How to Replace Shoe Molding

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Shoe molding is the wooden molding placed where cabinets and walls touch the hardwood flooring below them. Over time, this molding can get pretty beaten up -- but replacing it is no problem with our step-by-step DIY video.

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Video Transcript for "How to Replace Shoe Molding"

David Lupberger on How to Replace Shoe Molding: Hi, I'm David Lupberger with ServiceMagic.com. Today we're going to be replacing shoe mold. Shoe mold is this piece of molding, and it's used where hardwood floors meet walls, and meet cabinets. So you can see shoe molds over time can be nicked and dinged, to the point where they need to be replaced.
Lupberger: The materials we're going to be using are tape measure, hammer, small screwdriver, which you'll see I'll use like a pry bar. A Saw, the cutting box.
Lupberger: Step one is to remove the existing shoe molding. So I'm going to use my screwdriver in this case to loosen up the existing molding. Now be careful when you're doing this that you're not damaging the cabinet behind it. What I'll do next is take this piece, and cut my new piece to match this one exactly so I can put my replacement piece where this used to be.
Lupberger: The piece of trim we're replacing has two outside cuts. So I'm going to take this new piece of trim we've purchased and put an outside cut on one side. And you'll see I'm using a simple little hand miter box. If you're doing very much of this it might make sense to buy a power miter saw because the job will go much more quickly. The miter box has given us clean 45 degree cut. And because I measured the previous piece at 21 1/4 inches, I'm going to come over 21 1/4 inches on the new piece and do another outside cut. After I've made that cut I can replace my piece because it will match exactly.
Lupberger: I've got our new piece of trim, I'm going to put in place and what you'll see I've actually preset some nails. I'll do this for two reasons. One is once I anchor this in place it makes it easier to do with the nails pre driven but secondly if you're working with a denser piece of wood like oak, you may want to pre-drill the hole to make this easier as part of your installation.
Lupberger: So once this is in place, make sure you nail both corners, and you'll see I've got two or three nails in between. So I'm going to drive that first nail in, I'm using a nail punch because when I drive the nail in I don't want the head of the hammer to damage the trim. So when I get close I'll get close I'll take my nail punch to complete putting the nail in. With the hole that's left, I'll actually take some wood filler, that matches the finish and fill that hole. What you'll have when you're done is a piece of trim with no nail holes and everything will look complete.

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