In one bathroom, the tiles are 1/2 inch short of the wall. In both bathrooms, the wood baseboards were originally installed to accommodate the carpeting, so there is about a 3/4-inch gap between the bottom of the baseboard and the floor. Also, they installed the tiles around the toilets and filled the gaps with caulk. I have been told that the proper way to do this would have been to lift up the toilets, lay the tile underneath, then reset the toilets and caulk it.

They used gray caulk to "fill in the gap" between the original baseboard and the floor and around the base of the toilets. Needless to say, it looks tacky.

The floor in the kitchen looks ok, except for the sloppiness of how the rubber baseboards were installed. This I could probably fix myself, but what can I do about the bathrooms? Is it imperative that the tiles be installed under the toilets? Can I just move the wooden baseboards down to meet the floor or should I use something else, like a vinyl or rubber baseboard?

A. First, to deal with the poorly installed vinyl tile and messy grout used to fill in the gaps, find out where the tiles were purchased and buy as many as you will need to replace the short tiles around the perimeter of the bathroom and around the toilets with new tiles cut to the proper size.

While it would be nice to have the tile run under the toilet, it is not a necessity. If the floor is properly cleaned and sealed before the tiles are set they should stay in place. So you can decide whether to reinstall properly sized tiles up to the toilets, or remove the toilets before doing so.

Then you can decide for yourself whether to move the original wooden baseboards down to meet the floor or replace them with new rubber base. According to your taste, decide whether you prefer to replace the sloppy base in the kitchen with new wood or rubber base.

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