How much baseboard do I need?
Measure the room perimeter and subtract the door openings (30 and 32 in are the usual interior sizes). Then add about 10% waste, or nearer 15% if the room has bay windows or lots of outside corners. Baseboard, shoe and chair rail all skip doorways. Crown molding doesn’t, since it runs continuously above them.
Whole-house rule of thumb
Planning a full house? Linear feet of baseboard usually lands around 0.3 × floor area, so a 1,500 sq ft home typically needs 400–500 linear feet after doorway subtractions.
Price it at roughly $1–3.50 per linear foot for MDF (US big-box pricing, mid-2026), more for hardwood, and about $6–9/lf installed. Check your local supplier before you budget, since prices move.
Measuring the room the way a trim carpenter does
The perimeter formula assumes a rectangular room. The fastest way to under-buy is to work from a floor plan instead of a tape. Walk the room and measure wall by wall, including the returns on either side of a fireplace, the inside of every closet or alcove that’s getting trim, and any bump-out for a window seat or a duct chase.
A 14 by 12 ft room reads as 52 ft of perimeter. Add a 6 ft wide, 2 ft deep closet, though, and its back wall plus two returns bring another 10 ft that never appears in length times width. Write each wall length down as you go. You’ll use that same list again when you start cutting.
Now the doorway deduction. This calculator subtracts the door width, which is the conservative version of the truth, because baseboard actually stops against the casing rather than the door. The real gap is the leaf plus a jamb leg each side plus the casing. With standard two and a quarter inch casing, a 36 inch door leaves roughly 42 inches of wall untrimmed, not 36.
Deducting less than the truth means you buy slightly extra, which is the right direction to be wrong in. But across a whole house with twenty doorways, that six inches a door adds up to 10 ft. Know which way your number is leaning before you place the order.
Two more things people miss. Waste isn’t a number you sprinkle on at the end so much as the sum of your actual offcuts, and it depends entirely on your wall lengths measured against the stock lengths you can buy. Four walls of 13 ft cut from 16 ft boards waste 3 ft each, close to 19 percent, while the same walls out of 14 ft stock waste about 7 percent. Lay your wall list against the lengths your supplier stocks before you choose.
Second, count your outside corners. Each mitered outside corner burns extra length in the cut, and a room full of them usually runs nearer 15 percent than 10.
Choosing height, profile and material
Height comes first, because it sets both the look and the budget. The common sizes are three and a quarter, four and a quarter, five and a quarter and seven and a quarter inches, and most 8 ft ceilings get trimmed somewhere between three and a quarter and five and a quarter. The proportional rule designers reach for is about 7 percent of ceiling height, which is nearly six and three quarter inches on a 96 inch ceiling, taller than builder-grade and noticeably more expensive-looking. Nine and ten foot ceilings carry 7 inches and above comfortably. Scale the door casing with it: casing around half the baseboard height is the usual guide, and once the base reaches 4 inches a plinth block at the foot of the casing solves the collision cleanly.
Material is really a moisture decision. Primed MDF is the default for painted trim. It’s dead straight with no knots, takes paint beautifully and commonly costs about a dollar to two dollars a linear foot (US, 2026). But standard MDF behaves like a sponge. A wet mop, a leaking dishwasher or a damp basement wall swells the bottom edge, and it never recovers.
Finger-jointed pine costs a little more, survives a splash and can be sanded back. For a bathroom, laundry or any basement, cellular PVC is the honest answer: completely waterproof, immune to rot and mold, and it cuts and nails like softwood. Moisture-resistant MDF is a fair middle ground for a family bathroom, but it’s water-resistant, not waterproof.
Then decide whether you’re running one piece or three. An older house will usually give you neither a flat wall nor a flat floor, and a single tall board needs both, even though it’s the quickest to fit.
A base board plus a cap molding plus a shoe is more work, but each piece flexes independently. The shoe follows the dips in the floor, the cap covers the waves in the wall, and the joints between them swallow the discrepancy a single board would have to bridge. Stacking is also the cheaper route to height, since two slim components usually cost less than one seven and a quarter inch profile, and the built-up look suits period houses better.
Installation order and the joints that show
Sequence against the flooring is the decision most people get wrong. A floating floor, laminate or click vinyl, needs roughly a quarter inch expansion gap right around the perimeter, and nothing may pin it down. Some flooring makers ask for more than a quarter inch, so read the instructions that came with the planks.
Lay the floor first, then nail the baseboard to the wall while holding it a fraction clear of the surface. Never fire a nail through the base into the planks. If the base is already fitted, cover the gap with shoe molding and nail the shoe into the base or the wall, again not into the floor. On carpet, run the base about three eighths of an inch high so the carpet and gripper tuck underneath.
Inside corners get coped, not mitered. Cut the first board square into the corner, then cut the second at 45 degrees and back-cut along the exposed profile line with a coping saw so it sits over the face of the first. A coped joint absorbs a corner that’s 88 or 92 degrees instead of 90 (which describes most corners in most houses), and it stays shut when the material moves with the seasons. A mitered inside corner opens as soon as the heating goes on.
Outside corners do have to be mitered. Set a bevel gauge on the actual angle and split it rather than trusting 45, because framed outside corners are routinely a degree or two out.
Long walls want a scarf joint, not a butt joint: two opposing 45 degree cuts, overlapping on a stud and glued, so the seam feathers out under paint instead of opening up as a hard line.
Nail with 15 or 16 gauge finish nails, 2 to two and a half inches long, so at least an inch lands in framing. Two per stud at 16 inch centers, one high into the stud and one low into the bottom plate.
Then caulk. A 10 ounce tube stretches a long way on a fine bead, but you’re running the top edge, the bottom edge, every miter and every nail hole. A tube per 25 to 30 linear feet is a realistic ordering figure.
Common questions
Do you subtract doorways when measuring baseboard?
You do, because baseboard stops at the casing. Subtract each door width (30 or 32 in on most interior doors) and remember the untrimmed gap is really the leaf plus jamb legs plus casing, about 6 in more. Crown molding is the exception, since it runs over doorways.
How many linear feet of baseboard in a 2,000 sq ft house?
Using the ~0.3 × floor-area rule of thumb, a 2,000 sq ft house usually comes out around 550–650 linear feet. The real figure depends on the layout and door count, so walk it with a tape before ordering.
How much waste should I add?
Most people add 10% as standard and 15% or more for rooms with many corners, since every outside corner burns a bit of length in the miters. Match your wall lengths to the stock lengths you can buy and the real waste can come in lower.
What lengths does baseboard come in?
Mostly 8, 12 and 16 ft at the big-box stores. Lengths of 10 and 14 ft turn up in individual lines and at lumberyards. Longer boards mean fewer joints, which is usually worth the awkward carry home.
What does baseboard cost?
For material alone, MDF runs about $1–3.50/lf, wood $1–10/lf and PVC $0.50–5/lf (US prices, 2026). Installed, expect roughly $6–9 per linear foot, depending on the profile and how many corners the room has.
Should baseboard go on before or after flooring?
After, for floating floors, because the planks need about a quarter inch expansion gap and the base must never be nailed through into them. Nail-down hardwood and tile are more forgiving either way, but fitting the base last still gives the cleanest line. On carpet, hold the base roughly three eighths of an inch off the subfloor so the carpet tucks beneath it.
How tall should baseboard be for 8 ft ceilings?
Almost everything sold sits between three and a quarter and five and a quarter inches, and five and a quarter is usually what stops a room reading as builder-grade. The designer proportion rule puts it near 7 percent of ceiling height (about six and three quarter inches on a 96 inch ceiling), which works well provided you scale the door casing up with it.
Should I cope or miter inside corners?
Cope them. Walls are rarely exactly 90 degrees and a mitered inside corner springs open as soon as the wood or MDF moves. A coped joint sits over the face of its neighbor, tolerates a corner a couple of degrees out, and stays tight for years. Keep miters for outside corners, and check the real angle with a bevel gauge first.
What size nails should I use for baseboard?
Finish nails in 15 or 16 gauge, 2 to two and a half inches long, so at least an inch of nail lands in framing after passing through the board and the drywall. Two per stud at 16 inch centers is the usual spacing. Eighteen gauge brads are fine for shoe molding and quarter round but too light to pull a bowed base tight to the wall.
Can I use MDF baseboard in a bathroom?
Not standard MDF. It swells irreversibly along the bottom edge from mopping alone and can’t be sanded back. Moisture-resistant MDF is acceptable in a well-ventilated family bathroom, provided it’s primed on every face including the cut ends. For a basement, laundry room or anywhere that could genuinely flood, use cellular PVC instead.