I have recently redone my living room floor with hardwood and my kitchen floor with tile and the floor heights are different. I have installed the floor transition strip but I am trying to reinstall the base boards and 1/4 trim. My living room and kitchen are opened to each other except for a half wall.How do I get the 1/4 round trim to match up in height on both floors?

Post a picture.
What's the differants in heights.

PS: The correct term is "shoe molding" but where I live, everyone calls it "carpet strip". Quarter round is a wood molding where the cross section is a true quarter circle, and shoe molding is more of a "quarter elipse".

I've come across the same problem when installing carpet. I have one floor where there's a 3/8 inch thick carpet sitting on 3/8 inch underpad, and a vinyl composition tile floor right next to it that's all of 1/8 inch thick. How do I make the "quarter round" on both floors line up.

The answer is you can't. I used to cut the ends of the shoe molding at a 45 degree angle to make for a "transition" at the point where the two moldings meet, but I don't even do that anymore because it requires me to remove both moldings to replace the carpet. Now I just cut both shoe moldings square and leave it ugly as a frog.

About the only "right" way to do it is to miter it, but if you do that, NEVER try to shorten a short piece in your miter saw. You can hurt yourself real bad. Just measure the difference in height and cut a spacer to that length out of a piece of scrap wood. Now clamp a block of wood to your fence. Then cut a piece of molding with the spacer between the end of the molding and the block. Now remove the spacer, hold the mitered end of the molding against the block and cut again. The piece you cut off will be the width of the spacer, which is the height difference between the floors. You can now use that piece to use 45 degree miters to go around the transition with your baseboard (or shoe molding).

Miter the ends of the baseboards at each floor level. If that piece you cut off is wide enough, nail it on, otherwise smear some white wood glue on all 4 mitered ends and use glue to hold that short piece in place. Wipe any excess wood glue off with a damp sponge before it dries.

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