Dado / Picture Rail

johnny_s

I'm deciding on some dado rail for a small room i'm redecorating, I've only ever seen wooden rails until today I seen this product from SF https://www.screwfix.com/p/dado-rails-40mm-x-2m-6-pack/4788j

Has anyone got experience in this type of rail? I'm looking for something basic, paintable and easy to work with / cut etc.

I need to be able to attach the rail with an adhesive, i'm not using nails or screws.

I've never installed dado rail before, and my carpentry skills are pretty basic - although I think I could do it.

Few questions;

- what's that SF product like / any other recommendations
- any tips for installing the rail
- what order should I do things (paint / install rail etc.)

I'm planning on having the rail around 12 inches from the roof. The lower part of the wall will be painted dark, the rail and the upper part will be white.

I've just bought a coping saw and angle block for cutting, now off to watch some youtube videos.

Any advice is welcomed!

spadoosh

Youve got this!

Plastic is usually very easy to shape and work with. It looks a similar material to floor beading which is easy enough to use.

As its plastic i cant imagine it will be too easy to paint. Id look at using spray paints in lots of layers.

No nails (or variants) should easily hold it. So bead of no nails, then loosely tack in a few panel pins to hold whilst it dries.

Measure twice, cut once. Use a decent level, a laser one would work well.

So if it was me using that, i would spray paint before fitting, then fit using no nails and panel pins. Touching up the small areas of damage from the nails.

Wood isnt hard, the issue i see with dado rails is that the quality of the wood is usually terrible with loads of warped pieces. If you go wood, just double check theyre as straight as possible.

Ebe_Scrooge

If it were me, I'd start off by marking with a pencil line where the rail is going to go - just mark roughly where the centre of it will lie. Then paint your wall - the join between the top and bottom parts doesn't need to be perfect as it'll be covered. Paint your dado rail separately, then put it up when it's dry. You then won't have the fiddle of trying to cut the paint in neatly.

When it comes to putting the rail up, it goes without saying that it needs to be perfectly level ........ or does it ? Been there, done that - my rail was absolutely dead-on perfect according to the spirit level, but it looked wrong. Then it dawned on me that the ceiling wasn't perfectly level. I think you're better off measuring down from the ceiling at regular intervals, then putting up the rail according to that. This means the rail may not necessarily be perfectly level, but it'll be parallel to the ceiling so it should look right. That's just my opinion, I'm no carpenter !

johnny_s

spadoosh wrote: »

Youve got this!

Plastic is usually very easy to shape and work with. It looks a similar material to floor beading which is easy enough to use.

As its plastic i cant imagine it will be too easy to paint. Id look at using spray paints in lots of layers.

No nails (or variants) should easily hold it. So bead of no nails, then loosely tack in a few panel pins to hold whilst it dries.

Measure twice, cut once. Use a decent level, a laser one would work well.

So if it was me using that, i would spray paint before fitting, then fit using no nails and panel pins. Touching up the small areas of damage from the nails.

Wood isnt hard, the issue i see with dado rails is that the quality of the wood is usually terrible with loads of warped pieces. If you go wood, just double check theyre as straight as possible.

I appreciate your confidence in my skills!I'm not sure if it is plastic? I'm really not sure what that material is. To be honest I might just go with mdf. I've seen primed mdf in homebase for around £5 for 8 feet.

The internal / external cuts are worrying! Think I need to practice my coping saw skills!

johnny_s

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

If it were me, I'd start off by marking with a pencil line where the rail is going to go - just mark roughly where the centre of it will lie. Then paint your wall - the join between the top and bottom parts doesn't need to be perfect as it'll be covered. Paint your dado rail separately, then put it up when it's dry. You then won't have the fiddle of trying to cut the paint in neatly.

When it comes to putting the rail up, it goes without saying that it needs to be perfectly level ........ or does it ? Been there, done that - my rail was absolutely dead-on perfect according to the spirit level, but it looked wrong. Then it dawned on me that the ceiling wasn't perfectly level. I think you're better off measuring down from the ceiling at regular intervals, then putting up the rail according to that. This means the rail may not necessarily be perfectly level, but it'll be parallel to the ceiling so it should look right. That's just my opinion, I'm no carpenter !

It's an old victorian terracce so the walls are far from perfect! I might go with your idea of making it parallel with the ceiling.

I removed dado rail so I can kind of see the lines were it used to be.

I don't have much room for painting the rails while they're off, so I dont think that will be an option I may have to put them up, then paint.

FreeBear

Mark a horizontal line from the floor. Do not rely on the ceiling being level and flat. Should you ever decide to use a patterned wallpaper on the walls, you'll quickly notice any "out of true" errors if you marked from the ceiling down.


When you come to do the internal joints, don't mitre them. Scribe the joints, and you won't have to worry so much about the walls being square. For further info, see - http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Scribed_Joints
Arrange the cutting & fitting so that you only need to scribe one end of each rail - You don't need to be millimetre perfect with lengths with scribed joints.

DorsetLad

At the height you're talking about, not far from the ceiling, it would be a picture rail that you would normally use, not a dado rail (which is placed at about waist height). There is a difference in their cross-sections.

[Deleted User]

Hi,


something like this,