Is it all over the house like that? Could it be that originally there was only quarter round there and the previous owner added the baseboard, but was too lazy or inexperienced to remove the quarter round? Reason for my guess is that it looks like the imprint of a hammer head around the lower nail in the baseboard, and trim carpenter would have used an air gun.

This post was edited by marti8a on Tue, Aug 13, 13 at 14:51

No reason at all to do baseboard and molding like that.

omg. Will it ever end. They could have at least extended it past the corners so it wouldn't be so obvious, caulked and painted.

I wonder if the wood flooring was added later. Carpet would not be using a shoe and would cover the gap. Could be the baseboard was added later too, just plunked on top?

I think a previous owner decided to tart it up with taller baseboards and didn't bother to do it right.

I found an exposes side-angle of the stuff by the stairs. Turns out it's not quarter-round but something else. Has a flat top that the baseboord rests into. I've attached a photo

marti8a, yes the whole house it like this. All 2K quare feet. Strangely, inside the closets there's just the baseboard, no wood trim below it. As for the "hammer mark," I think it's just a scuff. There is no indent.

snookums2, the flooring is original. The house is only 7 years old and was hardwood throughout from day 1.

Any other ideas on why this would be done? Ir is it just a stupid contractor/prior homeowner mistake?

Looks like art to me. Not a mistake, but intentional, however bad an idea.

Yeah I agree. Whether both pieces were put down originally or the white base was added later, it was a bad idea. An easy enough fix though.

If that's original to the house, I would say they were uneducated.

This last shot doesn't look the same as the first which looks like quarter round.

I've seen some odd things in my day but this one is unique. At least it looks like an easy fix. You might be able to remove both moldings, discard the Oak molding and drop the base down on top of the floor and renail it.

I think it was done intentionally because the base has a slot that lets it overlap the lower moulding. It looks like they were trying to create a shadow line or variation of museum reveal without doing it the right way. There is another variation where the groove, or reveal is at the floor line.

Done correctly, it's a picky, expensive detail, and it looks like they were trying to mimic a shadowline detail with traditional millwork and a flawed technique, and failed.

No real carpenter/craftsman would apply more than one corner of that and think it looked good enough to continue. It's just plain silly.

well 3 cost effective fixes would be
1. paint the lower section to match the upper along a wall you see easily and frequently, give it a couple weeks maybe and see how it grows on you. It may actually look interesting instead of mismatched if it were uniform in colour actually
2. remove them and reuse the upper part only lower profile
3. choose an additional profile trim to build out the higher board thicker which will cover the lower piece, this is how you are "supposed" to add pieces to begin with and it is an easy fix that could add detail in a better way

We recently bought a house in Connecticut and it is done this same way. The house was built in 1985 by a higher end builder. Since I had never seen this before (and I've lived in dozens of houses all over the country), I asked our home inspector, who has worked in this area for 30+ years, about it and he actually said that is how it's done! Like your house, our entire house is original hardwood, and it's obvious it was built this way. Strange to me, but I guess it's normal at least in this area.

I’m late to the party but this is a uniquely Connecticut detail. The ”shoe” is a unique shape with a tongue and the baseboard typically has been rabbetted to sit on top. This gives you the look of shoe without the shoe sticking out into the room beyond the baseboard. It also helps prevent the shoe from being damaged