Info on raised panel wainscoting?

[joe milana]

I am looking for books or online info on doing a raised panel hardwood wainscoting as pictured below and am not having much luck. I did find a DVD by Katz, but not sure I want to drop $85.
Is this style typically shop or site built in sections (like building a large cabinet door) and carried to place, or built directly on the wall? Any suggestions would be helpful!

[Bob Carreiro]

1) Taunton's "Finish Carpentry" (from Fine Homebuilders) $17.95
2) Creative Homeowner's "Trimwork" (by Jay Silber) $19.95

Both are good sources. The job in your pic is easily built onsite, including the panels.

[Michael MacDonald]

NYW did a whole show on this... I wish I could remember exactly how he built it--it was only a few months ago. aaargh.

[Will Rowland]

I just completed a very similar project on one of our rental properties (where I practice my skills before tackling the same projects on my house!).

It was my first time doing raised-panel wainscoting, and I did it entirely onsite (assembling everything "on the wall") with a 12" CMS, a Festool TS55, a biscuit joiner, a 16 ga nailer and a router.

I basically taught myself how to do it by reading the above-referenced Taunton "Finish Carpentry" book as well as the Taunton book "Trim Carpentry and Built-ins".

[Vince Shriver]

MLCS has a video that shows installing the rails & stiles.

[Prashun Patel]

In my experience wainscoting is typically site-built - on the wall: Panels, then rails, then stiles, then cap rail, then panel trim. Most often it's done as a built-up series of 1x stock and trim molding. Since yr not creating floating panels, the construction is pretty straightforward.

The Creative Homeowner book "Decorating With Architectural Trimwork" was really helpful to me.

Another great source is the Family Handyman. They've done several wainscoting projects in the past few years that are surprisingly easy but solidly constructed.

[joe milana]

Thanks for the ideas. Most of what I am finding uses simple joinery and bolection moldings. That technique seems pretty straight forward. Assembling cope & stick joints and fitting multiple floating panels "on the wall" seems umpredictable at best. I'm headed to the library...

[joe milana]

[QUOTE=Shawn Patel;1438405] Since yr not creating floating panels, the construction is pretty straightforward.

But the picture in my OP has floating panels, doesn't it?

[Prashun Patel]

Oh, I see that the panels are actually RAISED - not recessed or faux. I had to look hard to get that. The way I described was the poorman's technique of making the panels recessed.

[Joe Chritz]

I would probably assemble them in the field to make it easier to transport. That or build in sections in the shop and make the last connections in the field.

This would be a good place to use a Hot melt polyurethane glue. I use the Hi-Purformer system. Even the 30 second variety (which sets in about 20 seconds) is very strong and would work very well here.

I think the finishing would be a bigger challenge in the field than the actual assembly.

Joe

[Phil Thien]

For the amount of work you're going to do, and the amount of materials involved, I think I'd drop the $85 on the video, and get every other video, too.

One tip from a video that makes the job go more smoothly or saves some time may be worth multiple times what you pay for the video.

[Thomas love]

I have done Wainscoting most of the ways described here. My favorite is to layout the whole wall like a cab face frame , pocket hole it together , rabbit the back of each opening. After that i cut my panels and staple or pin them in from the back then pin the frame to the wall. If you are using a panel mould this way is very nice, as you do not have to deal with bad walls.
If you wan the profile of a cope and stick set up this pocket hole method will work as well. Make sure you lay out for or move the outlets to where you want them in the paneled area. Good luck.
tom

[joe milana]

I have done Wainscoting most of the ways described here. My favorite is to layout the whole wall like a cab face frame , pocket hole it together , rabbit the back of each opening. After that i cut my panels and staple or pin them in from the back then pin the frame to the wall. If you are using a panel mould this way is very nice, as you do not have to deal with bad walls.
If you wan the profile of a cope and stick set up this pocket hole method will work as well. Make sure you lay out for or move the outlets to where you want them in the paneled area. Good luck.
tom

Tom, this is the technique I had in mind. I have already laid everything out on the wall, all stiles and rails are cut and coped. I'm just not sure I would be able to assemble it like a giant door and not end up with a mess.
I like the idea of rabbiting the backs as opposed to attempting to fit all the panels into the sticking groove. Much easier!
I was also wondering if I could use a pocket screw on a cope/stick joint. You say this will work? I have never tried it.

[Ben Abate]

Joe,
I have did a bit of this before, I have built them on site and as one big unit. I have a wall in my home that I did as one unit. Built it like a raised panel cabinet door. It's about 18 feet long. I'll have to say it was a bit of a bear to handle but it went in really nice. I shimmed it out about 1.5 inches from the wall, that way you can put a nice top rail on it with crown under it. What was nice is that I was able to glue the corners in the shop.

What else I liked about doing it in one piece is that I could finish it and then bring it to the site and install it. Granted you have to borrow a trailer or something like a box truck but the finish turns out grate this way. What else helps is if you can find a sawyer that has long lenghts of what ever wood you're considering. I had found a guy for this one project that had 15 to 18 foot lenghts of cherry and he wouldn't sell them unless someone to use them in those lenghts. But no less, you can always splice rails and top caps

hope this helps a bit.

[Thomas love]

Pocket holes will work just fine with Cope and stick, make sure to keep your pocket holes out of the path of your router when you do the rabbits.

Upon second thought If you have done the c&s already I would not do the rabbit. just assemble styles to bottom rail with pocket screws (no glue necessary with C&S) drop panels in and fasten with screws. Coping the end of those long top and bottom rails can be challenging.
tom

[Frank Drew]

I'd do as much as possible in the shop, saving time on the on-site installation.

Another reason I preferred making free-standing furniture to doing built-ins -- the less time I spend working all bent over down on my knees (fitting pieces, nailing in trim, etc.), the better.

[joe milana]

I'd do as much as possible in the shop, saving time on the on-site installation.

Another reason I preferred making free-standing furniture to doing built-ins -- the less time I spend working all bent over down on my knees (fitting pieces, nailing in trim, etc.), the better.

Agreed Frank, As I said, I have all the pieces cut, coped, and sticked. the question at this point is:

1. Do I install the bottom rail, then a corner stile, then a panel, then the next stile, then repeat until finished, then install the top rail. (as suggested in some of the literature) Or...

2. Assemble the entire unit like a giant raised panel door upside down on the floor (using pocket screws), then stand the unit up and install.

Option 2 seems like the way to go but will require some careful measurements and maybe some trial and error to get corner joints to fit.

[David Keller NC]

Tom, this is the technique I had in mind. I have already laid everything out on the wall, all stiles and rails are cut and coped. I'm just not sure I would be able to assemble it like a giant door and not end up with a mess.
I like the idea of rabbiting the backs as opposed to attempting to fit all the panels into the sticking groove. Much easier!
I was also wondering if I could use a pocket screw on a cope/stick joint. You say this will work? I have never tried it.

Joe - Not sure if this is relevant to your job, but traditional frame and panel wainscoting isn't made like a door - with floating, rasied panels captured in grooves in the rails and stiles. Instead, it's built up as others have noted, with the panels nailed to the walls and the rails and stiles rabbeted on the back edges and laid over the raised panels. An alternative to the 18th century method of nailing the panels to the wall framing members that might suit modern tastes is simply to fix the panels in place with a touch of hot-melt glue in the center of the back, then capture the edges with rabbetted stiles and rails held to the wall with screws that are then plugged.

[Charles Brown]

Joe - Not sure if this is relevant to your job, but traditional frame and panel wainscoting isn't made like a door - with floating, rasied panels captured in grooves in the rails and stiles. Instead, it's built up as others have noted, with the panels nailed to the walls and the rails and stiles rabbeted on the back edges and laid over the raised panels. An alternative to the 18th century method of nailing the panels to the wall framing members that might suit modern tastes is simply to fix the panels in place with a touch of hot-melt glue in the center of the back, then capture the edges with rabbetted stiles and rails held to the wall with screws that are then plugged.

David, I didn't know that. I had just assumed that the paneling was built like doors given similar features such as pegged tenons. Maybe that assumption just follows along with my overbuilding of items that, in fact, so really just be more simply made.

I can't really find paneling or wainscoting in Ellis' Modern Practical Joinery and have always been stumped on the issue. Has anyone written more thoroughly on this subject? Underhill, maybe?

[joe milana]

Joe - Not sure if this is relevant to your job, but traditional frame and panel wainscoting isn't made like a door - with floating, rasied panels captured in grooves in the rails and stiles. Instead, it's built up as others have noted, with the panels nailed to the walls and the rails and stiles rabbeted on the back edges and laid over the raised panels. An alternative to the 18th century method of nailing the panels to the wall framing members that might suit modern tastes is simply to fix the panels in place with a touch of hot-melt glue in the center of the back, then capture the edges with rabbetted stiles and rails held to the wall with screws that are then plugged.

Good info David. Does this mean the walls were "firred" out, or some kind of solid wood backing was used to nail to, or was it laid out so every stile lands on a stud?

[David Keller NC]

Well, from a traditional perspective, the walls underneath were firred with strips used to hold a mixture of horsehair and plaster to the walls. The wainscoting and chair rail were nailed to these strips, and the wall above was plastered then white-washed. This results in someting that looks "wrong" to our modern eye, in that the surface of the wainscoting is actually inset from the surface of the wall above.

Of course, most modern finish carpenters do something a bit different since wallboard is usually directly attached to the studs floor-to-ceiling, so the wainscoting and chair rail are usually through-nailed to the studs underneath. I've seen installations where the aspect of 18th-century work was desired, and the wall above the chair rail had an extra layer of drywall attached so that the wainscoting was inset.

If I was doing this in a modern house, I would attach two horizontal firing strips along the wall so that the top and bottom center of the panels could be nailed to this strip, and the rails and stiles attached over the panels with recessed screws that were then plugged and filled. But that's probably not the only way - there might be a means of attaching the rails and stiles to the wall so that plugs don't show.

[joe milana]

I always like to stay as traditional as practical, but this house is 1949, so not exactly "historical", but a nice house none the less. The walls are what I call "plaster over drywall". I could cut two channels around the perimeter and inset nailers, but man what a mess...

[Thomas love]

Agreed Frank, As I said, I have all the pieces cut, coped, and sticked. the question at this point is:

1. Do I install the bottom rail, then a corner stile, then a panel, then the next stile, then repeat until finished, then install the top rail. (as suggested in some of the literature) Or...

2. Assemble the entire unit like a giant raised panel door upside down on the floor (using pocket screws), then stand the unit up and install.

Option 2 seems like the way to go but will require some careful measurements and maybe some trial and error to get corner joints to fit.



Joe the only critical measurement is inside to inside, go a hair big then block plane to fit the same way you would scribe a built in cabinet. Make sure you add add to the end styles for the overlap of the next section.

Here are some shots of an 18 century installation, the panels were all hand carved by Paul Labadie of Dallas Texas. The panels are all over lapped and hang on French cleats.
The walnut paneling is all pocket holed frames with walnut veneer on mdf then and applied mouldings. After you look as these pics your job will seem easy :) You can do it.