I am ready to lay the hardwood floors. My contractor who is installing the new baseboard in 2 rooms advises to do the floors first then the baseboard. However, I have been told by a friend who has installed hardwood floors many times that it is best to install the baseboard first. Another room where the hardwood will be installed already has the baseboard (previously I planned to do carpet in that room but changed my mind).

Any advice from others with experience is appreciated.

Hardwood first and then baseboards. I would remove the baseboards in other room and reinstall after wood is down. This will insure a proper expansion gap and also leave a clean appearance. You could also use a 1/4round or shoe molding on the baseboard but I would still not install baseboard until floor is down.

Install the baseboards after the floor goes in.

It's not uncommon after the base is installed over the new floor there will be voids or waves where the subfloor is not flat (gaps between the floor and base). Not an installer error if it's mild, but something you may want to be prepared for. Unless they have a great trim carpenter that can scribe the base to eliminate the gaps, many are left with using shoe or quarter round... something they were trying to avoid all together from the start.

Ken, I love this trick. I R&R base on all my installs, and like you say that gap is inevitable. especially more obvious on medium to lighter materials.
Sounds like a pain, but here's what I do... Run 1" painters tape on the floor at the exact perpendicular point where the base would hit the floor,( you need to use quality tape like 3M ). I make sure the tape is moulded to the floor, grooves and all. Use a white flexible caulk, caulk it in, run my finger along it, then pull the tape. It's real clean, and looks like the baseboards are growing out of the floor,( really looks trick on handscraped).

That is a great suggestion. Those gaps bug the heck out of me and had thought of caulking but was too messy when I tried.

Keith

Exactly, I first tried it that way myself, and it was a mess. A few years back an old time painter turned me on to it. It takes a little time at first to get the hang on setting the tape so you dont see caulking after you pull the tape. Plus it's a little time consuming first couple jobs or so. But once you get the hang of it, you'll fly right through. It's amaizing how nice it finishes the job off.
A couple tips:
1) I use the point of a utility knife blade to push the tape down in the corners and that knife point in the corner will also allow you to tear the tape off exactly in the corner.
2) When caulking, try to have the position of the nozzel flat on the base,( instead of at the 90, or down on the tape.
3) Dont be afraid to to fill the gap so the caulking is bulging out,( otherwise when you pull the tape the caulk will pull out of the space in some locations).
4) If it's more comfortable for you to set the tape from left to right...pull the tape opposite direction, from right to left. This way your not messing up any overlapped tape edges in the corner, on the next wall. Caulk one wall at a time, and pull the tape right away. I'll caulk while crawling backwards, then crawl forward running my index finger hard against the caulk,( I have a small wet rag in my other hand).When I'm to the end of the wall pull the tape slowly,at an angle away from the wall.

Hey , who was to know Howard could right a book on caulking the bottom of base

Sounds like a great article addition to hardwoodinstaller.com. I could link it to other pages with related meaning. I'd love for you to put together an article with pics Howard. Naturally you'd get a byline like SP(floormeintucson) I'll give you a call...been meaning too anyway.

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... hearth.htm

Incidentally SP must be getting a job or two from that page. It was seen by 732 individuals the last 30 days. I was surprised myself when I ran a report. Oh...SP must have been clicking the link...hehe...on July 18...220 times? Filter that out and it's about 500.

Ya that was me, I was bored. ha ha I'll have to check my stats for that day. I doubt I got that many clicks.

I have had a couple people call that have seen me on the other site. Probably mostly DIY'ers and installers look at it I bet.
Had one guy who is a GC that just moved here from NY and found hardwoodfloortalk when he was searching bamboo, a recent bamboo discussion popped up on a google seach and he saw my tucsonazflooring.com link. Hence the pine post. Don't ask how he went from bamboo to pine. His concrete stain job went south. Now he wants yellow pine. I'm all for that!

Thanks for the link on that hearth page Ken.