picture rail

[Mark D Smith]

Hi

I am putting up the picture rail which was removed way back.

i saw an item once where instead of mitre joints a coping saw was used to join at inside corners. so 1 piece is left uncut and the other laid over it to make a clean joint.

any hints or diagrams would be of use.

Mark

[Rob graham]

Basically, you put one piece up along a wall, butting up to the neighbouring wall. Then offer the piece that goes on this next wall up to the first piece and scribe a line that's parallel to the convolutions in the first piece. Then cut along that line and you should end up with a piece that fits the convolutions in the first piece.

Rob Graham

[Mark D Smith]

neighbouring

thanks

i just could not remember the parallel bit but now it all comes flooding back.

I used zinc coated woodscrews & raw plugs to hold up some 10 years ago and overfilled with filler. I don't trust No More Nails. is that the best bet for making sure it stays up?

Mark

[John]

The best way I found to scribe the profile was to have a short (say 2") piece of the rail to mark on the (flat) back of the piece of rail your'e cutting.

I would use screws too.

[Rob graham]

I don't trust No More Nails either and would use Rawlplugs and screws.

Rob

[Cicero]

================ An easier way of fixing is 'hammer fixings'. See:

can buy these from your local B&Q, Wickes, etc. if you don't want to order from Screwfix.

As far as the corners are concerned, the method described by other posters (scribing and cutting) is a bit fiddly and can leave unsightly gaps to be filled unless you're very careful. Simple mitres are much easier to do especially on narrow sections like picture rail even if the corners are not completely square.

Cic.

[John]

I would tend to agree. I used the scribing and coping saw method for 7" high skirting which is harder to get a nice mitre on with a hand saw. As stated, with the smaller section of picture rail mitres would be easier. Also the scribing and coping method is quite tricky when the walls meet at 45 or 135 degrees. ]

[Mark D Smith]

going for mitre as it worked well in the last 2 rooms i did (mostly 45 internal but a few externals and the 100+ was fun).

1 wall has a 2 foot wide chamfered wall for no reason i can see!

Mark

[mark]

i used the solvent based no more nails (dont like the othertype) - and my picture rail has been up 9 years!

[Mark D Smith]

are your walls nice and flat? ours have 100 years of abuse and without re-doing the plastering will cause some springiness in the rails. which on a test run 1 end popped up after around 2 weeks. it was no more nails but not sure if solvent based variety.

Mark

[mark]

my walls are 70 years old too, i found that the solvent based stuff, is good for uneven walls (good build up) you can probably complement the rail with nails where necessary, i used nails to hold up the rail while it was setting, you can get various strenghts of no more nails too

[Limey Lurker]

To cope an internal corner, cut a 45 degree mitre on the end of the piece to be cut, then , with the coping saw, cut out the mitred piece. Sorry, but I can't think of a way of posting a diagram.