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Installing beadboard panelling as wainscotting

6K views 32 replies 10 participants last post by  KarenSB 
#1 ·
Hello,

I am renovating my bathroom in an old century home and am using 4' x 8' sheets of beadboard panelling for the wainscotting. The walls of the bathroom have been gyprocked and primed. I am ready to install the beadboard. It is my intention to cut the panelling into 4' x 4' sheets ~ as the wainscotting will run 48 inches up from the floor (give or take for levelling). It is my intention to install the panelling with the factory edge at the top; the top will be covered with chair rail, the bottom will be covered with baseboard. It is my thought that the best way to install the panelling is to apply PLP Premium adhesive to the back of the beadboard and then afix with a nail gun or finish nails.

The design of the panelling is a series of vertical strips ~ 2" wide followed by 3/8 wide, 2", 3/8", 2", 3/8", etc, etc, etc. You get the idea......

My question is two-fold: a) Where do I put the first sheet of beadboard and b) what do I do at the seams and corners? The walls of my bathroom are approximately 6 feet long (not exact). I want the width of the corner "strip" to be exactly 2". That is, if one board ends, say, 1.5" into a 2" strip, I want to cut the adjacent board so there is 0.5" of a strip butting up against it so that, to the eye, the pattern of 2, 3/8, 2, 3/8, 2, 3/8, etc, etc. is not interrupted. [Of course, if you see 1.5" of a strip at the end of one wall, that strip of beadboard is ACTUALLY wider than that (for example, it would be 1.75" if the beadboard butting up against it is 1/4" thick).

So..... to make the cleanest cuts (I'm really, really novice at renovating), should I use a table saw or a skil saw with a guide? Should I pick one corner to start at a factory edge ~ thereby making all other corners at variable positions of the vertical strips OR should I find the middle of each wall and centre a full sheet on each, thereby making all corner the same appearance? (The second choice would seem like a far more professional, consistent approach ~ just more work, more seams, more waste.) Maybe there is another way I haven't thought of?

I hope I have asked my question well; I think it seems kind of confusing but I'm thinking if anyone out there actually knows what I'm talking about then you know what you are doing (if you know what I mean).

Thank you very kindly for any input you have to offer!
Karen
 
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#3 ·
I use Loc Tite Power Grab not PL. Some reasons being is it's water clean up, and does no need to be off gassed.
If to cut the pieces 32" instead of 48 you can get three pieces out of one sheet.
Before cutting I look around the room and check for the heights of the back side of the sink, any window apron's I have to work around ECT. Then decide how to cut it.
Floors are never perfectly flat or level so lift the panels about 1/2" up off the floors.
Start the first panel in the middle of the wall and work your way out so the cuts on the ends are close to even.
All seams must fall in the middle of a stud.
By using an adhesive the only nails you need will be just a few in the middle of the seam/ The top and bottom will be held in place with the trim.
The first piece must be perfectly plumb, or all the other pieces will be off.
The two end pieces will need to be scribed in, done right there's no need for inside corner trim which is a sure way to know a first timer did it.
I put the glue about 2" in from the outside edges so none squirts out and in a big S pattern in the middle. Once the piece has been stuck to the wall tack one seam and use a hand floor roller (a rolling pin will work) to spread out the glue.
A table saw with a plywood blade would be the best way to cut it, good side up.
I like to sand prime and paint the panels before installing. I never use MDF panels, the prefinished ones are trash and will fail. I use the real wood Burch panels.
 
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#13 · (Edited)
Joe how does a level help setting chair rail if the house has leaned 30 degrees over its lifetime. Plumb bobs and levels, even laser ones are gravity based I hope.

If you draw a level line in a tilted antique home, it has to be off. The chair rail may end up level but to Earth gravity. The the darn house has not been level in over a hundred years.

The angle of just the house settling will make chair rail and beanboard look nothing short of stupid unless you "fan" (new word I like for it) out. Joe, you have to adjust for the difference as you go. Nobody will notice fudging chair rail to adjust for the 30 degree difference between your level and reality. Nobody will notice beanboard trimmed along the entire course of the run. Unless you leave it to the end.

Leave it to work out at the floor or wall edges? Heaven help you. Make believe nobody will notice a perfect run of level chair rail in a house that has tipped?

They will notice in a heartbeat if you did not correct what your level says to what you have. Perfectly level chair rail and plumb bob proven beanboard. Crammed into a home that is no longer level or plumb, and has not been in a century, looks blazingly stupid.

You have to measure. And then even things out.
 
#2 ·
I would not use the PL glue. I just bought a house and I am redoing a bedroom. I went to remove the molding so I could spackle, paint and then add nicer molding. As I tried to remove the molding I realized the previous owner did not nail it. He just put a generous heaping of glue on it. As I removed it I also removed half the sheetrock. Fortunately it was a 3 inch molding. I will now cover this ugliness with 6 inch base molding. Imagine if you ever decide to remove the wainscoting
 
#4 ·
Thanks for your great input! I'm especially glad to read your comment about the corner trim.... everyone's been telling me to use corner trim but my instincts were that the trim (like the over use of caulking) is used to cover-up something that should have been done differently (properly) in the first place.

It has occured to me since posting my question though, that since none of the walls will be plumb, I still won't end up with my perfect 2", 3/8", 2" etc. pattern because the corner might be 1.9" at the top of the wainscotting and 2.3" at the bottom. But I'll get it as close as I can.

Much appreciation!
Karen
 
#5 ·
No one will notice but you.
There's nothing wrong with your idea of having it 48" if that's what you want but often times it makes it harder around the windows.
 
#6 ·
I've learned (from selling my previous house) that little details I find horrific are often not even noticed by others; so I smiled when I read "no one will notice but you". Too true. But it would still drive me nuts.

The window is very long and narrow ~ begins about 17" up from the floor. But the receptacles and light switches are all above 48" so I'm avoiding a lot of hassle with that. The only thing I don't like is that the window casing butts right into the corner and therefore I'll have to either cope the adjacent chair rail up against it (difficult) or have it butt up against the casing square..... Either way it will look weird. But I guess that's why these old houses have "character".

Cheers everyone, and happy renos to you all!
Karen
 
#7 ·
The problem with setting and working from a plumb bob in an antique home is that odds of it looking well when you hit the wall corners are slim to not possible. On top of all else, I can guarantee you the house has settled over the course of its lifetime. Level, plumb and even square may no longer mean anything.

You have to measure and decide where you are going to adjust. Then measure again and remember the sick joke. If you cut it too short, you can always cut it again. Measure all walls and top to bottom, side to side. Then string your measuring tape diagonally. You will, I promise, end up with a trapezoid, not a nice rectangle.

Good tilers and even decent wood flooring people find this almost second nature. They know where to add or substract over the course of the flooring so it matches the wall edges. You will never notice there adjustments.

If you plumb bob and place vertical panels like what you have in mind, and build off it, you will not like the corners or the chair moulding you finish it with.
 
#8 ·
Once I worked with this hippy dude I hired. This is a before and interim picture of a Victorian bath restoration. He got this bright idea in his head that maybe hanging bead board vertically was not the way to do it. So, without my permission, he nailed it up horizontally. Clients loved it. It solved our plumb and antique wall corner situation and I thought it looked really nice when finished.

I sent the antique tub out for refinishing. New owners of the renovated Victorian suggested I come over for a bath some day. I never bath or shower.
 

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#9 ·
I'm not sure I follow what you've said.

I need to ensure the top of the wainscotting is level, yes?

So then, do I put one "full" sheet in the middle of the wall but ~ depending on how far out of plumb the wall are ~ maybe angle the virtical edges instead of keeping them factory straight. Thus, little adjustment by little adjustment, by the time I get to the corners, it won't be such a stark contrast between the width at the top and the width at the bottom.

Is that what you mean? I think that's what you mean.

I helped someone build a (virtical) plank fence once and we had to "fan" out the boards at the bottom from the middle of the fence outward so that there wouldn't be a huge gap at the bottom of the last board.

Karen
 
#10 · (Edited)
I'm not sure I follow what you've said.

I need to ensure the top of the wainscotting is level, yes?

So then, do I put one "full" sheet in the middle of the wall but ~ depending on how far out of plumb the wall are ~ maybe angle the virtical edges instead of keeping them factory straight. Thus, little adjustment by little adjustment, by the time I get to the corners, it won't be such a stark contrast between the width at the top and the width at the bottom.

Is that what you mean? I think that's what you mean.

I helped someone build a (virtical) plank fence once and we had to "fan" out the boards at the bottom from the middle of the fence outward so that there wouldn't be a huge gap at the bottom of the last board.

Karen
I think you have it. You do not want your beadboard or whatever looking goofy where it meets the corners. You have to measure, and then measure again and not rely on a plumb bob as reference in an old home. A plumb bob, if you have a nice one, will only drop straight down. If you were to measure from its string to your walls you would see how much your are off.

Fanning out the difference you you need is not bad way of thinking about this. And why not fencing as an analogy. Nothing looks worse to me but fencing that ends with a board near the house end, 1" at the top and 6" at the bottom.

What you don't want is beadbord with a strip 1/2" the top and 2" at the bottom at corners.

Again, good flooring guys spot and instinctively know where they are going to trim tiles or wood so it looks like they laid it square to the walls of a room.

And Karen, is your house still level? Then know you do not want to trust a level much. If your house is leaning, the best of levels, and a plumb bob, will anchor you to gravity and the Earth. But if your house is leaning 30 degrees off to one corner your level will only strike a straight line irrelevant to your house. It has to be 30 degrees off?

Measure Karen, up, down, sideways and diagonally. Fan out the difference and your beadboard project will look great. If you have 4 inches of problems overall, you rent or buy a table saw and and buy trim 1/8" or even 1/32" as my cabinet making father taught me over the course of our live together. You corners will be perfect and nobody but us on this site will ever see or recognize your fanning technique. I promise.

Trim it all out with chair type moulding that matches your floor to ceiling dimensions, and not your level.
 
#12 ·
If that chair rail is not set level and the beads in the panels are not plumb, it's going to stick out like a sore thumb.
Far more then an inside corner cut at a slight taper.
I can just walk into a room where the DIY measured from the floor up or from the ceiling down and see that's it's off.
Do not expect you to, but I often use my self leveling lazar level when setting chair rail and wainscot.
Installing it horizontal makes it look like the old Car siding.
Nothing wrong with it as long as the rooms shorter then 8' or you use 2-1/4 X 3/8 T & G strips not panels that are only 8' long.
 
#29 ·
Level to Floor vs Level to Ceiling



I see where you're coming from, but being inside a room where you can't see the horizon, your eyes start to find other references for what constitutes level. Your inner ear won't tell you if a chair rail isn't level with gravity. Consider the image below...which one looks better? Of course, every job is different, and there are times when level-with-gravity is best. You're right that there are some instances when a noobie measures by the ceiling and everything looks out of whack.

 
#14 ·
Karen, I have bead board paneling in my hallway very similar to your description.
The groove design on mine is beveled at an angle. If you attempt to taper the sheet vertically on the factory edge- you will loose the bead width and detail or will need to add the bevel back into the pattern.
I don't recommend this but instead hang the sheet plumb and work to the corners- make the adjustment, if any at the corner.
Again, once you rip the vertical edge- you will have a hard time replicating it with only limited tools.
 
#16 ·
For some reason, I was thinking 35-38 inches was the accepted installed height of chair rail. After all the straight back chairs were supposed to hit it and not damage the walls. Right?

I have installed it the past, but that was years ago and I have slept many times since then. :)
 
#17 ·
That height sounds right to me. All I and others are hinting is that it will look stupid if you only use a level and especially in an antique home. The level and a plumb bob will give you perfectly straight lines to gravity. Horizontal and vertical. The home you are working on is no longer level and plumb, I promise.

Last total renovation I did? Walls, ceilings were perfectly square after more than 100 years. The thing leaned (polite way of saying it sank) 30 degrees to one corner over its lifetime. Had I placed beadboard or chair rail with level and plumb bob it would have looked beyond strange.

New chair rail at 35-38 inches set in their antique home along a perfect level line defined by gravity would have made my clients very upset.

Why are people so anxious to ignore measuring tapes these days?
 
#18 ·
I still use a level in an older home but adjust for out of level walls/floors accordingly as determined by level. it is what I call splitting the difference and not following the out of levelness exactly but making the end result somewhat level... find the low spot in the room up from the floor and make that your starting point for the wainscoat and cut the difference out from the bottom of your pieces in the rest of the room. if a wall is 1/2" out of plumb in corner figure 1/4" out for your piece or something similar to that...
 
#19 ·
Thanks Eplumber for the point about ripping it/matching it. It would be next to impossible (with my tools and skill level) to create a "seamless" appearance if I taper the vertical edge. I hadn't thought of that. And there is nothing I dislike worse than ugly carpentry. (Btw. is this considered "carpentry" or is "carpentry" exclusive to, like, making kitchen cabinets? Just a question.)

And while I'm on the subject of ripping, why does my circular saw buck when I am cutting? It scares the bejeezus out of me! I am cutting 1/4" plywood, didn't hit a knot. I'm definitely NOT using that saw to make any intricate cuts. Yeesh!

As for the height of the chair rail... rightly, I should not have titled my post to suggest I was using the beadboard as WAINSCOTTING. I should have said "wall covering". I'm not intending it to be a traditional wainscotting height.... there are no chairs in my bathroom (it is 6' x 6'), it is simply decorative. =)

Regarding the issue of level v.s. measure.... I haven't installed it yet, so I can't say for sure (although I did put up level wainscotting/chair rail/baseboard in a VERY unlevel bathroom before ~ off by 4 inches). But I live on a very hilly peice of property, and when I stand on a lean (one can't help but stand on a lean on my property) I still see a level horizon. I expect to see a level horizon.

I'm not grasping why I would want to measure instead of level. I mean, I understand the concept of what folks are saying, but my brain is resisting it. Again, I haven't installed it yet, so I can't be sure. But it seems to me that I want to see a level chair rail/wainscotting/baseboard when I walk into my bathroom no matter how out of plumb it is. What am I missing?

Thanks, Karen
 
#20 ·
@Karen...do you have your saw set so the cutting depth is slightly more than the thickness of the material you are cutting? That should help.

You could also use a sheet of foam insulation under the panel to support it and just cut into it as you make your cut.

Hope this helps.
Mike
 
#24 · (Edited)
as mentioned, the blade a 1/4" to 1/2" deeper than cut material and make sure the middle does not settle after the cut is made binding the blade. you create an 1/8" kerf with the saw and if it is middle heavy the material can fall back into the 1/8" kerf and bind the blade. I use a block or 2x under the material following the direction of cut but not directly under the blade usually placed under the side that I am going to be using and let the drop (left over) fall off as it will.

a good set up for cutting ply is two saw horses, two 8' studs run from saw horse to saw horse and another 4' stud to put under the cut to keep the middle of piece up in the air while cutting. or even a piece of ply on top of 8' studs for a cut table and the 4' stud to put under the cut each time with a 4' level and framers square to help lay out the cut lines and/or a chalk line...
 
#25 ·
That's very helpful thank you! So, when you are cutting something that wide (obviously you can't walk through the plywood to stay close to the saw), do you cut towards the middle then go to the other side and cut towards the middle again. Leaning and stretching seems unsafe (I'm only 5'4") but I'm just wanting to learn the proper way to do things.

Cheers, Karen
 
#26 ·
If I were you, I would get a piece of stock (3/4 thick board or plywood) that is straight and a pair of C clamps. When you have your panel measured, clamp the board to the panel as a straight edge guide and let the shoe of the circular saw follow it. You'll get a much nicer, straighter cut than trying to free hand cut along a line. I never saw in from both sides. I push the saw through the cut as far as possible, let it coast to a stop, then walk around and pull the saw the rest of the way. If your panel is properly supported and you use a guide, it should not bind. Set the blade depth so that it just cuts through the stock. A couple of reasons. Your saw blade strikes the material at a much steeper angle. You get the maximum number of teeth doing the cutting, so the gullets between the teeth keep the cut cleaner, and you have the minimum amount of blade behind the cutting teeth dragging on the sides of the cut. A circular saw will buck far sooner if it is set too deep. As soon as the saw wanders slightly off of a straight line the rear of the blade will contact the sides of the stock and try to lift out of the cut.

Finally, be careful. I'm convinced that a hand held circular saw is the most dangerous tool that I use. All the power of a stationary saw, but all under hand control and I can't even see the bottom of the blade.
 
#27 ·
Finally, be careful. I'm convinced that a hand held circular saw is the most dangerous tool that I use. All the power of a stationary saw, but all under hand control and I can't even see the bottom of the blade.
I grew up when radial arm saws were the rage. You could crosscut, rip and do even cut mitres with the things, as you can with some chop saws. The one where I designed and built landscape stuff was huge. Carbide tipped blade about 36 or 48" in diameter, three phase so it seldom faltered with power and would not kick back often.

People forget where there fingers are in relation to any power saw blade.

Most dangerous I ever used? Chainsaw. Heats up if you don't lube the blade and when you are making it by the pieces you cut and not the hours you work? You race it.

I agree with you though. I don't understand why anyone would trust a battery powered circular saw. The corded ones are bad enough but at least stay torqued and work if the blades are sharp. Many a great carpenter has lost a finger on a table saw too though.

The other problem with DIYers is most think they can never dull a blade. There is nothing more dangerous than a dull blade. People buy a knew one if the same that came with the saw is still on it or ship it out to the sharpener to be trimmed and retipped if carbide. And use blades that match the works.

The saw blades that come shipped with saws are usually the last ones you should be using for your tasks.
 
#31 · (Edited)
@Karen...Thought about you today. I bought some plywood and took a couple of pics as I cut it down to manageable size.

Although I used a track saw, the same applies to a circular saw and a guide. I have the foam insulation under the plywood and the blade set about a 1/4 inch deeper than the wood.

Hope this helps.
Mike
 

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#33 ·
They say a picture is worth a thousand words..... well, I grasped in an instant what you'all have been trying to tell me (from sdsester on) about level vs measure and about raising my plywood up onto another sheet of plywood/2x4/styrofoam to cut it.

Thank you Carp Enter for taking the time to draw out the pictures of the level wainscotting in the crooked little house. My brain finally gets it now! And thank you as well MT Stringer for bothering to think of me and set up your cutting station and send in pics. My cuts never look that smooth (not yet, anyway!!).

You folks on this forum are so helpful. I am really learning a lot and I will keep coming back here for your guidance. I appreciate how there are so many different voices chiming in. It makes for a more comprehensive picture of the task.

Have a wonderful day, wherever you are! Karen
 
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