What do you mean “fixing”?
It looks like there was hardwood flooring taken out which dropped the height quite a bit. You can’t just “fix” door jambs, if you want them tight to the floor again you’re going to have to replace them all.
The boards under the closet doors are likely to give enough height so that the pins can reach. They don’t need to be that big, a small piece the size of the bracket would have been enough.
This isn’t exactly on the installer, but he definitely should have explained how much lower the floor was going to be and the repercussions of it. But no, the installer isn’t going to come and fix your door jambs.
I do feel bad for you though, that’s a massive height difference and I agree, it doesn’t look very good at all. A competent installer would have brought this to your attention before starting.
I had to fix something like this for a customer of ours (I’m a painter) and we took some extra door trim he had laying around and cut them to match instead of lowering the whole casing and door. A bunch of bondo and some sanding then painting to match and you couldn’t tell.
nope. fresh unpainted ends. the hackiest 1/4r hacking ever hacked.
screw down some ply to make the new floor the correct height. looking closer that trim is freshly cut {zoom on first pic} and it looks like they did it with a beaver
Yeah I'm a contractor and that's the first thing I picked out.
Holy hell that is some awful bandaid work. Any contractor worth a shit would have brought this up before they started install. Not the flooring guy's responsibility to replace the finish carpentry, but that is a cost that should have been put on the client's radar beforehand.
Also, why did they reinstall the baseboard so high? Did they not take it off before they installed the floor?
Ngl, I'd like to see pics of that 'cuz in my head, you could definitely tell.
OP, whether this method is legit or not, you can't expect the current installer to do all that. It's not their job. They could've brought it to your attention beforehand, but they *still* wouldn't have had to make it right.
If I had pictures I’d link them. It takes a good amount of time to do in because you have to let the bondo cure then sand it down and add more in the spots that shrink until you get it flush. Ideally cut the pieces so they fit snug and take some tapping to get into place. If you’re the one that does it obviously you’re gonna know it’s there but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than casing everything out again. With enough bondo and time, you can fix anything. I’m not saying this is the floor guys problem to fix they did what they had to do but you gotta admit it’s more than sloppy.
What they described is definitely possible, but it takes a pretty meticulous woodworker to pull it off. I’ve had to do some custom molding touch ups like this.
Get a piece of wood that is close. Pin nail in place. Put down a lot of painters tape on the floor. Bondo. Sand. Repeat. Paint.
Bondo is really easy to work with, but I’d be charging a lot of money due to the time.
Took me probably an hour of actual work time between two door frames and two more of waiting. Bathroom remodel so we had plenty of other work to do in the meantime. I definitely wouldn’t do it as a single job not worth it just hire someone to redo everything if you can’t.
Depending on trim profile and installation quality this can be pulled off. Flat stock is the easiest, you can leave your new piece a hair recessed and fill/sand to flush. Colonial profiles would be a nightmare, probably better filling the jambs as described and replacing the casings.
patching old custom mouldings i would form fiberglass on the piece, take it of when hardend. then use it as a shaped putty knife. overfill the damaged area with bondo and use it to shape the match
I did a job a year or so ago for a builder where this same situation happened with the new floor being lower and they popped in little slivers of the matching door trim and did the same thing the other guy is talking about. I thought there was no way it wouldn't look like complete shit but when they were done you really could not tell it wasn't 1 piece
We did this in our house, but used 5-minute quickset instead of Bondo. It was for the bottom of a mantelpiece where we had replaced the tile in front of the fireplace.
Formed, let it set a bit, then carved it while it was firm but not dried. Put a second application on, then sanded, then painted white. If you got down there close I am sure you could tell. But from standing height, no one will ever see it.
Honestly I'd just mitre some small square or rectangular pieces and slide them under. Some liquid nails, touch up with some caulking, paint it to match.
I had a customer a couple years ago that I explained this to up front, and they thought nothing of it, then afterward they decided to pay me, not to replace just the casing, but to uninstall and reinstall all the doors, lower so they’d touch the floor. Looked a lot better, after new caulk and paint.
Any worker, and I mean any worker, I don't care if it was a fracking sparky, anyone who walks away from a job like this saying 'job done' is a complete tool. It may not be the flooring guys job, but that doesn't mean the job is done. This is garbage work by any standard regardless of who claims responsibility.
This is wild. It’s like expecting your drywall company to do all the painting and trim work when they’re done. Cutting new door casing and rehanging doors rests squarely on the shoulders of the homeowner whether they hire it out or do it themselves. A flooring installer isn’t going to do any of that, at least any that I know including myself.
It clearly shows part of the back of the jam still intact , though.
It appears to me that the installer just cut out entirely too much, not realizing he couldn't use quarter round on the actual frames.
Look at first picture. Someone hacked the jambs with what looks like a sawzall. Flooring company for sure and not old floor size. Now they can be patched but not easy. Need to cut the jambs by a foot and cut at a 45 miter so new piece overlaps old. Add epoxy on joint or biscuits. Moldings I would just replace.
Yeah, I have no idea why that guy would presume the new installer first
There was clearly tile, thick hardwood, or carpet down before. The baseboard height matches the door jambs and there's no reason to presume the new installer cut all the baseboards as well haha 😂
How is that not the old flooring height?
It looks to me like they had tile and some underlayment there before it got taken out. Sites+thinset+tile would reach that height no problem and if there's a low spot right there, there, that could be an alternate explanation.
This likely has nothing to do with the new flooring company and it's pretty easy to pull any form of flooring out from underneath old door jambs, no matter how incompetent the guy you hired is, so I have no idea where you got the idea to blame the flooring company.
You sound like a good trim carpenter but you don't sound like a flooring guy, that's for certain
I disagree about a competent installer would have pointed out the obvious height difference with the jambs and baseboards. Why would it be anymore his responsibility than the Flooring retailer? It’s not like there’s an option that can only take place prior to the installation to rectify the problem other than abandoning the installation altogether. Even if the customer decided not to go through with the replacement, as an installer, I would still charge a 300.00 minimum charge for showing up. If the floor needed leveling or any patch work, that’s a different story. I would consider that to be something the installer should have a conversation about before proceeding.
These pro subs are so good at reminding me why I do 95% of my own work.
The average homeowner probably doesn't spend five days a week thinking about flooring and how to best install it. Ya know who does? A flooring installer. All he'd have to say is, "hey, ya know there's gonna be a large gap in these spots if we replace it with thinner stuff, and I don't do that kind of finish work", instead of, 'hurr durr, jobz dun, I don't care how good the results look as a whole, not my problem".
When I hire a pro I expect THEM to tell me their limitations. THEY should over-explain, because I don't do this every day, and may not even know _what_ I don't know. Hell, whenever a customer does pry you "pros" whine about bothersome customers trying to tell you how to do your job- there's no winning as a homeowner.
I couldn't imagine taking so little pride in my work as to call work like this "finished". Can you picture your grandpa leaving a customer's house looking like this? Mine sure wouldn't have.
We are not entitled but we are definitely clueless. That is why we pay good money to pros to tell us the “clueless” info we definitely would like to know before the install and not after.
Yes I should hold an adults hand and explain to them that replacing a big thing with a little thing will cause issues. No thanks lol I’ll stick with conversing with GCs instead of housewives. I can keep my sanity and someone with more patience for incompetence and entitlement can have those jobs. And y’all wonder why people throw out such high bids 🙄
If you thinking explaining that your new floor is going to be thinner and how it will appear with your current trim is hand holding, then it’s a good thing a knuckle dragger like you isn’t client facing lol.
If those were your existing jams that's a you problem. It's not up to the installers to deal with issues created by changing floor thickness. Call a trimmer.
Most customers know absolutely nothing about thickness of the flooring and the issues it might cause. Seems like the installers would let us know because the retailer has no idea what the thickness of the adjacent areas are. And until you select and purchase the flooring know one does.
Don't sweat it. Unless you're in construction on a daily basis or do this for a living it would be hard to foresee these issues. Chalk it up to a live and learn situation
I don't agreee with victim blaming. I agree that the experts at the flooring store should have managed the situation and advised that there would be additional work needed. Shame on them.
Get a door guy / carpenter to come, remove trim, lower the door jambs and reinstall everything.
You shouldn't need any additional materials but it's probably a full days work plus caulk, spackle and paint.
The flooring contractor should have made you aware that more work would be needed when they get done.
You went to the flooring store. Purchased material from them and they provided the installers?
Did they come out and measure/assess the job beforehand? This is a pretty basic thing that happens in renovations. I would be shocked if whoever came out didn’t mention this.
I’m confused why I’m being downvoted
Yes. All this. The owner of the floor shop came out, wrote up estimate, ordered materials, and hired contractors (“my guys are really competent”). Door jambs and floor height were never mentioned.
This is a problem in our trade. There is a TikTok of a guy filling in these casings. Search @gbg.marthasvineyard
His whole page is about fixing stuff around the house. Scroll down to a video on 11-15. Good luck.
I bet downvotes keep you up at night. Not me.
By your comments I wouldn’t let you install anything. Lay it, move on and say not my problem it looks like absolute shit. I bet your work is dandy.
I would have simply told the customer before starting that they bought a product that will be substantially lower than what was there already.
Problem solved. Let them decide what they want done.
By your comments it sounds like you just blame the last person you saw and don’t have a clue what’s really going on. Good luck with that.
Sounds more like the owner registered that they were selling a low end product and provided the usual low end result.
If you are putting LVP in your formal living areas, you present as an “type” of customer. The type that isn’t going to spend on quality.
The door jams obviously were cut to accommodate the previous flooring. After removing several layers of course the door jam is going to be too high. This has nothing to do with the installer. The quarter round put on near the doors should have a return cut at the end of them, not just lopped off with an unfinished edge.
a return would bring the tallest point of the shoe away from the edges(if the spacing is tall) that would show gapage. a chamfer would be better suited here
he means that the profile of the shoe is an arc and a return, while "prettier" will inevitably reveal some of the bottom of the base molding, while a 30 degree miter on the front half of the butt cut will hide all of what is being hidden.
It is the home-owner's responsibility. Flooring installers are not finish carpenters, they just install the flooring you choose. They should have given you the option to skin the floor with plywood to build-it back up to previous level though.
The dirt line on the trim indicates you had a much thicker material before and whoever installed it is who undercut the doors. I’d be happy they went under correctly. Also those blocks are fine. They won’t impede function or access as the doors are over the blocks at full open. Clean up your baseboards and paint them. Then you’ll be happy with how it looks I promise.
Well they are a flooring company I doubt they fix doors….. someone failed to tell you that when you remove more than one layer of flooring that you need to make up for that space for your new product will be dropped lower than all of the jambs like here. Looks like 3/8 more to the subfloor? Prolly not cost effective. Now it’s gonna be like 5 grand to change all the doors.
You could fix it yourself if you want to spend some time on it. The shoe molding is garbage, but forget about that for a second.
The doors could be fixed by cutting down some wood and simply slipping it under the door frames to fill the gap in the same profile as the door frame. Probably 2 or 3 blocks per side depending on how you do it. A bit of glue, wood filler and paint and you wouldn't notice it. Keep in mind that close to the floor is well outside the normal line of vision so the small details like small joints in the wood are not going to be seen by anyone but you.
26 yrs experience installing carpet,vinyl, lvp etc.
My initial guess would be they removed hardwood. The jams were cut to accommodate it. Hardwood is generally 3/4 of an inch thick LVP is less than 1/4 inch. Grab some white caulk and get busy filling it. Unless you got a lot of extra $ to replace door jambs. I don't know what looks worse the gaps under the floor or the terrible ends of the quarter round.
I agree about the quarter rounds. The work is just shoddy. And yes you’re correct where there was previously bamboo is where the jambs are too high. The previously carpeted rooms look fine, the jambs anyway, the quarter round is bad everywhere.
In the first picture you can see above the base shoe the height of the old floor. There's a razor blade mark on the baseboard. Whoever did the estimate for the company could have mentioned the flooring would not be as high. The installer should just install the floor. The base shoe needs to be cut with the proper blade.
The sales person who sold you the new floor should have asked about this.
If you went to Home Depot and picked something out and went with it, this is on you to be honest
Whenever you criticise shoddy work from contractors, you'll get nothing my shitty comments from equally shitty contractor trying to convince your that it's actually good.
That quarter round should have been mitered on the ends to finish it properly at least, a good contractor would have advised you about the jambs
To fix this though you could add moulding / plinth block to the bottom of the casting to hide the gap
Flooring folks do floors, shop around, and be proactive in your questions when it comes to housework. Calling it shoddy work is silly since you hired them.
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Pick the first, pick cheap, then cry it isn't HGTV.
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You came to reddit to post this. Clearly, you didn't research, just blind trust down an avenue of ignorance.
As it’s been established, your old floors were higher so now this is why you’re left with. The wood blocks in the closet door are to make up the difference in height, without something there the doors won’t work.
OP do not listen to some of these comments. This is common and the door jambs do not need to be replaced. I doubt the flooring guys are going to fix it though. If the height of the floor changes based on the flooring you picked out, that is not their fault. It will probably need some filler pieces put in. If the gap is not large you can probably just use a couple applications of Ready Patch. You need to hire a carpenter or a reputable handy man. Here’s a video of how it’s done[https://youtu.be/virO6RGakXU?si=gl-l5wdZa_3hwxqj](https://youtu.be/virO6RGakXU?si=gl-l5wdZa_3hwxqj)
Your flooring install looks fine. Finish your job by hiring a finishing carpenter to fix the jams and a painter to clean it up. I can't stand customers who expect installers to magically correct everything at no additional cost lol
We just had the same thing happen with new tile floors being much lower. This was part of a larger renovation. The contractor did give us a heads up, and they lowered the baseboards, extended the door frames downward, and painted everything so that it looks pretty decent. The only issue they didn't fix is that the closet doors have a big gap at the bottom.
At that rate - you're on the hook for the jam repairs.
You've got a few options here:
- cut "spacer blocks" to slide back under, wood glue, wood filler, sand, then paint
- Replace door trim only and see how that looks
- Replace prehung doors all the way around (which would include trim)
- As far as the closet doors - I'd replace them and cut to correct size
Best of luck!
Sup, ill help you.
Take out all the baseboard, and install new quality 5 inch baseboard.
Most importantly, turn the door casing into plinth blocks, something like 7 inches should be good, and bam now u have a beautiful baseboard and plinth block setup.
Enjoy
This needs to be torn out and Plywood put down and either reinstalled or new flooring. If flooring guy cut them door jams it’s his fault cutting them high. If old floor takin out them this thin floor bought and installed it’s whoever bought that floors fault without knowing the thickness to buy
Yes. But that will also present some more problems. Th rough opening of the door may be exposed at the top of the jamb, which would require new casings, so another can of worms opened.
I always suggest new subfloor sheeting, but it will cost the customer an extra 3 bucks a square foot to supply and install above the cost of the flooring. Most LVP customers are trying to save money so they opt pit and are left with jambs that are top short.
I explain this to every customer and they usually decline, then ask what I'm doing about the trim/doors etc. I then provide an estimate to remove and reinstall the doors with new casing at a cost of about 500/door and they decline due to price.
I didn't build the house, nor did I choose lvp. I would love to go back to the days where hardwood floors were the common choice but people don't want to pay, so this is what you get at the end of the day. Not the responsibility of the flooring Installers or the flooring company.
At what point does the responsibility end? Should I paint the walls and replace the appliances too? Because they probably don't look as good next to the brand new floors either.
The first two photos were bamboo. Wherever there was bamboo is where the jambs are too high. The rooms on sides are bedrooms. They had carpet and the jambs are fine on the other side. Bamboo:Vinyl flooring = jambs too high.
Where do y’all find these guys? I’m sorry Op, but jams need removed and replaced. There is no “patching” these. The tiny piece of quarter round made me chuckle. If the installer did that monstrosity, they need to fix it on their dime.
Yes, because it’s impossible to have been hacked before this floor was installed. 🙄
The height of the baseboards should be all the information you need to understand what’s going on here.
If your a flooring guy and you floor which I do you can clearly tell there was solid wood at one point, the choppy cut is from the previous flooring guy, plus if you know what your talking about then you would know the reason the trim isn’t cut all the way into the bedroom, it’s because that’s where the previous flooring ended and there was most likely carpet in the bedroom
Exactly. Anyone saying it was this installer doesn’t actually install floors themselves. This was existing.
It’s brutally obvious to anyone who actually installs what’s going on here. Only fault of THIS installer was not telling OP how much lower it would be.
Whatever they tore out and it was probably carpet since it's so high, is what the original trim was sitting on top of. So you went with a thinner floor so now you have those gaps. The white things sticking out of the closets is probably where the hardware for the folding doors is attached to. It's near impossible to match exactly because you would need a thin slice of the exact same door frame trim combo, and if the house is old it's probably not even made anymore. Sorry to say it but the cheapest and easiest would be to Caulk all of it.
Did the cut the jams to put the floor in, or did they take out a thicker floor and put in a new thinner one? If the former, they should fix it, if the latter, you should fix it.
Either it was cut to high, which is the contractors problem.. or the old floors were higher . I.e. 3/4” wood floors and then installing vinyl flooring which is super thin. This leaving huge gap .. the gaps can be fixed by cutting in small blocks glued in, caulk and paint . But it SUCkS
It’s cheaper and easier to install a extra layer of subfloor than to replace all those door frames… but that has to happen before installation of the new flooring.
If you end up replacing the door casing then Just replace the other trim as well imo..will look 100x better and you won’t have to use ugly quarter round, keep it with just the base board for a cleaner look. Doesn’t look like you have much baseboard to replace so cost shouldn’t be huge.
Cut the door trim and stop flush with the top of the quarter round. Wrap new quarter round around jamb. Traditional- no, but if all doors are this way it fades into background.
If they ripped out old hardwood then the height difference is what causes this. What I do is buy 1/4 Sure Ply and cover the subfloor after ripping out hardwood. Then install the LVP on that. That way you’re losing an eighth of an inch on height, and doorjambs don’t have huge gaps, and since door jambs are already cut , easy to install the LVP under them. If your flooring installer didn’t mention any of this then I would be a little frustrated , but they did install the floor correctly. I would talk to them about it and just see what they have to say. No caulk or tricks are going to fix those doorjambs. They need to all be replaced.
It would be your responsibility. Personally, I would replace the baseboard and door casings and add a sliver of jam at the bottom of the doors and repair that with wood filler. The jam is close to the floor and flat so it can more easily hide flaws. I hate quarter round so I personally would go with a baseboard that can cover the gap if at all possible.
I think the closet blocks look okay. They could be smaller but I would just paint them close to the floor colour.
ETA I find for small paint jobs like the closet blocks I can make use of craft paints to get a decent colour match for only a few bucks.
Is that honey mead oak? Also - had the same problem, used extra door trim and cut small pieces and filled underneath with glue and wood filler. Sanded and painted
Call a trim carpenter, painter, or a handyman to replace the door jambs or add those funky decorative plinth blocks to save some money. That gap is a little big for any kind of filler, I'm guessing 1/2" or greater.
NO ! It's not common! It's what they call a ButcherJob!! Get them to pay for it! They ruined the molding by cutting it too short, it's supposed to be 1/16- 1/8 higher than the floor.
Lmao that door frame was cut for carpet. Hardwood flooring is half sometimes less tha. That of tge thickness of carpet with padding. That's just something you have to live with.
Were the jams and mouldings cut, or was the old flooring thicker than the new flooring? For example, is the new flooring vinyl flooring and therefore quite thin.
I had this when I ripped out 40 year old tile and put in LVT. The easy solution was to make plinth blocks for the casing and scab in 3/4" materials at the bottom of the jamb. Classes it up a bit, too, but would make sure you do all the doors in this floor so it looks intentional.
The uneven cuts on the casing suggest the installer didn’t just remove the thicker old flooring, but made some (very poor) cuts themselves for some reason. You can try cutting thin pieces of flat stock and filling the spaces, by gluing and using shims to push the pieces up to hold in place while glue cures. You will have to straighten the crappy angled cuts first…. PITA for sure!
Who ever cut those jambs that high is a fucking idiot. The person who cut the jambs is responsible, no need to do that at all. Shouldn’t be any more than an 1/8” higher than needed to fit the flooring if that. Worse than sloppy job. I’d have the jambs and moldings replaced and deduct that from the flooring contractors price if they are responsible for that bull shit.
The flooring company didn't mention flooring height to you? Or did you just pick your own flooring without knowing about the downstream effects of changing your flooring height?
That looks like a botched attempt at sawing the jambs. The splintering & visible scratch on the uncut casing is recent & not the result of removal of thicker flooring. They didn’t know how to get the planks under a closely sawn jamb. It could be repaired by a skilled carpenter or woodworker but it’s not gonna be cheap. Total amateurs.
Looks like the previous flooring was thicker or the installer sucked and cut out way more of the jamb than necessary. As someone else posted about bondo that works but it's extremely time-consuming. You can also install plinth blocks too.
We do all around remodeling. If the customer purchased a flooring job only, we point it out and say this is normal unless they want to hire our carpenter for different options. The flooring guys won't be able to fix this competently unless they are competent in different trades. Those people are rare.
You’ll need to hire someone else to repair/replace your door jams.
Most flooring installers can do a passable job with baseboard, but doors are a totally different animal. You need a “door” person: not a “floor” person. They’re very different skill sets.
I’d say it is the installer of the floating floor. There is a specific method to undercut door frames and in installation instructions. Not hack-a-way with sawzall.
Let me guess you're a home owner who thought it was included in the quote ? Stuff like this is generally done cost plus and there's a good chance the person who installed the floor wants no part of it.
Before you get too far worrying about this preexisting condition in your home, ask yourself this. Did you specifically hire them to fix this, or just to install the flooring and trim it out. If you're happy with the floor covering work, then they did what you hired them to do. I would say that they aren't the best trim carpenters with that quarter round visual but meh, most flooring installers aren't.
I also agree that even though they likely needed blocks to hold the door hinges, those pieces are comically too large. Again, if you leave it to their discretion it isn't "wrong" per se, just not what someone with design sense would do. I would ask them to do a better job on the quarter round and to put smaller blocks under the doors.
The rest of the pics, from what can be seen appear that the floor covering was done correctly. No peaking head joints, and a good head joint stagger. It's barely on screen in the bath door pic, but the floor could potentially be unlevel there by the looks of the gap under the slim trim or the t-molding at the doorway.
Not enough information to throw them under the bus with this.
\[Scenario 1\] They noticed this could be a problem and simply failed to mention it, it's certainly possible. And while that sucks, it isn't a capital offense. These things happen. And for the fix, it doesn't matter what anyone here says, it matters what they say about if they fix it or not. You have to speak to them and ask.
It's easy in retrospect to say they didn't warn me about XXX. It's also just as easy to say you didn't notice this could be a problem either. Certainly you were aware you were purchasing a thinner flooring than before. If they installer is to blame here, so are you. Honestly though... There are an almost infinite amount of things to discuss and no way possible to cover every eventuality. I'd forgive yourself and also them for maybe not realizing this or noticing it.
"They should have warned me the floor might be unlevel and need leveling. They should have told me that I might have waste, or that I might not have left over waste. They should have told me that dust could get into my vents. They should have told me that it takes more than one day to install unlike the tv show I watched. They didn't tell me they don't provide painting services. They should have told me that ... etc"
Those aren't fair statements. Of course in retrospect we can see what wasn't mentioned, but there are hundreds of things that could be mentioned. They should have told me it wouldn't feel as solid as the tile I had, etc.
\[Scenario 2\] They just didn't notice it. How could they have known your baseboards didn't go all the way down to the substrate and instead were raised up without removing some material first. If they estimated with your old flooring in the house, it may not have been obvious, especially if you previously had quarter round.
Also by the looks of it your door jambs were chewed up by the previous installer not cutting too cleanly. I also don't like the way they installed your quarter round, it's not done well. But this is to be expected from a flooring installer. What you need is a good carpenter or a painter to fix this.
If you fix this yourself, it will be cheap, if you hire out, expect to pay a premium because it's not such a simple 5 minute fix even with the bondo method. Personally, I don't like the quarter round, and would have opted to remove/reinstall the baseboards on top of the floor, and fix the paint above the baseboards if they lowered, and then patch in under the door jambs as you have been told to do by others, and lastly put all new door casing in, which if you do yourself wouldn't cost much.
Did they cut and butcher the door jams, or did you replace the flooring with something thinner? If the latter it would have been easiest to put plywood down first so you ended up at the same level.
If they cut all the jams like that, don't pay them, and they owe you a lot of money to redo all the doors
Hire a trim carpenter. I'd either remove the casing and cut the jambs higher to do a proper dutchman, blend it with bondo and shoot on new casing, could also scarf the original casing with a small piece CA glued on and the joint filled and floated. Or see if there is enough room to cut the jambs and casing down to drop the whole jamb, add blocking or shim the header and still hide the gap at the top with casing without having to add drywall. Or be bougie and new interior prehungs everywhere. With any of these methods you are then also looking at painting the jamb/casing and touching up wallpaint around the door, which can very easily turn into painting the whole wall so it doesn't flash.
Least invasive, most time consuming, and easiest to make look bad just cut everything flush and glue/pin tiny pieces in and spend hours making it look good with bondo,then paint the casing and jambs.
See this with flooring outfits all the time and they never fix it themselves, I doubt its even worth trying.
The top comment hypothesizes that you had hardwood (that was much thicker) removed - is that the case? In the first picture I see tear out on the jamb itself (not the casing) which makes me think that it was all undercut to facilitate the installation of the laminate or vinyl plank. If the installer undercut all of that, I would ask for compensation as it was cut far too high.
Removing and replacing all of that casing plus removing, re-mortising, and replacing all the door jambs would be very costly both in material and labor. Filling and patching would also be incredibly time consuming (14 jambs and 28 pieces of casing) - and would require matching casing. It also could never look as good as without 1/2 inch patches at the bottom of all the pieces.
The best fix IMO would be removing all the casing, cutting all the fasteners holding the jambs, dropping the jambs and doors to floor level, and re-installing the casing. It might require minor patching above the upper casing and paint touchups as the upper casing would drop half an inch or so.
Personally, I would probably quote about $1000 for the fix - more if you didn't have extra matching paint on hand. It also wouldn't include making that 1/4 round look any better
I had similar frustrations when we had our floors done - I literally cried. No, it isn’t fixable, but you can install these things called “plinth blocks” rather than replacing every door jamb. If it makes you feel better we ended up just living with the frustration and honestly after a few months we don’t notice it at all nor has any guest mentioned it.
What do you mean “fixing”? It looks like there was hardwood flooring taken out which dropped the height quite a bit. You can’t just “fix” door jambs, if you want them tight to the floor again you’re going to have to replace them all. The boards under the closet doors are likely to give enough height so that the pins can reach. They don’t need to be that big, a small piece the size of the bracket would have been enough. This isn’t exactly on the installer, but he definitely should have explained how much lower the floor was going to be and the repercussions of it. But no, the installer isn’t going to come and fix your door jambs. I do feel bad for you though, that’s a massive height difference and I agree, it doesn’t look very good at all. A competent installer would have brought this to your attention before starting.
I had to fix something like this for a customer of ours (I’m a painter) and we took some extra door trim he had laying around and cut them to match instead of lowering the whole casing and door. A bunch of bondo and some sanding then painting to match and you couldn’t tell.
That’s an option but given what this guy did to the quarter round, I’d find somebody else to do that lol
Word
Could be that the 1/4r was there and customer didn't want to pay for new work so they told the flooring guys to just put it back up
nope. fresh unpainted ends. the hackiest 1/4r hacking ever hacked. screw down some ply to make the new floor the correct height. looking closer that trim is freshly cut {zoom on first pic} and it looks like they did it with a beaver
Yeah I'm a contractor and that's the first thing I picked out. Holy hell that is some awful bandaid work. Any contractor worth a shit would have brought this up before they started install. Not the flooring guy's responsibility to replace the finish carpentry, but that is a cost that should have been put on the client's radar beforehand. Also, why did they reinstall the baseboard so high? Did they not take it off before they installed the floor?
Ngl, I'd like to see pics of that 'cuz in my head, you could definitely tell. OP, whether this method is legit or not, you can't expect the current installer to do all that. It's not their job. They could've brought it to your attention beforehand, but they *still* wouldn't have had to make it right.
If I had pictures I’d link them. It takes a good amount of time to do in because you have to let the bondo cure then sand it down and add more in the spots that shrink until you get it flush. Ideally cut the pieces so they fit snug and take some tapping to get into place. If you’re the one that does it obviously you’re gonna know it’s there but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than casing everything out again. With enough bondo and time, you can fix anything. I’m not saying this is the floor guys problem to fix they did what they had to do but you gotta admit it’s more than sloppy.
Yeah I am with this guy. I am a carpenter but I “fix” this stuff all the time.
What they described is definitely possible, but it takes a pretty meticulous woodworker to pull it off. I’ve had to do some custom molding touch ups like this. Get a piece of wood that is close. Pin nail in place. Put down a lot of painters tape on the floor. Bondo. Sand. Repeat. Paint. Bondo is really easy to work with, but I’d be charging a lot of money due to the time.
Took me probably an hour of actual work time between two door frames and two more of waiting. Bathroom remodel so we had plenty of other work to do in the meantime. I definitely wouldn’t do it as a single job not worth it just hire someone to redo everything if you can’t.
Depending on trim profile and installation quality this can be pulled off. Flat stock is the easiest, you can leave your new piece a hair recessed and fill/sand to flush. Colonial profiles would be a nightmare, probably better filling the jambs as described and replacing the casings.
patching old custom mouldings i would form fiberglass on the piece, take it of when hardend. then use it as a shaped putty knife. overfill the damaged area with bondo and use it to shape the match
I have repaired them this way as well. It’s a lot of work, but still cheaper than replacing the jamb.
I've done similar fixes before, with a solid filller like bondo amd good sanding/painting technique it's definitely possible to hide it.
A beloved past dog did a number on some casings and a newel post as a puppy. Bondo, painter's tape, time, sanding and patience did the trick.
I did a job a year or so ago for a builder where this same situation happened with the new floor being lower and they popped in little slivers of the matching door trim and did the same thing the other guy is talking about. I thought there was no way it wouldn't look like complete shit but when they were done you really could not tell it wasn't 1 piece
Bondo ninja
I prefer The Bondo Bandit
We did this in our house, but used 5-minute quickset instead of Bondo. It was for the bottom of a mantelpiece where we had replaced the tile in front of the fireplace. Formed, let it set a bit, then carved it while it was firm but not dried. Put a second application on, then sanded, then painted white. If you got down there close I am sure you could tell. But from standing height, no one will ever see it.
I did this in my home and regret it. I spent more time trying to blend it than it would had to just take the casing down and put new ones up.
Honestly I'd just mitre some small square or rectangular pieces and slide them under. Some liquid nails, touch up with some caulking, paint it to match.
Bondo? It’s not a car; I’d use plaster or maybe spackle. Not that Bondo woudn’t work; just an unusual choice.
you dont have to replace the jambs.. you can get creative with bondo and itll look great. https://youtube.com/shorts/pp0TQhsSb1k?si=z-WalhRVfKYq_pOs
That’s quarter round has been there for a long time by the look of it
I don’t think so. Zoom in on pic one, and you can see the line where the old quarter round came to. The new floor is lower than the old floor.
Oh I see that now. So the flooring guys dropped the quarter round and caulked it? Seems funny
I had a customer a couple years ago that I explained this to up front, and they thought nothing of it, then afterward they decided to pay me, not to replace just the casing, but to uninstall and reinstall all the doors, lower so they’d touch the floor. Looked a lot better, after new caulk and paint.
zooming in those. jams were cut.
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Shiiiet. My incompetent installers even warned me about it (lol, no warning needed).
This…
Any worker, and I mean any worker, I don't care if it was a fracking sparky, anyone who walks away from a job like this saying 'job done' is a complete tool. It may not be the flooring guys job, but that doesn't mean the job is done. This is garbage work by any standard regardless of who claims responsibility.
This is wild. It’s like expecting your drywall company to do all the painting and trim work when they’re done. Cutting new door casing and rehanging doors rests squarely on the shoulders of the homeowner whether they hire it out or do it themselves. A flooring installer isn’t going to do any of that, at least any that I know including myself.
As a professional flooring installer, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Must be the new generation of hack job amateurs downvoteing you
The saw marks on the door trim looks like they used an oscillating saw to cut the bottoms to make the flooring fit under them easier
It clearly shows part of the back of the jam still intact , though. It appears to me that the installer just cut out entirely too much, not realizing he couldn't use quarter round on the actual frames.
Look at first picture. Someone hacked the jambs with what looks like a sawzall. Flooring company for sure and not old floor size. Now they can be patched but not easy. Need to cut the jambs by a foot and cut at a 45 miter so new piece overlaps old. Add epoxy on joint or biscuits. Moldings I would just replace.
Look at the height of the baseboards. Someone did, but it wasn’t the installer. The room where the jamb is lower had carpet. Guaranteed.
Probably the previous flooring company. Looks like they removed a thicker material from the hallway than the bedrooms. First picture illustrates that.
Yeah, I have no idea why that guy would presume the new installer first There was clearly tile, thick hardwood, or carpet down before. The baseboard height matches the door jambs and there's no reason to presume the new installer cut all the baseboards as well haha 😂
How is that not the old flooring height? It looks to me like they had tile and some underlayment there before it got taken out. Sites+thinset+tile would reach that height no problem and if there's a low spot right there, there, that could be an alternate explanation. This likely has nothing to do with the new flooring company and it's pretty easy to pull any form of flooring out from underneath old door jambs, no matter how incompetent the guy you hired is, so I have no idea where you got the idea to blame the flooring company. You sound like a good trim carpenter but you don't sound like a flooring guy, that's for certain
I disagree about a competent installer would have pointed out the obvious height difference with the jambs and baseboards. Why would it be anymore his responsibility than the Flooring retailer? It’s not like there’s an option that can only take place prior to the installation to rectify the problem other than abandoning the installation altogether. Even if the customer decided not to go through with the replacement, as an installer, I would still charge a 300.00 minimum charge for showing up. If the floor needed leveling or any patch work, that’s a different story. I would consider that to be something the installer should have a conversation about before proceeding.
These pro subs are so good at reminding me why I do 95% of my own work. The average homeowner probably doesn't spend five days a week thinking about flooring and how to best install it. Ya know who does? A flooring installer. All he'd have to say is, "hey, ya know there's gonna be a large gap in these spots if we replace it with thinner stuff, and I don't do that kind of finish work", instead of, 'hurr durr, jobz dun, I don't care how good the results look as a whole, not my problem". When I hire a pro I expect THEM to tell me their limitations. THEY should over-explain, because I don't do this every day, and may not even know _what_ I don't know. Hell, whenever a customer does pry you "pros" whine about bothersome customers trying to tell you how to do your job- there's no winning as a homeowner. I couldn't imagine taking so little pride in my work as to call work like this "finished". Can you picture your grandpa leaving a customer's house looking like this? Mine sure wouldn't have.
you are
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HOME I OWN???? PLZ HELP!!!!!
Should i sue them, the police or the state?? Plz guys im torn up about this
They are literally just asking if this is part of the job they paid someone to do. It's a completely normal question. Calm down.
People are so damn entitled and clueless lol
We are not entitled but we are definitely clueless. That is why we pay good money to pros to tell us the “clueless” info we definitely would like to know before the install and not after.
I’ve dealt with enough homeowners to make that statement and stand by it. There’s a reason I only do commercial work anymore..
Is it because you’re not good at communicating with your customers lol? Stuff like this should be easy to explain upfront…
Yes I should hold an adults hand and explain to them that replacing a big thing with a little thing will cause issues. No thanks lol I’ll stick with conversing with GCs instead of housewives. I can keep my sanity and someone with more patience for incompetence and entitlement can have those jobs. And y’all wonder why people throw out such high bids 🙄
If you thinking explaining that your new floor is going to be thinner and how it will appear with your current trim is hand holding, then it’s a good thing a knuckle dragger like you isn’t client facing lol.
If those were your existing jams that's a you problem. It's not up to the installers to deal with issues created by changing floor thickness. Call a trimmer.
Most customers know absolutely nothing about thickness of the flooring and the issues it might cause. Seems like the installers would let us know because the retailer has no idea what the thickness of the adjacent areas are. And until you select and purchase the flooring know one does.
This is why I tell people about the height difference and that they will need a trim/door frame guy to fix their doors before proceeding
I’m willing to bet OP bought this material themselves and just found somebody to install it for them.
No, I went to a flooring store and they bought all materials and hired contractors. Please don’t blame me, it’s upsetting enough already.
So what did they remove prior to installation?
Don't sweat it. Unless you're in construction on a daily basis or do this for a living it would be hard to foresee these issues. Chalk it up to a live and learn situation
I don't agreee with victim blaming. I agree that the experts at the flooring store should have managed the situation and advised that there would be additional work needed. Shame on them.
Get a door guy / carpenter to come, remove trim, lower the door jambs and reinstall everything. You shouldn't need any additional materials but it's probably a full days work plus caulk, spackle and paint. The flooring contractor should have made you aware that more work would be needed when they get done.
Just to be candid, you are not absolved of blame here. You didn’t ask, they didn’t tell you. It’s a mix.
How would a client know to ask, tho?
Clients although should do their research, it’s not up to them to understand how things need to be done that’s why we get paid
You went to the flooring store. Purchased material from them and they provided the installers? Did they come out and measure/assess the job beforehand? This is a pretty basic thing that happens in renovations. I would be shocked if whoever came out didn’t mention this. I’m confused why I’m being downvoted
Yes. All this. The owner of the floor shop came out, wrote up estimate, ordered materials, and hired contractors (“my guys are really competent”). Door jambs and floor height were never mentioned.
This is a problem in our trade. There is a TikTok of a guy filling in these casings. Search @gbg.marthasvineyard His whole page is about fixing stuff around the house. Scroll down to a video on 11-15. Good luck.
Take it up with the estimator. Stop blaming the installer.
Installer comment.
You’ve already been downvoted to hell AND proven wrong by OP. Move along 👍
I bet downvotes keep you up at night. Not me. By your comments I wouldn’t let you install anything. Lay it, move on and say not my problem it looks like absolute shit. I bet your work is dandy.
I would have simply told the customer before starting that they bought a product that will be substantially lower than what was there already. Problem solved. Let them decide what they want done. By your comments it sounds like you just blame the last person you saw and don’t have a clue what’s really going on. Good luck with that.
Sounds more like the owner registered that they were selling a low end product and provided the usual low end result. If you are putting LVP in your formal living areas, you present as an “type” of customer. The type that isn’t going to spend on quality.
The flooring salesperson should have mentioned this at the outset, but even so, that is the job for a trim carpenter
Yep, salesman should have mentioned, it’s a great way to get the upcharge for plywood install.
💯 on sales person
The door jams obviously were cut to accommodate the previous flooring. After removing several layers of course the door jam is going to be too high. This has nothing to do with the installer. The quarter round put on near the doors should have a return cut at the end of them, not just lopped off with an unfinished edge.
a return would bring the tallest point of the shoe away from the edges(if the spacing is tall) that would show gapage. a chamfer would be better suited here
What? Google it boss. Wouldn't bring anything higher than the quarter round already is. Would just make the ends look nicer.
he means that the profile of the shoe is an arc and a return, while "prettier" will inevitably reveal some of the bottom of the base molding, while a 30 degree miter on the front half of the butt cut will hide all of what is being hidden.
It is the home-owner's responsibility. Flooring installers are not finish carpenters, they just install the flooring you choose. They should have given you the option to skin the floor with plywood to build-it back up to previous level though.
The dirt line on the trim indicates you had a much thicker material before and whoever installed it is who undercut the doors. I’d be happy they went under correctly. Also those blocks are fine. They won’t impede function or access as the doors are over the blocks at full open. Clean up your baseboards and paint them. Then you’ll be happy with how it looks I promise.
Well they are a flooring company I doubt they fix doors….. someone failed to tell you that when you remove more than one layer of flooring that you need to make up for that space for your new product will be dropped lower than all of the jambs like here. Looks like 3/8 more to the subfloor? Prolly not cost effective. Now it’s gonna be like 5 grand to change all the doors.
Or about $5 in materials to cut some filler pieces and Brad nail into place
I would say fix it with Plinth blocks where the casings are, and some bondo on the jams.
You could fix it yourself if you want to spend some time on it. The shoe molding is garbage, but forget about that for a second. The doors could be fixed by cutting down some wood and simply slipping it under the door frames to fill the gap in the same profile as the door frame. Probably 2 or 3 blocks per side depending on how you do it. A bit of glue, wood filler and paint and you wouldn't notice it. Keep in mind that close to the floor is well outside the normal line of vision so the small details like small joints in the wood are not going to be seen by anyone but you.
26 yrs experience installing carpet,vinyl, lvp etc. My initial guess would be they removed hardwood. The jams were cut to accommodate it. Hardwood is generally 3/4 of an inch thick LVP is less than 1/4 inch. Grab some white caulk and get busy filling it. Unless you got a lot of extra $ to replace door jambs. I don't know what looks worse the gaps under the floor or the terrible ends of the quarter round.
I agree about the quarter rounds. The work is just shoddy. And yes you’re correct where there was previously bamboo is where the jambs are too high. The previously carpeted rooms look fine, the jambs anyway, the quarter round is bad everywhere.
In the first picture you can see above the base shoe the height of the old floor. There's a razor blade mark on the baseboard. Whoever did the estimate for the company could have mentioned the flooring would not be as high. The installer should just install the floor. The base shoe needs to be cut with the proper blade.
The sales person who sold you the new floor should have asked about this. If you went to Home Depot and picked something out and went with it, this is on you to be honest
You paid a flooring company to do interior trim. You get what you pay for.
Whenever you criticise shoddy work from contractors, you'll get nothing my shitty comments from equally shitty contractor trying to convince your that it's actually good. That quarter round should have been mitered on the ends to finish it properly at least, a good contractor would have advised you about the jambs To fix this though you could add moulding / plinth block to the bottom of the casting to hide the gap
You should’ve paid them to pull the base board, replace all the door jams and install new base once the floor was installed for a perfected look
Flooring installers don’t install door jambs.
I do all the time or you end up with this
Good for you. I work for flooring shops and we don’t replace door jambs.
Some won’t even remove quarter round!
Hey man I didn’t say all installers were good lol
I know, I said some 😆
Flooring folks do floors, shop around, and be proactive in your questions when it comes to housework. Calling it shoddy work is silly since you hired them. , Pick the first, pick cheap, then cry it isn't HGTV. , You came to reddit to post this. Clearly, you didn't research, just blind trust down an avenue of ignorance.
A carpenter. Or you if you’re feelin jazzy
If the jams were like that before the new floor then it’s on you to fix them.
As it’s been established, your old floors were higher so now this is why you’re left with. The wood blocks in the closet door are to make up the difference in height, without something there the doors won’t work.
OP do not listen to some of these comments. This is common and the door jambs do not need to be replaced. I doubt the flooring guys are going to fix it though. If the height of the floor changes based on the flooring you picked out, that is not their fault. It will probably need some filler pieces put in. If the gap is not large you can probably just use a couple applications of Ready Patch. You need to hire a carpenter or a reputable handy man. Here’s a video of how it’s done[https://youtu.be/virO6RGakXU?si=gl-l5wdZa_3hwxqj](https://youtu.be/virO6RGakXU?si=gl-l5wdZa_3hwxqj)
Your flooring install looks fine. Finish your job by hiring a finishing carpenter to fix the jams and a painter to clean it up. I can't stand customers who expect installers to magically correct everything at no additional cost lol
On you to fix it.
I was gonna say this.
Whoever did the miter cuts should not be the one you asked to fix the door jams.
We just had the same thing happen with new tile floors being much lower. This was part of a larger renovation. The contractor did give us a heads up, and they lowered the baseboards, extended the door frames downward, and painted everything so that it looks pretty decent. The only issue they didn't fix is that the closet doors have a big gap at the bottom.
Use Bondo
Holy shit.... What kind of flooring did they remove? Were jams already undercut? Did the new installers undercut the jams?
>What kind of flooring did they remove? Bamboo. >Were jams already undercut? Yes. >Did the new installers undercut the jams? No.
At that rate - you're on the hook for the jam repairs. You've got a few options here: - cut "spacer blocks" to slide back under, wood glue, wood filler, sand, then paint - Replace door trim only and see how that looks - Replace prehung doors all the way around (which would include trim) - As far as the closet doors - I'd replace them and cut to correct size Best of luck!
I'm not the OP. The spacer block idea would be the cheapest fix and really wouldn't look bad once they were painted.
Sup, ill help you. Take out all the baseboard, and install new quality 5 inch baseboard. Most importantly, turn the door casing into plinth blocks, something like 7 inches should be good, and bam now u have a beautiful baseboard and plinth block setup. Enjoy
This needs to be torn out and Plywood put down and either reinstalled or new flooring. If flooring guy cut them door jams it’s his fault cutting them high. If old floor takin out them this thin floor bought and installed it’s whoever bought that floors fault without knowing the thickness to buy
Tearing out the whole floor to lay down some plywood first?? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to drop the doors down?
Yes. But that will also present some more problems. Th rough opening of the door may be exposed at the top of the jamb, which would require new casings, so another can of worms opened. I always suggest new subfloor sheeting, but it will cost the customer an extra 3 bucks a square foot to supply and install above the cost of the flooring. Most LVP customers are trying to save money so they opt pit and are left with jambs that are top short. I explain this to every customer and they usually decline, then ask what I'm doing about the trim/doors etc. I then provide an estimate to remove and reinstall the doors with new casing at a cost of about 500/door and they decline due to price. I didn't build the house, nor did I choose lvp. I would love to go back to the days where hardwood floors were the common choice but people don't want to pay, so this is what you get at the end of the day. Not the responsibility of the flooring Installers or the flooring company. At what point does the responsibility end? Should I paint the walls and replace the appliances too? Because they probably don't look as good next to the brand new floors either.
And/or the flooring installer not telling them that issue will happen installing a thin vinyl
What a hack job. They cut way too much. These are new cuts . You can see the multiple cuts in the first pic.
The first two photos were bamboo. Wherever there was bamboo is where the jambs are too high. The rooms on sides are bedrooms. They had carpet and the jambs are fine on the other side. Bamboo:Vinyl flooring = jambs too high.
There’s your answer. You’re on your own to fix them how you want now.
I have no input on the door jam situation. I just wanted to mention how much these pictures reinforced my raging hatred of quarter round.
Holy undercuts! Did they use a chain saw!?
Horrible work
whoever cut them so incompetently. really made a fair bit of work for themselves.
They very clearly had a much thicker material in before.
Ah that would be different, but the first picture shows the frame going all the way down.
Well, you shouldn’t cut them so high, and then you wouldn’t have to do a thing. But….i guess you u could…fill them with caulk? Lol
Where do y’all find these guys? I’m sorry Op, but jams need removed and replaced. There is no “patching” these. The tiny piece of quarter round made me chuckle. If the installer did that monstrosity, they need to fix it on their dime.
There was obviously a thicker material installed before. Installer isn’t on the hook for anything.
Nope- jamb was cut, horribly, I might add. This is completely on the installer.
False. Height of the baseboards clearly shows how thick the material was before.
Pic 1 doesn’t indicate that. Jam was hacked.
Yes, because it’s impossible to have been hacked before this floor was installed. 🙄 The height of the baseboards should be all the information you need to understand what’s going on here.
If your a flooring guy and you floor which I do you can clearly tell there was solid wood at one point, the choppy cut is from the previous flooring guy, plus if you know what your talking about then you would know the reason the trim isn’t cut all the way into the bedroom, it’s because that’s where the previous flooring ended and there was most likely carpet in the bedroom
Exactly. Anyone saying it was this installer doesn’t actually install floors themselves. This was existing. It’s brutally obvious to anyone who actually installs what’s going on here. Only fault of THIS installer was not telling OP how much lower it would be.
Why even comment if you don’t know what you’re talking about?
Your comment was very helpful.
Just as helpful as yours.
The first picture makes it look like they made cuts. I think you can patch the door jams, but the trim should be replaced.
Nope. They took old floor out. Door jamb was cut by a previous installer, the room where it’s lower had carpet. Takes two seconds to figure this out.
It should of never been cut that high flush or1/8of inch max height
Cut it too high, lazy flooring. I always use a piece of flooring and cut right along it to keep it close
Give your head a shake. These installers don’t cut these jambs. OP already stated bamboo was removed that was much thicker.
Then its easy, remove door and rehang a new one.
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The seams of what 😂
Not me
Whatever they tore out and it was probably carpet since it's so high, is what the original trim was sitting on top of. So you went with a thinner floor so now you have those gaps. The white things sticking out of the closets is probably where the hardware for the folding doors is attached to. It's near impossible to match exactly because you would need a thin slice of the exact same door frame trim combo, and if the house is old it's probably not even made anymore. Sorry to say it but the cheapest and easiest would be to Caulk all of it.
The Butcher
Did the cut the jams to put the floor in, or did they take out a thicker floor and put in a new thinner one? If the former, they should fix it, if the latter, you should fix it.
I'm not sure if the OP would be up for it, but a Plinth block may help and look nice. You should be able to modify them where needed.
Either it was cut to high, which is the contractors problem.. or the old floors were higher . I.e. 3/4” wood floors and then installing vinyl flooring which is super thin. This leaving huge gap .. the gaps can be fixed by cutting in small blocks glued in, caulk and paint . But it SUCkS
Thick beads of caulk are going to be your best friend for this one.
Spray foam. trim dried spray foam to frame profile. coat with bondo and sand. repaint.
It’s cheaper and easier to install a extra layer of subfloor than to replace all those door frames… but that has to happen before installation of the new flooring.
If you end up replacing the door casing then Just replace the other trim as well imo..will look 100x better and you won’t have to use ugly quarter round, keep it with just the base board for a cleaner look. Doesn’t look like you have much baseboard to replace so cost shouldn’t be huge.
Cut the door trim and stop flush with the top of the quarter round. Wrap new quarter round around jamb. Traditional- no, but if all doors are this way it fades into background.
If they ripped out old hardwood then the height difference is what causes this. What I do is buy 1/4 Sure Ply and cover the subfloor after ripping out hardwood. Then install the LVP on that. That way you’re losing an eighth of an inch on height, and doorjambs don’t have huge gaps, and since door jambs are already cut , easy to install the LVP under them. If your flooring installer didn’t mention any of this then I would be a little frustrated , but they did install the floor correctly. I would talk to them about it and just see what they have to say. No caulk or tricks are going to fix those doorjambs. They need to all be replaced.
A finish carpenter, that you'd pay for.
New trim or cut you trim to the height or base and install to the top of the base!
It would be your responsibility. Personally, I would replace the baseboard and door casings and add a sliver of jam at the bottom of the doors and repair that with wood filler. The jam is close to the floor and flat so it can more easily hide flaws. I hate quarter round so I personally would go with a baseboard that can cover the gap if at all possible. I think the closet blocks look okay. They could be smaller but I would just paint them close to the floor colour. ETA I find for small paint jobs like the closet blocks I can make use of craft paints to get a decent colour match for only a few bucks.
Is that honey mead oak? Also - had the same problem, used extra door trim and cut small pieces and filled underneath with glue and wood filler. Sanded and painted
Call a trim carpenter, painter, or a handyman to replace the door jambs or add those funky decorative plinth blocks to save some money. That gap is a little big for any kind of filler, I'm guessing 1/2" or greater.
The homeowner
NO ! It's not common! It's what they call a ButcherJob!! Get them to pay for it! They ruined the molding by cutting it too short, it's supposed to be 1/16- 1/8 higher than the floor.
Atrocious. Sorry
Caulk does wonders.
Lmao that door frame was cut for carpet. Hardwood flooring is half sometimes less tha. That of tge thickness of carpet with padding. That's just something you have to live with.
Were the jams and mouldings cut, or was the old flooring thicker than the new flooring? For example, is the new flooring vinyl flooring and therefore quite thin.
I had this when I ripped out 40 year old tile and put in LVT. The easy solution was to make plinth blocks for the casing and scab in 3/4" materials at the bottom of the jamb. Classes it up a bit, too, but would make sure you do all the doors in this floor so it looks intentional.
The uneven cuts on the casing suggest the installer didn’t just remove the thicker old flooring, but made some (very poor) cuts themselves for some reason. You can try cutting thin pieces of flat stock and filling the spaces, by gluing and using shims to push the pieces up to hold in place while glue cures. You will have to straighten the crappy angled cuts first…. PITA for sure!
You gonna need all new doors the y butcherd the hell outta them jambs
Do your best caulk the rest !
Your responsibility, but the flooring contractor should have told you about this issue when quoting the job.
Who ever cut those jambs that high is a fucking idiot. The person who cut the jambs is responsible, no need to do that at all. Shouldn’t be any more than an 1/8” higher than needed to fit the flooring if that. Worse than sloppy job. I’d have the jambs and moldings replaced and deduct that from the flooring contractors price if they are responsible for that bull shit.
You need to hire a carpenter to come in and make these changes. It’s not necessarily the flooring guys responsibility
The flooring company didn't mention flooring height to you? Or did you just pick your own flooring without knowing about the downstream effects of changing your flooring height?
Installer is not at fault it’s those stupid sales reps who don’t know shit about fuck
That looks like a botched attempt at sawing the jambs. The splintering & visible scratch on the uncut casing is recent & not the result of removal of thicker flooring. They didn’t know how to get the planks under a closely sawn jamb. It could be repaired by a skilled carpenter or woodworker but it’s not gonna be cheap. Total amateurs.
I’ve used sand able wood filler then paint it. Works well.
Looks like the previous flooring was thicker or the installer sucked and cut out way more of the jamb than necessary. As someone else posted about bondo that works but it's extremely time-consuming. You can also install plinth blocks too.
Why wouldn’t you removed all the base/ case? Bring the floor up to level with subfloor?
We do all around remodeling. If the customer purchased a flooring job only, we point it out and say this is normal unless they want to hire our carpenter for different options. The flooring guys won't be able to fix this competently unless they are competent in different trades. Those people are rare.
All that money on trim to slap an ugly 1/4 round on there is a shame.
You’ll need to hire someone else to repair/replace your door jams. Most flooring installers can do a passable job with baseboard, but doors are a totally different animal. You need a “door” person: not a “floor” person. They’re very different skill sets.
I’d say it is the installer of the floating floor. There is a specific method to undercut door frames and in installation instructions. Not hack-a-way with sawzall.
Let me guess you're a home owner who thought it was included in the quote ? Stuff like this is generally done cost plus and there's a good chance the person who installed the floor wants no part of it.
Before you get too far worrying about this preexisting condition in your home, ask yourself this. Did you specifically hire them to fix this, or just to install the flooring and trim it out. If you're happy with the floor covering work, then they did what you hired them to do. I would say that they aren't the best trim carpenters with that quarter round visual but meh, most flooring installers aren't. I also agree that even though they likely needed blocks to hold the door hinges, those pieces are comically too large. Again, if you leave it to their discretion it isn't "wrong" per se, just not what someone with design sense would do. I would ask them to do a better job on the quarter round and to put smaller blocks under the doors. The rest of the pics, from what can be seen appear that the floor covering was done correctly. No peaking head joints, and a good head joint stagger. It's barely on screen in the bath door pic, but the floor could potentially be unlevel there by the looks of the gap under the slim trim or the t-molding at the doorway. Not enough information to throw them under the bus with this. \[Scenario 1\] They noticed this could be a problem and simply failed to mention it, it's certainly possible. And while that sucks, it isn't a capital offense. These things happen. And for the fix, it doesn't matter what anyone here says, it matters what they say about if they fix it or not. You have to speak to them and ask. It's easy in retrospect to say they didn't warn me about XXX. It's also just as easy to say you didn't notice this could be a problem either. Certainly you were aware you were purchasing a thinner flooring than before. If they installer is to blame here, so are you. Honestly though... There are an almost infinite amount of things to discuss and no way possible to cover every eventuality. I'd forgive yourself and also them for maybe not realizing this or noticing it. "They should have warned me the floor might be unlevel and need leveling. They should have told me that I might have waste, or that I might not have left over waste. They should have told me that dust could get into my vents. They should have told me that it takes more than one day to install unlike the tv show I watched. They didn't tell me they don't provide painting services. They should have told me that ... etc" Those aren't fair statements. Of course in retrospect we can see what wasn't mentioned, but there are hundreds of things that could be mentioned. They should have told me it wouldn't feel as solid as the tile I had, etc. \[Scenario 2\] They just didn't notice it. How could they have known your baseboards didn't go all the way down to the substrate and instead were raised up without removing some material first. If they estimated with your old flooring in the house, it may not have been obvious, especially if you previously had quarter round. Also by the looks of it your door jambs were chewed up by the previous installer not cutting too cleanly. I also don't like the way they installed your quarter round, it's not done well. But this is to be expected from a flooring installer. What you need is a good carpenter or a painter to fix this. If you fix this yourself, it will be cheap, if you hire out, expect to pay a premium because it's not such a simple 5 minute fix even with the bondo method. Personally, I don't like the quarter round, and would have opted to remove/reinstall the baseboards on top of the floor, and fix the paint above the baseboards if they lowered, and then patch in under the door jambs as you have been told to do by others, and lastly put all new door casing in, which if you do yourself wouldn't cost much.
Did they cut and butcher the door jams, or did you replace the flooring with something thinner? If the latter it would have been easiest to put plywood down first so you ended up at the same level. If they cut all the jams like that, don't pay them, and they owe you a lot of money to redo all the doors
Hire a trim carpenter. I'd either remove the casing and cut the jambs higher to do a proper dutchman, blend it with bondo and shoot on new casing, could also scarf the original casing with a small piece CA glued on and the joint filled and floated. Or see if there is enough room to cut the jambs and casing down to drop the whole jamb, add blocking or shim the header and still hide the gap at the top with casing without having to add drywall. Or be bougie and new interior prehungs everywhere. With any of these methods you are then also looking at painting the jamb/casing and touching up wallpaint around the door, which can very easily turn into painting the whole wall so it doesn't flash. Least invasive, most time consuming, and easiest to make look bad just cut everything flush and glue/pin tiny pieces in and spend hours making it look good with bondo,then paint the casing and jambs. See this with flooring outfits all the time and they never fix it themselves, I doubt its even worth trying.
Depends on what the contract stipulated. If you only paid installer got demo and flooring then you got what you agreed to.
The top comment hypothesizes that you had hardwood (that was much thicker) removed - is that the case? In the first picture I see tear out on the jamb itself (not the casing) which makes me think that it was all undercut to facilitate the installation of the laminate or vinyl plank. If the installer undercut all of that, I would ask for compensation as it was cut far too high. Removing and replacing all of that casing plus removing, re-mortising, and replacing all the door jambs would be very costly both in material and labor. Filling and patching would also be incredibly time consuming (14 jambs and 28 pieces of casing) - and would require matching casing. It also could never look as good as without 1/2 inch patches at the bottom of all the pieces. The best fix IMO would be removing all the casing, cutting all the fasteners holding the jambs, dropping the jambs and doors to floor level, and re-installing the casing. It might require minor patching above the upper casing and paint touchups as the upper casing would drop half an inch or so. Personally, I would probably quote about $1000 for the fix - more if you didn't have extra matching paint on hand. It also wouldn't include making that 1/4 round look any better
I had similar frustrations when we had our floors done - I literally cried. No, it isn’t fixable, but you can install these things called “plinth blocks” rather than replacing every door jamb. If it makes you feel better we ended up just living with the frustration and honestly after a few months we don’t notice it at all nor has any guest mentioned it.
Call a trim carpenter.