Flooring – Should base trim have a gap between it and laminate flooring

It depends on a couple of things. How much time you want to invest, how your current baseboards are installed, size of current baseboards, and what you want everything to look like.

As long as it isn't a HUGE deal to take baseboards out I would almost always go with removing them.

1. Your finish will look better. No quarter round looks way more professional. Also I hate the process of do you make your quarter round the color of trim or floor - I always vote trim.
2. It is cheaper. Quarter round costs money. So does staining/painting it.
3. It saves time. If you have the right tools taking your baseboards out is easy. And when you put them back - well they fit. Try to position your tools so that if you gouge the wall it is hidden under the baseboard. This is easy with practice. Who cares if the drywall has some nicks under the baseboard. Cutting your quarter round to fit will take a lot of time. Also what do you do between a set of doors where you need to put in 10 inches of quarter round? Well you will be back on this board asking!

Take the baseboards out, freshen them up while you are at it, install floor, pop baseboards back. Touch up paint and caulk where needed. Not taking them out starts the job faster but then after your install there will be quarter round regret (because of point #1).

For my basement laminate floor install I did not remove the base moulding. Instead i used spacers to place the flooring 1/4 inch away from the moulding. Then I used 1/4 round to cover the gap. It looks great and what a time saver it was.

I would not install laminate floor in a kitchen or bathroom due to water concerns.