How to Remove Baseboards

Whether you’re removing baseboards to replace the flooring, paint a wall, or update the baseboards themselves, following these easy steps will save you both time and money.

Steps for Removing Baseboards

Step 1: Score a line along the baseboard

• Score a line along the baseboard and any quarter-round molding to help it release more easily from each other and any woodwork or drywall above.
• The joint may have been caulked or even just painted over several times. Skipping this step can pull large pieces of the paint on the adjacent surface and create the need for additional patchwork.

Step 2: Choose a starting point

• If possible, start at an outside corner where it’s easier to open the joint, versus an inside corner where the miters can lock the pieces more tightly in place.

Pro Tip: Tom Silva, This Old House general contractor, recommends starting at the door casing when removing baseboards: “Starting at the door casing, use the putty knife to pry away the shoe molding, then finish the job with a pry bar.” From there, work along the wall at stud locations using a taping knife held against the wall to protect the surface.

Step 3: Tap a putty knife behind the molding

• Using a hammer, tap the blade of a thin putty knife behind the molding, starting with any quarter-round trim installed in front of the baseboards, to start working it loose.

Pro Tip: As Jenn from House One notes, skipping the scoring step before tapping in your putty knife “can pull large pieces of paint on the adjacent surface and create the need for additional patchwork.” Make sure you’ve scored along the top edge of the baseboard and any quarter-round before you start prying.

Step 4: Create a gap

• Once you create a gap, slide the end of a pry bar into the opening to work it free, sliding a block behind the bar to create a fulcrum and to prevent it from marring the wood or wall above.
• Repeat this process to free the main baseboard molding, using a pry bar or hammer supported by a block to open the gap.
• If your floors were installed in front of the baseboards, you may also need to pry the baseboards up slightly to get them free.
• Once you get behind a section, work your way down the board and around the room.

Pro Tip: Tom Silva, This Old House general contractor, advises working slowly and carefully when prying baseboards free: “You’ve gotta go slow. The wood is probably old. It could be brittle, and it will break. And I don’t want that to happen.”

To protect the baseboard as you work, try sliding two wide taping knives against the wall on either side of your pry bar. As Tom Silva has demonstrated, the wider knives act as shields, distributing pressure so the narrow pry bar doesn’t gouge the wood or drywall.

When working the pry bar, be mindful of the direction you apply force. Pushing the bar toward the wall turns the baseboard edge into a fulcrum and can dent or damage it. Instead, pull back slightly as you lever the board away from the wall. If possible, use two pry bars simultaneously—one on each side of a nail—and rock them back and forth to work each nail loose in turn.

Step 5: Pull out leftover nails

• Remove any leftover nails with a hammer, using a block to support near the base of the drywall.

Materials

• Scrap Block of wood

Tools