Frames in Wainscoting

[Scott Welty]

I have a customer who would like to detail the wainscoting in dinning room (just flat wall now between chair rail and base molding) with frames. Something like this:

http://www.gardenstatelumber.com/build-ups/es8-chair-rail-pl134-panel-bb6-base/

I've read a couple of different methods about this. One is to build the frames and then nail glue to wall. Another is to nail/glue the pieces one by one on the wall. The walls are drywall. Final result will be painted. I saw one where the pieces were glued up and then taped to the wall with painter's tape. I could make nice mitered corners/frames in the shop but these are going to be pretty flimsy for transportation. So, I'm leaning toward the piece by piece assembly after laying out the wall.

Interested in opinions on what glue and general approach here.

[Bill Orbine]

I cut and assemble panel moldings at the job site. I assemble frames on floor or bench using wood glue at the miters with tape/pin nails and put aside to cut and assemble more frames. Then I go back to frame #1 and attach to wall using Loctite Power Grab on back of frames and a few pin nails to tack and hold so frames does not slide down. Caulk gaps and fill nails hole, ready to paint.

[Mel Fulks]

I prefer the piece by piece method. Looks like a standard bolection mould with thick side out, they were used both ways .My preference is usually thick side in. That profile needs to be bought from someone who is not too lazy to properly sharpen the knives. "Without good crisp detail ....that look will fail...". The easier the machines get to operate the lazier the operators get.

[Mark Patoka]

I installed frames in my foyer and built them piece by piece. It was just as easy to nail them and then fill in the holes and any gaps. It was also easier to put in the frames going up the steps where I had different angles. Everything was painted afterwards.

To make it easy, I made some scrap spacers, like 4" wide (or whatever the distance was) that I could then butt up against the chair rail and wall corner so I just had to then hold up the piece and nail it. It was then perfectly spaced and either horizontal or vertical. Made installation a bit easier.

[Peter Quinn]

My approach would depend on your skill set, your tool set, and site conditions. Is there room to work? If there is no reasonable place to set up and cut pieces I'd be inclined to manufacture as much as possible off site. It requires careful planning, but it can make installation a breeze. If you tongue and groove inside corners all those seems disappear easily. If I were building on site I'd manufacture parts as much as possible in the shop, leave base wide to scribe, keep the foundation base 3/4" off the floor to avoid irregularities, it's getting covered. You could even run a square edge cope and stick and just do layout on site, glue and pin, or butts and pocket screws. Is the wall the back of are you using panels? Frames on drywall aren't quite as nice to my eye but a lot less square feet of material to contend with if budget requires.


Last shop I was in did an entire house of floor to ceiling wainscot , required very careful planning, looked great and went in relatively easily so site was freed up to do finishes quickly. The carpenters doing the install made a few transitional panels on site, looked just as good when finished, just a different approach. Most important thing is to sketch your elevations and a quick section in profile, line up your molding supplier, bid it so you don't loose. Many times I've been asked to produce a one foot wide sample full height with all the moldings as a control sample/sign off/ shop aid/color sample. Makes sure everybody is on same page.

[Matt Day]

I installed these last year. I did one piece at a time and was glad I did. I prepainted full sticks, cut miters, marked out the stud locations, marked my layout, applied liquid nails, put on wall with 16g nail gun at studs if possible, caulked (a lot where drywall was not flat).

[keith micinski]

No need to find the studs glue and caulk will hold these frames up for life. Either way will work but building a frame first usually gives you the best corner joints

[Tom M King]

324792I built this coffered ceiling with PowerGrab and MDF. It does have some angled 2x4s under the beveled parts of the panels, which are individual pieces. I didn't want to deal with so many nail holes to fill, so it's just stuck together with PowerGrab. It's our 16 x 24 TV room ten foot ceiling, and there are 12 coffers- 3 one way, by 4 the other, so they're pretty good sized. I assembled the coffers in the shop, and used a couple of sheetrock lifts to get them up there. It's 8 years old, and still just fine.

[Matt Day]

Glue and caulk will hold them, but I found that hitting a stud helped suck the frame flat.

[Jerry Miner]

I would make up the frames first, on the bench, with Collins clamps (for tighter joints):


324799

Panel adhesive (or even latex caulk has worked for me) and pin-nails. Hitting a stud once in a while is good, but not necessary.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Interested in opinions on what glue and general approach here.
I used to use paint (plain old latex enamel or wall paint) as the "glue" & brad nails (18 ga).
The squeeze out becomes a positive thing that way. You just brush it out & it fills a lot of the tiny gaps.

Paint has a tremendous amount of "holding power" as an adhesive. as anyone who's had to pry open an older can of paint can attest to.

I quit doing it that way, not because it didn't work but because I can't get down on the floor anymore to work on the individual pieces.

[Scott Welty]

Thanks to all! Since I have those little spring clips and have had some success using them for other frames I think I'll go with making the frames on site on a nice flat board and then glue/nail them up.

Always really appreciate the advice I get here!!

Scott

[Tom Ewell]

might also consider the use of V nails to fasten and hold the miters together
http://www.rockler.com/ezy-framer-v-nail-installation-tool