Rugs, Carpets and Carpeting - Carpet or baseboards first??

We just finished tearing out our bedroom/bathroom walls (lathe & plaster), re-wiring, re-plumbing, hanging and finishing all the drywall and painting, and now we're ready for carpet!!! YAY!!! We were going to have it installed, but no one could come until next year, so I'm going to be learning how to do that as well (it's only a 9x12 room which will mostly be covered by our bed, so we're not TOO concerned about it.

My question is, should I put in the baseboard trim before I do the carpet and then put quarter round over that, or should I do the carpet first and then put up the baseboard??

Thanks!!!!

why use quarter rounds?
I would install the baseboard first. if you install carpet first, and the tackstrip is too close, then the baseboards will pinch the carpet, causing problems down the road.
leave the baseboards about 1/4 inch above the floor. unless you are doing glue down commercial with no pad.

I found a site describing installing carpet that said quarter round was a good "shoe molding."
http://www.rona.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/rona/project_steps.jsp?assetNo=1072&sectionId=111&nodeId=38_61&langId=-1&storeId=10001

So, would it make sense/be easier to use a piece of scrap baseboard to guage the distance for the tack strips, put the carpet in and then nail the baseboards down against the carpet? I'm thinking it would be easier to cut the carpet and get it tight against the walls before putting up the baseboards, but I haven't done either before, so I'm just guessing...

Thanks for the advice!!!

Hmm...I just found another site saying to take all the baseboards and shoe molding up before laying carpet:
http://houseandhome.msn.com/Improve/LayingCarpet1010.aspx

After reading a few more posts, I guess as long as you're not really mashing the baseboards down onto the new carpet so it's impossible to remove later, and not nailing the tack strips too close to the wall, it seems to be a matter of personal preference. Then again, I could totally be missing another reason to do it this way...

Thanks!

Nevermind, upon further reading, it just says remove the "baseboard shoe moldings" NOT the baseboards...

You have the concept, better then most DIY'ers.

Either way you do it you have right ideas.

I have had to lay carpet many times, when the baseboards were not installed yet. They were affraid, because the last carpet they had installed, the installer beat the crud out of the baseboards and they had to be replaced. I don't blame them. There are many more hacks running around, then there are true knowledgeable and skilled professionals.

I used a scrap of the base to space my tackstrip out and have the proper space from the base (3/8") As long as they don't cram the base as tight as they can against the carpet, you will have no problems removing it later.

It is when they cram the base on top of the tackstrip, because it wasn't spaced out far enough, that causes the problems.