Gap between floor board and wood flooring


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Old 04-11-17, 07:34 AM
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Question Gap between floor board and wood flooring

Hello all - first time user of this forum. I was hoping to get some assistance with a visually annoying issue that I'm having with the flooring in my apartment. I believe it's been this way since the day we bought it about 5 years ago.

As you can see from the picture, there is a gap between the bottom of the floor board and the hard wood flooring. It doesn't run the entire length of the wall. So if the wall is 15ft long, the gap exists for about 10ft. I'm not very handy so I thought I would ask this forum to assess the situation.

Do you all think this is a building settling issue? It's a garden style apartment, I am on the top floor (4th). A friend of mine thinks that it may be a "sub-flooring" issue and that the developers got lazy near the edges.

What do you all think the issue is here and is it easy and worth it to fix or am I being really picky?

Thanks a bunch for your help folks.

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Old 04-11-17, 08:07 AM
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Is there any base shoe molding where the base meets the floor? If not, there's your solution.
 
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Old 04-11-17, 08:22 AM
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Had to do a quick google search to know what a base shoe molding is

To answer your question, yes, there already is base shoe molding. It's the brown lip at the bottom of the floor board (might be hard to see in the pictures). It too is separated from the floor as it is attached to the floor board.
 
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Old 04-11-17, 08:43 AM
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So the gap is at the bottom of the shoe/qtr round, correct.

When installed it should have been flush, apparently over the years something has shifted/settled/moved and now a gap.

Essentially you need to pull the shoe/qtr round off the base board and reattach.

Normally done with a pneumatic/electric brad nailer, could be done by hand but that is a PITA.
 
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Old 04-11-17, 08:56 AM
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Yes, that's correct, it's at the bottom. So you think the building has shifted or settled and that's why the gap now exists?

Do you think the "sub-flooring" explanation makes any sense or most likely a settlement shift?
 
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Old 04-11-17, 09:14 AM
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How old is the bldg? was the shoe mold tight against the floor originally? or is it just something you are now noticing? Are there any creaks in the floor? cracks in walls? Without the last two it's doubtful it's a sub floor issue.
 
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Old 04-11-17, 10:05 AM
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The building is 7 years old. I have no idea if it was tight against the floor originally as I wasn't the first owner and didn't notice it when we first bought the place almost 5 years ago. I do believe that it was there almost 5 years ago though.

There are no creaks in the floor, it's solid all around. I will say that in one of the bedrooms, there is a slight crack or separation of the dry wall at the corner where two walls of the room meet. It's in a different room but it is adjacent to the room that's the topic of this thread.
 
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Old 04-11-17, 10:11 AM
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Yes, just pop the old shoe off, pull or clip the old nails, then push it tight to the floor and renail it.
 
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Old 04-11-17, 11:05 AM
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Ok, I thought that may be an option (i.e. removing either the shoe or the entire floor board and re-positioning it against the wall and floor) ... but my fear is it that the floor board or shoe may look lopsided if the problem is actually the floor sinking vs. the floor board rising. Hope I'm making sense ...
 
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Old 04-11-17, 11:35 AM
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That is part of the job of shoe molding - to follow the slight dips/rises in the floor making them all but disappear. Most folks won't notice that the middle of the shoe is lower than the ends [or however the low area is situated]
 
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Old 04-11-17, 01:47 PM
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Got it - ok, thanks guys. I guess my OCD is getting the best of me

I will talk to a contractor to see if they can do the job cleanly.
 
 

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