Pre-Tack the Whole Room and Scribe Every Baseboard at Once

The Problem

Scribing baseboard to the floor one piece at a time works, but every piece is its own measure-scribe-cut-refit cycle — and outside corners add a second problem, because the two mitered pieces have to land at exactly the same height or the miter steps. On a whole house of base, piece-at-a-time scribing is where the schedule goes.

The Technique

1. Cut and fit all the base for the room first, mitering the outside corners with the pieces cut to follow the wall angles.
2. Tack everything up at once — a brad in each piece, whole room, all at a uniform height. Pre-tacking is what guarantees both halves of every outside miter sit at exactly the same height.
3. Run a step scribe along the floor across every piece in the room. His scribe tool carries eight offsets in 1/16" steps, so the scribe rides the floor's waves and marks each board with its own contour line.
4. Pull the base off, pull the brads, and rip to the scribe lines on the table saw.
5. Bring it all back: glue the miter joints, then nail everything off — finding studs with a stud finder rather than nailing blind near pipe territory.

The result is base tight to the floor along its whole run and outside miters that close like furniture — no shoe molding covering gaps.