They're mandatory here as of this winter. Tyres, that is. Several of my neighbours have already switched. Ours are waiting in the garage until Souvette gets an appointment at Costco.

I'm not suggesting arranging the furniture so we can huddle around a register of a winters eve, just that its a bit stupid to put the bed or a couch over the top of one in such a way that it prevents the air circulating. Its not rocket surgery

You might be right about snow tires (Quebec of course might as well be a foreign country anyway)......maybe only us well paid edumacated immigrants can afford it?

There might be baseboard behind too...should be easy enough to tell?

It's not hard to replace baseboards. On Sunday I did baseboards, quarter rounds and crown mouldings for a 12x12 room. It did, admittedly, take me ten hours but that was because of the quarter rounds.

Yeah

Barely. Big tyres on that thing.

In winnipeg there is a 'lifestyle' magazine which tells you about local courses that you can do such as pottery, language and also 'house and home' courses.

One of the courses they offer are baseboards which is a 1 day course costs about $20 and you learn just how easy baseboards can be with the right tools and methods.

As you said it is a relatively simple process but like any job it has a time assiciated with it to do 12x12 room shouldn't take too long to actually out the base boards and quaterinch around but then it may need painting and patching (depending on how fussy you are) this is what eats the time up.

Oh, you're right. I spent Saturday priming and painting 100 feet of wood. Takes a while but it's easier than painting the damn stuff when it's up. I fill all my nail holes and caulk where necessary (I've got quite good at the latter).

The quarter rounds took forever because of some nasty corners and the fact that I couldn't use a nail gun. Mr nail, meet Mr 220V cable. No thanks.

How would that work?

Trimming the kitchen, or around the dryer perhaps? Or down by the basement subpanel

What is the quarter round you speak of? Or more accurately as I know what it is, why does one have quarter round fitted at the bottom of the baseboards? I enquire as we don't and I wonder whether I should feel inadequate about this?

Gives a finished rounded look to the top of square baseboard, or can be used to hide the floating nature of a laminate floor that's installed with an existing baseboard, so it can float under the 1/4 round nailed to the bottom of the existing baseboards...

Quarter round is more commonly used for hard wood floors/laminate because if you 'rip out' base boards it generally leaves a glue mark or possibly a gap in between the 'new' baseboards/wood therefore Quarter round is a piece of wood that overlaps that gap/glue smear to give it a nicer look. (Generally, but there are those that just like the look of it).

They are useful for hiding gaps that might exist between the floor and the bottom of the baseboard. You can bend them into place. The room in question, in the basement, had some noticeable gaps. I couldn't nail the quarter round to the floor because it's laminate over concrete. Using a nail gun to fix the quarter round to the baseboard was also a non-starter because I know there is a 220V cable running at floor level, just where the nails would need to go. I had to fix the thing by hand, using lots of tacks just long enough to pierce the quarer round and baseboard but, hopefully go no further. It took ages and several trips to the bathroom.

Ahh. Thanks for enlightening me. We still have the original hardwood and not too much in the way of unsightly gaps so I believe we can live without the joys of three quarter round for now.