It is common to have a quarter round moulding between the skirting board and the floor. The quarter round has the added advantage of covering more of the floor, giving the flooring installer a greater margin of error that can be covered by the quarter round and the skirting board. This finish, however may not be keeping with the look that you were after. If you do not like it then ask builder to remove. But then that may cause issues with nail holes on skirting boards.

Using the quad is a common way when installing floating floors. If the floors have been installed correctly there will be an small expansion gap between the flooring and the wall/skirting. If you remove the quad you’ll see the gap. I don’t like the look and would have specified the skirting going on after the floors but that doesn’t help you. You could remove the skirting and replace it with a thicker one that covers the expansion gap. Not cheap and it would be out of your pocket. In the UK you can get skirting board covers that go over existing skirting. In reality I think you need to live with it for a while and then re-evaluate how your feel and how much money you want to spend to rectify it.

I thought skirting had the same effect as quad. To cover the gap. But I don’t know about the newer flooring systems. Talk to flooring supplier . It will be a lot of work to pull up and replace boards to fit under skirting but that may be your builders prob.

Thank you all. I still have a question though. Given this is a new build, his should it have been installed in the first place. I understand if we're replacing an existing flooring. Should the builder have considered this in the first place? Isn't there the standard way of installing boards in new houses?

No there isn’t a documented standard for the method of installation for floating floors in new builds or otherwise. You could Google and check the manufacturers specifications for installing of the floor but i think you’d find that the floors have been installed within spec. Quad is the common practise but he’s some builders will do it differently. If you wanted something different from common practice you would have needed to specify it up front. You had floorboards as a standard inclusion so you received the standard method of installation. I do feel your pain, I really don’t like the quad look but it’s not going to changed at your builders cost.

I've called two installers and they all said the standard is to have the skirting on top especially new builds. The quads will only be used if we want it.

A sample of two isn’t a great sample but it didn’t really matter. What matters is what you can negotiate with your builder. In building disputes what counts is what is on paper. In your case you don’t have any direction in the contract so you may be out of luck.

As the skirting was installed first and the boards butt up to the skirting, hence the use of quarter round, this maybe, only be rectified if the entire floor and skirting and quad is pulled up and then boards are laid to the wall with the skirting on top. I don’t see a problem with the look you have. And once furniture is in the room with floor rugs and personal items, you won’t see the quad as much. I do not think it is worth the hassle. I personally would accept it and move on.

I agree that skirting looks nicer on its own but unfortunately I can’t see the builder paying for the upgrade and removing the quad, finding skirting that will cover the damage of removal, painting and installing the skirting will all be extra $$$. When we had our floor replaced recently we upgraded from quad to skirts, we painted the skirts ourselves prior to install. All this to say while it seems sensible that skirting goes in after the flooring, I don’t think this is standard and could well depend on scheduling and availability of contractors. I would do as others suggest and live with it for a while, get a quote to replace and then decide if it is worth it to you. In the grand scheme of things you may find it is not much of an issue in the enjoyment of your beautiful new home.

Your builder sounds dodgy to me, he's taken the easy way to suit him and no consideration for you and how a new build should be scheduled. You could check with the council Certifier, show him your contract and the works carried out, preferably in front of the builder even if it's just to have it on record with the Certifier that this is the standard of work your builder works to. Good Luck

That’s a bit harsh...to say the builder is dodgy. we don’t know the full story of construction. Maybe the flooring was delayed and the carpenter installing skirtings had to move on to their next job, and could not wait for flooring company to lay the floor? It’s a very time tight industry at the moment and the builder would want the job to move along. The original poster would hopefully take these time restrictions into account and query before reporting to a certifier. In my opinion.....

An important Internal Architectural feature was for Square set ceilings

The owner, "upgraded the skirting so it's proportionate with the height of the ceiling as we have square set ceiling."

This detail should have been enough to inform the builder that the floor boards would need to be laid first which in my experience for a new build is the norm. He appears to have ignored this and proceeded with what fitted best with his schedule without consultation with the owners

The owner also stated "We've had too much issues with the builder and this is another one."

A gap filler/Quad on the skirting boards does not work with the Square set ceilings and is wrong.

I would say that both the builder and certifier would laugh at the “report”. There is a lot of crucial things for the surveyor to look at and in the absence of a defined standard for the installation of floating floors there’s nothing concrete to base a report on. The flooring would have indeed gone in after skirts and archs had been completed and most likely painted. In the same way carpet is held over until nearly last (to protect it from tradie clod hopper boots) so is floating flooring generally. It can be done prior to skirts but it means having the chippie and probably the painter to do a return visit - not always easily accommodated in the schedule of works and is why quad became a practice. I agree quad isn’t great to look at but builders are rarely good at designing for looks or building to aesthetics. If a specific look or style is desired, or a specific thing is going to bother the owner (I have a thing about how tiles on splashbacks turn corners) then you need to have a person who is the design influence for your build (either yourself at every step of the way and use a designer to manage those aspects).

I’m in a holiday house at the moment. It’s about 8 years old and it has floating floors in the form of laminate. It has quad which looks like it may have started life as white and has not worn well at all. It’s a nice house despite that.

HU-90490831 does appear to have been overseeing the design elements by discussing the skirting boards prior to installation with the builder which resulted in these boards being changed to compliment the Square Set Ceilings. Thus demonstrating how important the Skirting profile was

During this conversation the builder had the opportunity to inform them that there would be an additional strip of timber added to the new skirts in the form of a Filler/Quad which would change the Profile/appearance of the skirts,

It would appear that the builder didn't include/avoided this very important detail in the conversation which was wrong.

If this was a Hamptons style house Fillers/Quads would work with the more detailed fittings and not stand out, as they do with more contemporary /Modern simple pared back lines.

Building a new home can be a challenge as others on this Forum have posted, it's very sad and stressful when things don't go to plan. I feel for all of you especially at this time of year, but I would always suggest that you don't accept something that you feel is wrong and giving up as this is what is expected of you.

If a floating floor is added to save cost sometimes skirt is not removed first and reinstated resulting in need for quad. But to do it properly skirt should be removed, floor laid and skirt reinstalled as it has the same purpose as quad - to fill the gap between floor and wall. Builder did not think first and has installed quad to fix his error imo.
The question is is it worth the big hassle to try and get it fixed

Absolutely worth it being a new build. There was a house built in our area which was to lock up when it was discovered that the roof/ceiling was 30cm lower than was specified.

The builder had to re do it, big job but he accepted that he had made the mistake and wanted to keep his excellent reputation, very happy clients and everyone in the area very impressed by the builders action.

With the wonderful square set ceilings and the wood details on the stairs, I am battling to see how this quarter round really stands out. If you had the square set with very minimalistic aesthetics (concrete floor etc) then yes, take your challenge further with removing the quad. But with the wood trim in the stairs it blends in with the overall look. What ever you decide, enjoy your new home and have a very happy 2023.