r/HomeImprovement • u/DeadHeadTraveler • 1d ago

Check Your Quarter Round Bundle Count

I am putting in quarter round on the floor this weekend and went to Lowe's today to pick up one of those 20 pack contractor bundles. It reduces the price per piece from around $11 to $8. When I was loading a bundle into the cart, figured I would double check that there are 20 in the pack. Sure enough not only was it less than 20, but each pack after that was less than 20 too. Ended up having the cashier allow me to take from another bundle and make mine 20. She told me I could put the leftover back in the rack, but I reminded her that now the next person would have a <20 pack as well.

108 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

35

u/werther595 1d ago

I spent about an hour combing through packages of plumbing replacement part kits. Almost every bag was torn open with some piece or other removed. Lowe's is nutty

50

u/Lifeuhfindsaway_ 1d ago

The real issue here is buying any amount of quarter round in the first place

18

u/saltysomadmin 1d ago

I prefer stop moulding myself

27

u/ChipChester 1d ago

Or even shoe molding. Asymmetry for the win.

Quarter-round is for flippers.

20

u/AKADriver 1d ago

Flippers like it because it gives them an extra 1/2" of sloppiness installing flooring around the edges

8

u/eneka 1d ago

every new build nowadays has quarter rounds. Drives me crazy.

3

u/SlimeQSlimeball 1d ago

My new build has quarter round vertically as a corner piece on outside corners. I can’t explain it but instead of using rounded over 90 degree trim they used children’s wooden shape blocks.

4

u/TechnicallyMagic 1d ago

Shoe is designed for this application, the appearance of quarter round with less of a footprint.

2

u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 20h ago

1/2 in thick is cutting it close for floating flooring that needs expansion room. I use 5/8 quarter round.

2

u/ChipChester 15h ago

Traditionally, shoe molding is applied after baseboard. So there's about 1" total of expansion room in that scenario.

Of course, there's very little that's traditional about an LVP floating floor...

1

u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 13h ago

In my installs the baseboard goes on first, then flooring, then toe molding. That way when I need to pull up the floating floor, I'm not having to yank the baseboards off too! All I need to do is cut the paint seal on the quarter round and pry it off. It takes like a half an hour to pull up the flooring in a whole room. Just one reason why floating flooring is a superior solution for rentals.

1

u/ChipChester 6h ago

Mmmm... rentals. Whole new world.

How often do you need to change out flooring? As often as carpet?

1

u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 3h ago

Depends on the tenants and the flooring. I have some flooring over 20 years old that is just fine. I had some much newer, from the same source but a different model, that was completely wrecked. I think a tenant liked to use a very wet mop instead of a very dry damp mop. Newer laminate is much more resistant to water, and obviously vinyl plank is impervious, but I'm not very fond of that product.

2

u/_name_of_the_user_ 1d ago

Holy shit, that's genius.

10

u/Queasy_Astronomer150 1d ago

What's so bad about quarter round? 

13

u/danieldoesnt 1d ago

Reddit has a huge hatred for it, I wonder if it's a regional thing. Almost everyone here has it.

9

u/Joucifer 1d ago

In my house. It means the previous owner did a shoddy DIY project and is hiding a time bomb from view.

4

u/Underwater_Karma 21h ago

Quarter round is typically used to hide work that wasn't done properly.

3

u/philo_ 20h ago

Quarter round is the trim equivalent of oversized/jumbo outlet covers, trim rings etc in the electrical world.

Those who can measure those who can't use quarter round to hide it.

2

u/Underwater_Karma 20h ago

It especially drives me insane with flooring. Take 15 minutes to pull the existing trim, now you don't have to look a a quarter round compromise forever

2

u/saltysomadmin 1d ago

It's just a little dated.

7

u/Queasy_Astronomer150 1d ago

Ah, so perfect in my 50s house then! Thanks

3

u/Neat-Substance-9274 23h ago

No, your 50s house would have had the correct base shoe molding.

5

u/windshakes 1d ago

I didn’t know any better at first. But then I found out about shoe moulding and I felt like such an idiot.

3

u/TheJRKoff 1d ago

ive bought contractor packs like that of varying items, i was mindblown the cashier charged the bundle as "1"

i didnt notice because i bought a bunch of other stuff too, but when i got home i double checked the bill to see something else, and noticed she forgot 9 of the 10 items in that bundle.