I am getting ready to start building some wainscoting for my dining room. Due to time constraints, and lack of faith in my own ability, I decided to stay away from real floating wainscoting made out of solid wood, and instead will be following a much simpler design I found in a November, 2011 issue of the Family Handyman magazine.

The instructions in the magazine recommend attaching MDF cutouts to the wall via construction adhesive and nails. This is fine and dandy, but I was wondering if the use of the Domino would be a better idea. I am on the fence. On one hand the dominoes should help with alignment and will produce a stronger construction; on the other hand, there is no need for stronger construction, since these parts are not subjected to any worthwhile forces, plus using dominoes will take longer. What do you guys think?

Here is a diagram of the work-plan...


Finally, the suggested use of MDF scares me. The wainscoting will be paint grade, so my only concerns is making sure that all of the edges between the MDF boards are hidden. I read that folks were having much success with using bondo, followed by light sanding to conceal any imperfections in the MDF. What problems can crop-up when using MDF? Should I consider switching to cabinet-grade plywood instead?

Thanks in advance

     

i think dominoes will help allignment and keeping the spaceing right.,they might keep all the parts stuck together instead of singly ,hopefully lasting longer


you could rebate the back of the top and bottom adn the fromt of the vertical pieces. that would do the same thing but you could move the vertical pieces sideways. then just glue and nails. i would use a PU glue myself (have done something like this in the past)  and a 18 gauge nailer

I've done budget wainscoting like you show using mdf. It's cheap looks good painted but it's heavy and dusty. I've used my ATF 55 to cut out the panels thereby eliminating rail and stile joints. This works great if the wall fit the magic number of 8' or shorter. When you have a longer wall use the domi, biscuit, or spline with glue and pocket screws. It takes a little time to layout but once you get cutting it goes very quickly. Cut to the corners and finish with a jigsaw. Patience and a steady hand will give you crisp corners. If your math on the panels are accurate you can cut and pre assemble your infill moulding and apply one unit instead of four pieces. You can set up cutting guides on your mitersaw for making repetitive and repeatable cuts. If you want to jazz up the panels you can use the off cuts to produce raised panels, just mark where the panel off cut matches the panel. With the addition of any number of mouldings you can make a detailed and classic raised panel wainscoting.
Good luck
Curt

OK, so based on everyone’s input I am leaning towards this methodology:

1.   Make the entire frame at a time, top and bottom boards + stiles
2.   Route ¼” rabbet  on the edges for ¼” MDF  back-board
3.   Assemble with pocket screws
4.   Attach to the wall with nails and glue
5.   Add molding and chair-rail
6.   Use bondo to fill-in the gaps and imperfections
7.   Sand
8.   Prime
9.   Sand
10.   Paint 

Did I miss anything? Thanks in again

Well hopefully I'll be able to start on this next weekend, and we'll see how it goes. I am also excited to use this project as a guinea pig for my Fuji HVLP. I'll keep you guys in the loop, and will post some pictures of the carnage 

Quote from: aprikh1 on July 14, 2012, 10:34 PM

OK, so based on everyone’s input I am leaning towards this methodology:

1.   Make the entire frame at a time, top and bottom boards + stiles
2.   Route ¼” rabbet  on the edges for ¼” MDF  back-board
3.   Assemble with pocket screws
4.   Attach to the wall with nails and glue
5.   Add molding and chair-rail
6.   Use bondo to fill-in the gaps and imperfections
7.   Sand
8.   Prime
9.   Sand
10.   Paint 
11.  Send me a check for 79.99 for the free consultation.


Did I miss anything? Thanks in again

It goes pretty quick.  I usually draw the wainscoting full size on the wall.  That way I can adjust my lay outs and if I have too, move outlets around a little.

 

I do the same thing.  Always draw on the walls to get the layout rite to how I want it.  Plus show the client how it will look so they can make a decision.

Jmb

I know this is old, but came up in my search; i'm planning to use domino for alignment purposes.