If Your Water is DIRTY, you MUST remove all water damage affected materials, including the baseboards and footings (do NOT complete this article, you must discard the baseboards). If you are affected by grey water damage or clean water damage you can save and reuse the baseboards. This article explains how to save and restore the baseboards.

It can be very difficult to successfully take off the water damaged baseboards without them cracking or splintering. Once again, no amount of money is worth your health, safety, and peace of mind. You can choose to have a professional water damage company complete the work without giving you the headache of doing it yourself. These companies can be found through the links on this site.

If Your Baseboards Do Have a Footing (Shoe):

Must remove the footing before the taller section of the baseboard. Take your box cutter, load a new blade, and cut along the edge that is formed between the baseboard and footing. This will prevent the paint from peeling and/or cracking as we remove the footing.

Take your smallest crow bar and wedge it between the baseboard and the footing. Firmly start to pry the footing away from the baseboard, working the footing off evenly. Once you get some distance between the footing and baseboard, take the edge of "hooked" end of the crowbar and put it on the back of the footing. Simply push the opposite end toward the wall and the footing should come completely dislodged.

Grab your permanent marker and write the letter "A" on your first removed footing. Also, write the corresponding letter on its parent baseboard, where you just took the footing off. Make sure you write it below the line of what the footing covers (I know it's darn small). You will eventually be putting the footing back in the same place it came from, so make sure that it will cover up your writing.

Continue reading immediately following this sentence for instructions on removing the rest of the baseboard.

If Your Baseboards Do Not Have a Footing (Shoe) or You Have Removed the Footing (Shoe):

If Your Baseboard and Walls Are Painted: Take your box cutter, load another new blade (or flip it to a new side), and cut along the edge that is formed between the baseboard and wall. This will prevent the paint from peeling as we remove the baseboard.

Take a crow bar and wedge it between the two pieces. Carefully, slowly, and firmly start to pry the footing away from the baseboard. You must work the footing (and baseboard) off evenly. Do not simply pry off one end and attempt to pull the rest of the baseboard off from that loose area.

If the baseboard is not fully popping off the wall, we are going to have to use my sacred time and energy saving tip. Take the curved (hook) side of the crowbar and insert it under the baseboard. Get the edge of the hooked part of the crowbar to be directly under the bottom of the baseboard and apply pressure on the opposite end of the crowbar. This will lift the baseboard up and dislodge it from the wall.

Grab your permanent marker and write the number "1" on your first removed baseboard. Also, write the corresponding number on the wall, where you just took the baseboard off. Make sure you write it below the line of what your baseboard covers. You will eventually be putting the baseboard back in the same place it came from, so make sure that it covers up your writing.

Disinfecting and Deodorizing the Baseboards & Footings (Shoes):

If they have mold on the back of them, both use your disinfectant, a hard bristle brush, and towel to remove the mold, disinfect, and clean them, or throw them away.

Using either a pump up sprayer or a handheld trigger sprayer, thoroughly spray the entire surface area of the water damaged baseboards and footings. I highly recommend using a pump up sprayer with a solution tank, and a product that is both a deodorizer and a disinfectant (such as OdoBan™). If you are using either a handheld trigger sprayer or an aerosol (such as Lysol™), I highly recommend two coats of both your deodorizer and disinfectant.