Wainscot is the partial paneling you see in some rooms, from the floor up to the level of a chair rail, which is approximately 40 inches high. Common in dining rooms, it protects the lower parts of the walls from wear and damage from the backs of chairs, and provides an added decorative scheme to the room. You can buy prefinished wainscot in beadboard, square panels or other styles. Install it in conjunction with new floor trim, which has to stand in front of the wainscot.
Instructions
1. Draw a horizontal line over the wall from end to end where you want the top of the wainscot to be, using a level and pencil. Make the line an inch or so higher than the actual dimension of the wainscoting sheets. If your wainscot is 40 inches tall, the line should be at 41 inches off the floor.
2. Locate each stud in the wall with an electronic stud finder and mark them all with a pencil. Put the marks just above the .
3. Hold the first piece of wainscot to the wall, at one end, with the top edge of the sheet lined up under the horizontal line. Get the wainscot sheet plumb, which means straight up and down, using a level, even if it leaves a gap along part of the vertical corner.
4. Secure the board by shooting nails with a trim nailer in vertical lines where the studs are located behind the sheet. Shoot the nails every foot or so.
5. Set the rest of the wainscot panels to the wall in the same manner, connecting them at their vertical sides by their tongue-and-groove edging. Use a table saw to cut the final piece so it fits against the far corner of the wall.
6. Repeat the process for each wall of the dining room, covering all of them.
7. Frame the wainscot with molding along the top to hide the upper edge of the wainscot, and with floor molding and inside corner trim along the bottom and sides of the walls, hiding the gaps there. Use a miter saw to cut the trim, angling it at 45 degrees to fit in the corners as needed.
Tags: horizontal line, chair rail, using level, wainscot with, wall with, with floor