I have a one-story stairway that I’d like to dress up a bit. As it is now, it is just plaster with painted ugly wallpaper. One idea LOML and I agreed to was to run wainscoting along the one wall, continued into the landing areas. The problem I have is that the wall is a common wall (rowhome) with a plaster veneer (unknown thickness) over concrete block. How do we attach the proposed wainscot to the wall?
We are thinking some form of rail/stile/panelized wainscot, as opposed to a million 1 or 2″ boards. Alternatively, we have seen a detail in my brother’s house I can best describe as angled 1x6s from floor to ceiling – sounds ugly but it was a nice look. Either way poses the same attachment problems. The one assumption I have made thus far is that a modest to large investment in PL adhesive is coming my way, but I’d think I will need something to hold the wood until that cures. I have thought of cutting a trough in the plaster (if thick enough) to hold a 1×2 nailer, probably relatively easy, but not desired. Also thought of predrilling each piece for screws & anchors. It will most likely be paint grade, so I wouldn’t be too troubled about plugging 50-100-? holes, but I wouldn’t look forward to it, either. I had thought about renting/buying a pneumatic nailer, but having not used one before, I didn’t know if it would handle nailing to concrete block so well – I’m thinking that would lead to a ton of jams, and maybe breaking the nailer at best.
So, any ideas? What more info can I give you to help me?
If everything seems to be going well, you’ve obviously overlooked something.
Replies
pita: i'm not sure if i have the correct picture...but i would fasten a 2x nailer to the wall that i could then fasten my stringer to..
i'd use some of the epoxy bolts you can get in good hardware stores..
Mike Smith
Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
p- i've been in that situation, as far as that attaching to concrete. what used described yourself doing sounds, pretty labor intensive, and most of all real messy, but you know that. what i did was with hammer drill, dowels , P.L. premium or epoxy i've used both when cost allows i've used epoxy, but P.L. when time is'nt of the essence and if you do use it give it 2 days to dry up. in my case it was a stile and rail wainscoting. i painted the wall first with battleship gray epoxy paint you've probably seen it on garage floors, then a poly-plastic vapor barrier i put that up while the paint still wet to imbed and keeping it up , on the vertical. andthen roll on the wall. after a couple days. i do a preliminary lay out with tape, and a sharpie magic marker. that the most important step draw right on the wall, obviously it's only (the lay-out) is as good as vapor barrier is setting on the wall, as close to wall paper(poly-plastic) as possible the best. back to the layout so draw it up there find out where the most strategic place's to nail .i've bosch bulldog hammer -drill , drill ####2-21/2 hole in the wall cut a3" piece of dowel coat the dowel and your with the chosen adhesive let set go back trim the dowel. attach your 1x2 or whatever with P.L. use screws/or nails and warm up that pneumatic nailer and then start your chosen task. listen i'm not one the best teacher/ explainers in the world, (so my wife reminds me CONSTANTLY). so i hope i've helped goodluck and cheers the bear
If you don't have a rotary hammer drill, you can rent one and secure furring strips to the block wall with any number of masonry anchors available. For projects like yours, I often use flathead
masonry screws which require a 3/16" pilot hole. Pre drill your strips and have someone hold. them in place while you mark the sites to drill the masonry. (with the furring strips predrilled, you can drill the masonry holes at each end as I described, secure it with the screws then drill the rest of the holes with the board in place). Be sure to blow the dust out of the holes and from behind the board.
Have a good bit for your screwdriver.
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with a piece of chalk and cut it with an axe.
Take a look at LePage's "No More Nails" - glue in your base strip, and let it set; then, glue up your wainscotting, it's almost like tacking on the wall with velcro.
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
i've done that masonary anchor thing and #1 it gets expensive, and sometimes dosent take. those blue screws the brand name escapes me you get in home-depot. dont get me wrong it a professional suggestion/ procedure.#2 it limits your ability to shim in and out with under course. i secure end to end eye it or dry-line it concrete block is'nt as bad as poured concrete but depending on the mason even on 8 to 10 feet run there could be problems. the reason those blue things once back out and screwed back in chew up the surrounding pilot hole and dont take as well as the first time especially when you got a shim thats been tapped behind it. but, hell if the shims aren't an important issue or any other i mentioned maybe the TAPCON (there it is) is the way to go cheers the bear
Edited 4/26/2002 6:03:33 PM ET by the bear
liquid nails and short gun nails. The nails just gotta grab a bit of the plaster. If it's in good shape......it'll hold ti the glue sets. Three beads of glue.....top, middle, bottom.
Piece of cake. Or.....bracing across the stairway for the nite. Are things kinda straight? Enough to caulk.....if you gotta bend boards into place this don't work so well.
If the wainscot can be covered by a base and cap it's even easier.......shoot a nail in....pound it flat if it hits the block...move on. Roofing and/or cut nails go quick too. Jeff "That's like hypnotizing chickens........."
Another thought might be to overlay the entire area with 1/2" or 5/8" plywood glued and screwed to the proposed wainscoat area to act as a nailing substrate. Granted this isn't the cheapest or quickest but by the sound of it, you're a diy'er and this would allow the most flexibility for your project. The thickness differential could be covered with a custom chair rail application. You could cut rectangular plywood panels which would run off the nose of the stairs thereby giving you a consistent 'platform' on which your wainscoating could be applied. The areas beneath where the plywood leaves the triangular open spaces at each step could be filled individually with plywood (once again glued and screwed to the wall) making sure they stay on the same face plane as the field of plywood. When applying your wainscoat, drive the nails at an angle so they'd 'clinch' on the backside of the plywood when they hit the plaster or concrete. Like I said, pros might handle this one way but for a diy'er, a little more material to accomplish the goal might be worth the extra time and expense to get similar results as the pros. Good luck.
homey- i like that idea, with back priming of ply with vapor barrier . . in my case it was a case of materials left over. and in that vain plywood i didnt even think of until it was done. but cheers to you and that idea. the bear
I guess the idea is to keep the wainscotting on the same plane as the skirtboard, so the stapping and plywood base ideas won't fly. I also guess that the plaster veneer is a little less than ideal to be shooting nails into, maybe short brads if you think that would help, but I wouldn't count on it too much.
Perhaps you could groove the top edge of the skirt to receive the waincotting, and hold the top rail with tapcons, countersunk and plugged.
A variation on the theme you mention about the skirtboard issue would be to integrate it into the nailing substrate by using same thickness material for the nailing substrate butted to the skirtboard. Then just run the wainscot all the way to the stair tread. Any additional trim could still be mounted over it but you'd lose that thickness of area on the stair treads... Just another thought to consider.
Thanks for the help. It sounds like the right thing to do is maybe cut the plaster to fit a 1x2 or 1x3 nailer flush, and then go to town. One thing I forgot to mention, but you (I think Qtrmeg) picked up on was that the wainscot needs to be flush to the skirtboard. When finished, I'm thinking we probably won't have a skirtboard visually. That is, I'd like to get the surfaces flush enough to hide the existence of the skirtboard.
I like the idea of grooving the skirt to receive the wainscot. I'm actually thinking of using biscuits to hold the bottom rail to skirt, and then biscuit in each successive piece (stiles & top rail, panels will "float"), all with PL on the backside, and then nail the top rail to a "inlaid" nailer at the proper height. Any thoughts on this approach, good or bad?
Thanks again.If everything seems to be going well, you've obviously overlooked something.