I’ll be installing wainscotting in a room of our house in which the floor is slightly out of level – about 3/4″ over a 12ft. span. The wainscotting will run the perimeter of the room, about 3.5ft. high.
My question is: Should I snap level line around the room and follow that with the wainscot, or follow a set height from the floor? Or does it even matter?
Thanks in advance!
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Replies
Photog,
It matters, level all around.
Ditch
I think an out of level cap rail, would be more obvious than a sloping floor. Keep it level. Prefinish the wood too. I learned that the hard way sort of . I helped a guy take it all out and do it again. the boards shrink and you see the white of the wood on the tounge.
"I was born in the country, razed in the city, I'm a natural born shaker from my hips to the ground"
I'm with the other guys - do it level. If there are panels, I would make them all the same height also and take the difference out of the base.
What are the base and cap styles? Is the wainscot going to sit ontop of the base......or run to the floor and have the base lay over top of it?
What detail is planned for the cap? How "tall" is the cap gonna be...and one piece or two?
And is the base existing...or new?
All this info will help decide the best way to hide it.....all with the idea that the top line of sight..the top of the cap......should be level. If the base is new...and gonna follow the floor......I'd just cut the wainscot the same length.....install plumb......and cover the ragged/sloping top with a site made cap.......maybe a two piece...one laying flat against the wall...like the base..and a cap "shelf" on top of that. The flat piece just needs a rabbit deep enough to cover the 3/4 outta level high end..and still be deep enough to catch the end of the lower wainscot.
This would work for both panels and boards. In my eyes...the base could either follow the floor and be scribed and cut off the bottom.......the wainscot must be plumb..and the top must be level. Jeff.......Sometimes on the toll road of life.....a handful of change is good.......
Without a doubt I'd run it level.
Make up for the out-of-level floor by scribing the bottom of the base to follow the floor, with the top of the base being level. If you're going to use a shoe molding, then still scribe the bottom of the base to get it close, then nail off the shoe to cover the gap.
If the bottom rail is going to be the base (vs covering the lower portion of the bottom rail with another piece for the base), then I'd work from the bottom up. I'd snap a level line for the top of the bottom rail. Use that as a reference to scribe the bottom of the bottom rail so it follows the contours of the floor. Then I'd install the bottom rail and build the wainscotting on top of that...panels/stiles next, then top rail, then cap details.
During layout, consider the high and low points of the room so that the minimum width of the bottom rail (or baseboard, depending on the style of your wainscotting) is still visually appealing and in scale.
youre eye will focus on the w.coating. Make it level. Your eye can usually discern out of level things. (hence why some people are knickpickers about crooked picture frames)