What happens to baseboards and trim during install?

What you gain by leaving the baseboard alone

The far more common approach on a straightforward re-floor is to leave the existing baseboard exactly where it is and finish the edge with a thin strip of quarter-round or shoe molding, nailed to the baseboard rather than the new floor so the new material can still move underneath it. Nothing about the wall gets touched. No paint gets scraped, no nail holes need filling, and the labor is a fraction of what removing trim would take. For a floor going in on top of what is already there, this is the path that gets the job done fastest with the least collateral disruption to the room.

What that approach gives up

The trade is visual. A thin strip of molding running along the base of every wall is a small but real change to how the room reads, especially in a house with a taller or more decorative baseboard profile, where a plain shoe strip underneath can look like an afterthought rather than part of the original trim. It also has to be painted or finished to match, which is a small job but a real one, and in a room with dark or unusual trim color it can be the one detail that gives away that a floor was replaced without the trim being redone alongside it.

What you gain by pulling the baseboard first

Removing the baseboard before the new floor goes in, then resetting it afterward, gets the flooring right up against the wall with nothing extra added. That is the cleanest possible line, the look most people picture when they imagine a finished floor, and it is the standard approach in a fuller remodel where trim and paint are being redone anyway. It also avoids the molding-profile mismatch entirely, since the original baseboard goes right back where it was.

What that approach costs you

Trim has to come off cleanly to go back on cleanly, and old baseboard, especially painted wood that has been caulked to the wall for years, does not always cooperate. Nail holes and caulk lines get disturbed at minimum, and a touch-up with paint is close to unavoidable once the baseboard is reset. Older or more brittle trim can crack or split during removal, in which case a section may need to be replaced rather than reused, which is its own conversation about matching the profile and finish of what is already in the room. This route also simply takes longer, since it is a separate piece of carpentry layered onto the flooring work rather than a strip nailed on at the end.

Which one actually fits your room

A quarter-round finish is the sensible default when the floor is the only thing changing in the room and the existing baseboard is in decent shape. Pulling the trim makes more sense when paint or trim was already on the to-do list, when the baseboard profile is tall or ornate enough that a shoe strip underneath would look wrong, or when the room is getting a full remodel where a flush line is worth the extra step. Neither one is automatically correct, and which fits depends on the trim you already have and how much of the room you are willing to touch.

The mistake this decision heads off

The common mistake is not choosing either option deliberately and assuming it gets handled a particular way by default, then being surprised on install day by a strip of molding that was not expected, or by paint touch-up that was not planned for. Which side handles paint, and whether trim removal is part of the scope for your specific room, is exactly the kind of detail that should be settled and written into the quote before install day, not discovered once the crew is already there. Ask about it directly at the in-home measure, where preparation expectations get agreed as part of scheduling rather than sorted out at the door.