Dados

[thiambal]

We are planning to put a dado rail through our hall, stairs and landing. There is no evidence of there having originally been one but I think that it is inkeeping with the age of the house (1903) and I am such a clumsy begger it will help protect the walls.

My question is this, any opinions on the different materials for dados, best ways of fixing and most importantly, appropraite design for the house - a modest victorial terrace.

All suggestions, comments and criticisms gratefully received.

 

[Craig]

Hi - where our house had one, its fitted to a wooden noggin set into the wall, which I guess was fixed in place across the lathwork and then plastered up to. Makes it pretty easy to tell if there was one there in the past.

 

[Moo]

Wood would be the most forgiving material to use.

 

[Penners]

Technically, if your house was built in 1903, it's Edwardian (Victoria died in 1901).

There - that's got that bit of pedantry off my chest.

In a terrace house of that age, a dado (if fitted) would almost certainly have been softwood. As for fitting, assuming it's a masonry wall I should think plugs and screws would be best - screwholes suitably filled afterwards.

 

[Lime]

Technically, if your house was built in 1903, it's Edwardian (Victoria died in 1901).

There - that's got that bit of pedantry off my chest.

In a terrace house of that age, a dado (if fitted) would almost certainly have been softwood. As for fitting, assuming it's a masonry wall I should think plugs and screws would be best - screwholes suitably filled afterwards.

That is my view too.

I also live in an Edwardian house that had one set of dado rails in the hallway which were original.
However they were over 1150mm high and the hallway is tall and narrow which gave it a very restricted confined look so I lowered them to 900mm.

Apologises to any purists but they do now appear much better looking and straight (they weren't before!).

They were originally nailed directly onto the wall.

 

[Manny]

Are there any real rules about at point dado and picture rails were fitted? I'd love to put a picture rail in my Georgian place, but to me, they always seemed quite a Victorian thing?

 

[arl]

we just put a picture rail up in our victorian terrace. we used pine as it looked better than any resin copy i could find although its a bit more fiddly to put up. we attached it with a few screws and a bit of no more nails. we had to use a fair bit of filler as well as the walls are not entirely flat and its not as flexible as resin copies. but now that its up and painted it looks great.

where you position it up the wall is crucial though. get it wrong and it wont look close to original. the last occupants added a picture rail in the dinning room that is too low down and it just looks weird.

i used this company as they were much cheaper and had a good range.
http://www.dresser.uk.com/
delivery a bit slow and the website is out of date, the catalogue is better

 

[thiambal]

Cheers for the link arl - excellent.

I am not sure what design/profile is best - personal choice (more likely Mrs C's choice in reality) I guess.

Height is a thorny issue.....

Penners - pendantry accepted. What of course I meant to say was 'Victorian Style' property.

 

[Penners]

Thanks for your forgiveness, thiambal!

Here's another mouldings supplier. I've used them commercially in the past and was impressed with their quality.

 

[middi]

For the stairs and landing the best thing to use is a "pig's ear" rail screwed and pelleted onto the wall, it is tight fitting against the wall and very usefull to hold on to when you come back from the pub.

As to other parts of the room, the choise is yours.

I would not advise to just stick it on the wall, use screws.

 

[Penners]

And if you're looking for a pig's ear, I'm good at making those.


Or so my wife says.

 

[BMcD]

In our 1901 terraced hallway 8'6"H x 4'W x 16'L with 9" skirting and a picture rail at 7' we considered a dado rail with Lincrusta below but decided it may look a bit too cramped for the dimensions. With taller ceilings/wider hallway it may have been OK.
As for style of moulding it comes down to personal taste but perhaps look at existing mouldings on your skirting boards and architrave to give you an idea

 

[sarahj]

I've always used a third of the height of the room as a rule of thumb for the dado, or made the dado on the same height line as the cross piece of the panelled door - if you see what I mean. Otherwise it can fight visually with the lines of the door, or am I just rambling (I know what I mean anyway!).

 

[NT]

I expect that works well for higher ceilings. I guess it must depend on that though, a 2' dado rail in a 6' storey would look kinda odd


NT

 

[Peter]

My (original) dado is centred at 4' from the floorboards with 9" skirting. Picture rail is at 8' with ceilings varying from 10' 6" upwards.

 

[Moo]

It really seems to be a question of what suits the proportions of the individual space, doesn't it?

A cheapish way to try things out might be to blu-tac some strips of paper to the walls and live with them for a bit. It would be easy to make subtle adjustments until you feel you've got it just right.

 

[thiambal]

All useful suggestions, many thanks.

I am a little concerned about the use of dado and anaglypta below (cannot afford Lincrusta) in quite a narrow hall - on the other hand in a narrow hall the walls are that much more vulnerable so protecting them this way makes sense - ho hum.

The questions remaining are........what paint finish on the under dado Anaglypta looks best?

What on earth is a Pigs Ear rail?