Hardwood Flooring install around this trim?
 

Hello, Im wanting to install hardwood flooring, not laminate, through our hallway into the living room. My problem is the trim used throughout the house has been here a long time and over the years they have even added 1/4 drywall throughout the house and instead of removing trim before installing they cut it around all the trim, which means the trim has to stay lol.

At the bottom of all the doorways are the larger blocks (Casing? you can see in the picture) that also stick out about a 1/4" farther than the other trim. The pictures show the doorway area between the hall and living room that is going to be the most noticeable.

I understand that I need to cut the trim so the flooring can go under the doorway trim but my question is how would I go about the other areas where the trim sticks out at different distances? I dont believe its going to be enough gap to go under the blocks and use quarter round only inbetween (not sure how that will look either).

Ive thought about using 1/4" filler strips on the deeper parts of the trim to bring it all out flush for the shoe moulding. Do they make different depth quarter round that can achieve this? What is the best way to tackle this trim in an old house? Any good articles regarding typical trim procedures?

Thanks for your help
ps dont look at the chipped paint, 3 kids and their toys put a good beating on it and we have been been working on them :(
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the trim should be cut so the hardwood just slips under it. they make jamb saws for that but the new vibrating multi tools work good also and are easier to use for most diy'ers.

So are you saying that all the trim needs cut the whole length of the wall and I wouldnt install any shoe moulding then or would I only cut around the doors and leave the trim on the walls alone and use shoe moulding there? Im more worried just about the block on the bottom front of the casing and getting it to look right for those short spans of shoe moulding.

I dont care to take some time to make it look perfect, this is a high traffic area.

Im also definitely looking at getting one of those tools for this job :thumbup:.

One of the problums your going to run into is the base and blocks in most old houses was installed before the flooring was installed, so there going to be below the floor level. In most cases there's going to be nails in the base below the flooring.
Here's what I have done many times to make this all come out looking perfect.
I pop off those old base blocks, take a piece of your new flooring and flip it over to use as a guide for my ossilating saw and cut out the jambs and casing but not the base board.
Install the flooring. Make new thicker base blocks out of 2 X material, (it looks nice to set the block in place and mark a line on the top where it touches the casing and cut an angle so you do not have it looking like it stick out to far.)
And another piece of 3/4 thick base board right over the one that's there now and install base cap molding on to of that to add a nice touch and cover the joint on the top.
http://www.woodworksofpeoria.com/base-cap-molding
If done this way the base board will no longer look like it's 1/4 thick and it will hide the gap where the flooring meets the wall with no 1/4 round needed.

cap the quarter round