installilng baseboard

Scott M_3

I will be having a new hot water boiler installed soon and so I thought this would be a good time to add baseboard heat to an added room that currently has electic heat. Is it acceptable to attach the HW baseboard directly to the wood baseboard that is already installed? I would try to remove it and cut it but the wall is wood and plaster and I think half the wall might come down with it. The HW baseboard is about 2 inches higher than the wood baseboard. I was thinking of trying to cut the wood baseboard with a rotozip cutout tool or should I just attach it and add a piece of moulding on top to help it blend in? Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks

Brad White

I would

screw the enclosure to the existing baseboard if you have the room and put moulding over the top to cover the gap.

This is all if you can afford that extra 3/4" protrusion into the room of course. If the house is an oldie as I think it is, the baseboard might have been nailed in first and used as a plaster ground (primitive air sealing).

As for the moulding, I take it that if the aesthetics can tolerate baseboard, you have some choices. Paint to match.

As another thought,(this just in....) if the radiation is taller than the baseboard, you might fill that gap above the old wood baseboard behind the fin-tube cover with some S4S (smooth four sides) trim. Bring it up flush both with the old wood baseboard and the top of the fin tube cover. This will give a firm substrate, clean top and you can then eliminate the top trim moulding. Paint the top of the wood and you are done. You can also use that wood piece to "level" the baseboard top to compensate for any uneven floor issues.
By using the S4S back-trim you can avoid the "hit and miss" on a lot of studs if you were to try to nail in the top cover moulding.

I would be careful of any baseboard outlets (common back then) but the short screws into the baseboard itself should not cause a problem.

Bruce Stevens

and with the

baseboard mounted on the mopboard it just might give you the blessing you need down stairs when drilling your pipe holes.