The Advantages to Removing the Baseboard Before Laying Carpet

Aesthetics

• One of the greatest advantages to removing the baseboards before installing carpeting is that, when the baseboards are reinstalled, they will cover the edges of the carpet. If you install the carpet without removing the baseboards, its edges will butt up against the face of the baseboards and are more likely to show fraying, gaps and irregularities. Also, the carpeting will obscure the bottom section of the baseboard. By removing the baseboard, you can reinstall it slightly higher on the wall with the edge of the carpet underneath it, which leaves the entire baseboard showing and hides the edge of the carpet.

Stability

• The pressure of the reinstalled baseboard pressing down on the edge of the carpet helps to keep the carpet in place. When carpets are installed, the carpet layers begin by installing strips of wood with tiny spikes sticking up out of them around the sides of the room. The edges of the carpet sit on these strips and are held in place by them. Installing the baseboard over the edges of the carpet will press the edges down onto these holding strips to help keep the carpet immobile.

Trim

• You might be engaged in a number of renovations at the same time at which you are laying carpet. Removing the baseboards before you install the carpet will give you an opportunity to paint them before reinstalling them. If you paint the baseboards in place with the carpet next to them, you run the risk of getting paint on the carpet or at the very least will have to take time to tape off the carpet and be very careful in your painting. Painting the baseboards in another room keeps wet paint well away from your brand new carpet.