until the last year that under the floorboard and carpet was an inch gap outside. Removed it for some reason and saw sunlight. The Winters were cold and ants in warm weather. Happy a snake did not slither in because they liked to nest in decorative rocks on the outer side of the wall
What kind of caulking can be used?
Silicon?
I have this exact problem after installing new flooring.
I like to paint my caulk lines. It is easier to clean up when it gets dirty and won't yellow, discolor, or crack with age once it's painted. Since I am probably painting the baseboards white I would go with a white caulk rather than try to color match the caulk color with the floor
Painting the caulking is an extra step that can definitely has merit. Especially if your going to be painting the baseboards anyways.
Does wood expand and contract…would this….hinder that?
Could you use wood filler instead of caulk?
I don’t tape, put your bead down and for painters caulk mist with a spray bottle of water and use a rung out sponge. For bath/kitchen silicone, use rubbing alcohol to mist and a dry disposable rag. I do use tape for silicone caulking if the gap is bigger than 1/8”. If it is something you can put a very small bead on and mist, it tends to not spread outwards.
no "save" option for this video either? need one (as i am getting ready to do this in my house) please? thank you!
I have never seen baseboard installed without shoe molding? Did the carpenter leave it that way? I also have seen houses that were remodeled put carpet down and leave off putting down shoe molding but all non carpeted floors had it?
in high end jobs, not every client wants a "shoe look"
@@carpenterabcI have been on many jobs and have no idea how many houses I have been in and all had shoe molding with the exception of trailor houses.
Use the same tape technique but instead of caulk, Bondo the gap square with a putty knife and then prime/paint to match the baseboard.
No flex
Would you do this step before or after painting the skirting?
before
Thank you
In the old days master carpenters never even heard of caulking and the skirting boards/base boards were exact. The days of highly skilled craftsmen seems to be over.
This came at a good time. I need to caulk a few gaps.
Best of wishes on the job🍻
or gaps are good. gaps just saved me from water damage. water got in the wall, and thanks to the gap in my baseboard mouldings, it poured right out onto the floor completely. no damage! before that happened i would have been a caulker for sure, now i thank my baseboard gaps everyday.
The magic if you will... Is just the fact that the caulking matches the floor. Thanks for the tip.
When the floor expands or shrinks due to heat differences, it will pull apart. That is why the floor boards aren’t exactly up to the wall, they need to be able to shrink and expand. Better to minimize the gaps by making the floor underneath as straight as possible and using a good subfloor.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I think it looked better just having the gap. The caulking really stands out IMO.
1/4 round works wonders.
I like to wet my finger before I swipe it. It seems to make it glide along much smoother.