Fixing Picture Rail

[Ric]

Hello people,

I am going to be putting a picture rail up at some point this week and was just looking for everybodys suggestions/experiences/horror stories/etc... I was thinking that I might just use No More Nails or the likes (prolly one of the cheapy Screwfix versions morel likely) seeing as it is fairly light stuff and we aren't planning on hanging pictures from it. The main problem with this is that some of the walls are a little uneven so there are sections that might need nails or screws or something to pull the wood in.

Any help greatly appreciated (as always).

[Richard Porter]

One horror story! When I moved into my current house I found that the previous owner had fixed dado rail round the lounge at picture rail height, but being the wrong profile it was completely useless. So the first thing I did (after demolishing the gas log fireplace) was to remove the rail. It had been fitted by drilling 6mm holes in the wall, inserting dowels and nailing into the dowels. One such hole had gone straight through the tv aerial downlead. Use a cable detector!

I've used grab adhesive for other purposes and found it to be pretty strong. Whether I'd trust it to hold a heavy picture frame is another matter though!

[Bob Eager]

I've seen Gripfill recommended here....

[stuart noble]

Good stuff. You may need a couple of nails underneath intially to stop the rail slipping. IME never a good idea to force it to follow a wonky wall though. Let it sit where it wants and fill the gaps afterwards. Helps create an illusion of straightness at least.

[NickIniquity]

The 'traditional' method is to use something like long 'T' nails hammered through the picture rail into the wall. I used a combination of this where needed to pull the rail tight to the wall, and the Gripfil approach. 'T' nailing is actually quite easy if you use a big hammer!