Viking Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 Our renovation is slowly moving on. Today I was going to replace a part of a baseboard, when removing the bad one I found a lot of unpleasant stuff behind it. Ants, centipedes, butiki and lots of dirt! I continued to remove even the ones that looked good and it was almost as bad behind them. Our bedroom don't have any baseboard. The bottom part of the wall is just painted in a different color. I am now thinking of skipping the baseboards, only to limit the places for for bugs and dirt. How have you done in your houses? Baseboard, yes or no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrettGC Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 (edited) We need to replace ours as well, they're starting to rot after only 6 or so years. No I wasn't present for that purchase and install. It looks like cheap plywood. I'd be hear everyone's thoughts. Edited March 22, 2023 by BrettGC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hk blues Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 2 hours ago, Viking said: Our renovation is slowly moving on. Today I was going to replace a part of a baseboard, when removing the bad one I found a lot of unpleasant stuff behind it. Ants, centipedes, butiki and lots of dirt! I continued to remove even the ones that looked good and it was almost as bad behind them. Our bedroom don't have any baseboard. The bottom part of the wall is just painted in a different color. I am now thinking of skipping the baseboards, only to limit the places for for bugs and dirt. How have you done in your houses? Baseboard, yes or no? We had tiled floors for the 1st 2 years so no baseboard. We then installed wood flooring and we needed baseboard to cover the gap between plank and wall. I have to say it looks much better than the painted style. I did the baseboards myself and used decorators filler to cover the gap along the top - I guess you could also do the same at the bottom if it is such a concern for you but I didn't bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hk blues Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 5 minutes ago, BrettGC said: We need to replace ours as well, they're starting to rot after only 6 or so years. No I wasn't present for that purchase and install. It looks like cheap plywood. I'd be hear everyone's thoughts. Most of the hardware stores around us are selling the same baseboards - it's MDF with a coating of a thin film so only suitable for painting, not staining. Very reasonably priced and pretty hard wearing. The alternative is cheap pine or much more expensive hardwoods but I wanted white so went for the MDF option. I installed it myself and it was easy enough to work with but I did coat both back and front with a few coats of paint to help preserve it (before installation so super quick to do) and then glued and nailed/screwed to the concrete/hardiflex. Six year on and genuinely no issues whatsoever BUT we didn't use in the bathrooms. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyWay Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 55 minutes ago, hk blues said: Most of the hardware stores around us are selling the same baseboards - it's MDF with a coating of a thin film so only suitable for painting, not staining. I don't know how old it is exactly (at least 20 years) but our house has quite a few plastic baseboards and crown moldings. When I first realized this, I thought, "cheap", but actually they may be very good in this climate. They paint up just fine and you can't tell they are plastic. I had put holes in one for a room divider, and they patched up just fine. Personally, I don't like the painted line "baseboards". 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum Support Popular Post Mike J Posted March 22, 2023 Forum Support Popular Post Posted March 22, 2023 Have you considered using tile as a baseboard. Cut to 3 - 4 inch strips. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Peterson Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 12 minutes ago, Mike J said: Have you considered using tile as a baseboard. Cut to 3 - 4 inch strips. We did that all round, it stops anything getting under and behind. to be doubly sure we grouted as well joints and base 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyWay Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 1 hour ago, Jack Peterson said: We did that all round, it stops anything getting under and behind. to be doubly sure we grouted as well joints and base While looking at houses online in Texas, I have seen several that made liberal use of colorful Mexican tiles in many places. Tile floor accents, baseboards, stair risers, backsplash, etc. I love the look! Red Spanish tiles too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted March 22, 2023 Author Posted March 22, 2023 4 hours ago, BrettGC said: We need to replace ours as well, they're starting to rot after only 6 or so years. No I wasn't present for that purchase and install. It looks like cheap plywood. I'd be hear everyone's thoughts. Ours had started to rotten as well but the most damage was from some wood eating insects. The baseboards were made of solid wood but when I removed them I found out that they were not painted on the back. It's easy to do before you put them up, but with so many other things here, it's even easier to skip it, 😂. 4 hours ago, hk blues said: We had tiled floors for the 1st 2 years so no baseboard. We then installed wood flooring and we needed baseboard to cover the gap between plank and wall. I have to say it looks much better than the painted style. I did the baseboards myself and used decorators filler to cover the gap along the top - I guess you could also do the same at the bottom if it is such a concern for you but I didn't bother. Is there a reason why you didn't have a baseboard to the tiled floors? We have all tiled floors and there was baseboards in two of them. No questions about it, I definitely think it looks better with baseboard than just painted in a different color. What material do you have on your baseboards? I have seen the ones made of PVC and they could probably be a good alternative to wood in this climate. Only problem is that I don't like it!! Hahaha. 3 hours ago, OnMyWay said: I don't know how old it is exactly (at least 20 years) but our house has quite a few plastic baseboards and crown moldings. When I first realized this, I thought, "cheap", but actually they may be very good in this climate. They paint up just fine and you can't tell they are plastic. I had put holes in one for a room divider, and they patched up just fine. Personally, I don't like the painted line "baseboards". I agree with you that plastic baseboards are probably not a bad idea in this climate, it's just that I don't like it, 😂. I am not very happy of the painted baseboards either but if my baseboards will get infested by bugs, I will prefer the painted one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted March 22, 2023 Author Posted March 22, 2023 3 hours ago, Mike J said: Have you considered using tile as a baseboard. Cut to 3 - 4 inch strips. That's not a bad idea 👍 It will probably not give the same elegant look like a regular baseboard but it will stand up to the climate and no bugs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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