baseboardlaminate-floor
I just installed laminate floors in my basement.
One wall (drywall) is not perfectly straight, leaving an area of the floor with a space as big as 1 3/4 inches from the wall.
I don't like the idea of rip cutting a laminate floor piece to a thin and long triangle shape to fill the gap.
What's an easy way of covering the gap?
We had an almost identical situation in a former garage that we refinished to be an office. Our contractor suggested this and we liked the result: he installed a piece of wood about an inch out from the concrete, putting insulation between them and keeping the wood a consistent and level height - a little higher than the concrete. I can't remember if it was pink fluffy insulation or spray stuff. Then a shelf about 6 inches out from the wall - nice and level by being a bit up from the concrete and supported by the vertical wood, and there's insulation under the shelf too. The whole thing is a good looking clear pine and is well varnished.
Looking from the side gives an idea of the distance from the wall:
The shelf runs around the entire room and is remarkably useful for something so low. It hides all the lumpy bumpy aspects of the concrete and while it's not something you see everywhere, no-one has ever mentioned it so it can't be that unusual.
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.
Best Answer
The easy way to cover the gap is to use your same flooring material. In this case the laminate flooring would be cut in a strip to fit the gap. Measure the gap width every 16 or 24 inches and transfer that to a flooring piece minus the normal wall gap clearance. Then cut the strip along a line through the measurements points and fit the piece in place.
Any kind of other strange scheme you come up with to avoid making the long strip is going to look terrible.