Installing a Chair Rail

What you will need: Chair rail, caulk, trim nails, paint, painters tape, miter saw, chalk line, tape measure.

Adding a chair rail to any room in your home is very simple, fast and can change the over all appearance of any room.

First figure out how much chair rail you will need. Measure the length of all walls in the room you intend to hang the rail in. Add together all of your measurements, keep in mind that lumber comes in a variety of different lengths and buy lengths longer then the walls you will be hanging the trim on. In this guide are room measurement will be 10 feet by 10 feet, so you will need four 10 feet pieces.

Next determine the height you would like for your chair rail to be, most common numbers would be between 3 1/2 and 4 feet. In all four corners of your room mark the distance up from the floor with a pencil. Connect all four of your marks by chalking a line across your walls. This will require some help from a friend or family member. When chalking the line on the walls have one person hold one end of your chalk line on one mark and pull the chalk line tight to you the mark on the other end of the wall. When the line is on the correct marks, make sure your line is tight and pull the line only about an inch and a half away from the wall and let go

Locate a spot outside where you have electric and can make all your cuts so you do not fill your house with sawdust. Measure the length of the wall you will start on. Take a whole piece of trim and put a 45 degree miter cut on one end with the long point of your angle on the back side of your trim that goes against the wall. With your tape measure, pull your number from the longest point of the angle and mark with a pencil. The new mark you just made will represent the long point of the miter you put on this end.

Next locate the studs in your wall. There will always be a stud on both side of an inside corner. Find your first stud and pull 16 inches off that one all the way down the wall making your mark on the chalk line so you can see the mark after you put up the trim. with the help of a friend or family member hold the trim up to the chalk line making sure the piece is tight from corner to corner. Once you have check the piece to make sure it fits, use a trim gun or hand drive trim nails to nail the trim to the studs. If you are using hand drive nails you will want to use a center punch to sink the nails below the surface and also to prevent putting a dent in your trim that looks like the head of your hammer.

Repeat these steps for your other three walls. When you get to a door or window, simply put a flat, square cut (no miter) on the end that butts up too the window or door trim.

After all of your trim is up, caulk all the nail holes and the corners and let dry. If you plan to paint the trim caulk the top and bottom edges where the trim meets the wall. If you plan to stain your trim use wood putty to fill the nail holes and corners.

Once your caulk has dried you can paint your trim. If your trim is going to be a different color then the walls or if you will be painting different colors above and below the trim, use your painters tape to tape above and below your trim.

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