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  |  DIY  |  Carpentry  |  Putting up picture and dado rails
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Putting up picture and dado rails

Timber yards and DIY stores sell a range of decorative mouldings that can be used to make up picture rails or a dado rail (one that runs across a wall about 1m from the floor). Try to choose a style of moulding that suits the age and style of your home. Remember that decorative timber mouldings make a high-ceilinged room look lower


Tip: It's much easier to paint or varnish the rails before fixing them. Prime bare timber and fill any cracks with wood filler. See Painting interior woodwork and metal.

Time to complete job: Allow about 1/2 a day to add either a dado or picture rail to a room.
Approximate budget: Rails cost from around £25. Timber yards are usually the best value.

Tools and materials
Dado or picture rail, drill, wood and masonry bits, screwdriver, spirit level, tape measure, pencil, hand saw, mitre box, screws and wall fixings, wood filler, Filling knife

Measuring
Decide on the height of your rails. A dado rail should be fitted between 1 and 1.2m (1.1 and 1.3yd) from the floor. A Victorian or older house with high ceilings should have the picture rail at a height somewhere between 300 and 500mm (12 and 20in) below the ceiling. 1930s-to-present homes have lower ceilings and the picture rail is usually level with the top of the door frames. Use a tape measure and mark the wall at the correct height. Make marks every 1.5m (1.6yd) around the room. Work from the ceiling down for picture rail and from the floor up for dado rail. Rest a spirit level on top of a piece of the rail and use this to join up the points you have marked. You may need to slightly adjust the line if your floor or ceiling isn't level. 		Screw holes
Make screw holes at 1m intervals along the centre of the rail with a wood bit. Countersink the holes so that you can cover the screw heads with filler.

Tip: Pre-packed dado
and picture rails sold in DIY stores come with hidden plastic fixings that don't need screw holes
in the wood.

Drilling
Start at the corner of the longest length of plain wall and mitre the end of the first rail using a saw and mitre box. Hold the rail against the wall with the top edge lined up with your pencil line. Mark through the screw holes with a pencil. Drill the fixing holes in the wall at the marked points. Use wall plugs for brick walls or cavity wall fixings for plasterboard walls.

Tip: Try to buy full lengths of rail so that you don't have to join pieces in the middle of the wall. If your room is very long, mitre the other end of the first rail as well. Then mitre the end of the next piece of rail to make a neat angled joint.

Next: finishing



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