Wainscot on walls and ceiling... install which first?

I am installing wainscot on the walls and ceiling in a sunroom. Which do I install first? Does it matter since I know I will need to put some sort of trim around the perimeter anyway?

 

Welcome to the forums!

I'm a bit confused. Wainscot is a wall treatment, and usually extends no more than 3 or 4 feet up from the floor.

Are you putting paneling on your walls and ceiling?

 

Ya, wainscoting is on the lower portion of a wall
I assume you are using the same material on the ceiling ?? Is it prefinished or raw wood? individual sticks or panels?

 

I am using 7 1/4" vinyl planks for the ceiling. And then I am using similar vinyl planks on the wall under the windows but with closer lines (grooves). However there are some small areas on the wall in which I was just going to run this up instead of going with drywall. This is a sunroom so most of the walls are taken up by windows or a slider.

 

Vinyl planks?? Just not sure what type vinyl planks you are using. Do you have a link for them or can you post a picture of them. I'd like to see what you are working with. Thanks. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html

 

It's always best to install a ceiling first, then install the wall panels underneath. In the event you don't have anything to nail the edge of the ceiling to, the planks on the walls will hold the edge of the ceiling up tight, provided you've push them up tight, of course!

I'm probably being picky, but I also wouldn't call your planks "wainscoting", since it is probably just a beaded plank. Ceilings do not generally get "wainscoting". Wainscoting usually implies a series of panel frames, not solid "paneling" and since the 18th century the term has usually come to be limited to the trim applied to the lower section of a wall between the chair rail and the baseboard.

 

Actually PVC, Here is the link to them at Lowes.

Shop EverTrue 8-ft Paint Grade PVC Double Bead Wainscot at Lowes.com

 

How do you plan to attach them to the ceiling? At only 1/4" thick I'd think you'd need to glue it to the drywall ceiling along with nailing it ...... but I'm a painter, not a carpenter

X made me think of another reason for doing the ceiling first - if you drop any of the boards or tools, you won't damage the walls.

 

Interesting,
Xsleeper, I grew up on the opposite end of the state from you. The kind of material the OP posted pictures of in real wood was often used for porch lids as well as wainscot, but in the west end of the panhandle the material specifically was known as wainscot or I always thought it was wanescoat no matter where it was used. One of my parents' farm houses has it on part of the walls and the ceiling of the back entry porch. A house I lived in in Kansas had it for the lid of the front porch. I think it was 1/2" or 3/4" thick and I don't know if it was ~ 4" wide or 2" wide. Of course it looks like 2" but maybe it was wider. I just never noticed the joints.

Yes, I know this has nothing to do with the question, jmust an interesting observation.

 

LOL. Well, the material can be called wainscoting, although it's just a beaded profile. If the 8ft long piece was cut up into three 32" long pieces and applied vertically to the lower third of the wall, then when applied, it could properly be called wainscoting! Anything else is just paneling, IMO.
On a ceiling, in real wood it would usually be called beaded 1x4, or many times you see it used in combination with a v-groove, such as beaded 1x4 v-groove.

But you're right, the beaded board is often used on porch ceilings and soffits.

As an aside, I don't think anyone in Nebraska knows how to pronounce that word correctly. "Wayne's coating" has become the standard pronunciation here, and everyone says it. If you are like me and say "Wain scotting" then everyone looks at you weird and thinks you're backward.

 

Nice to start out the day with a chuckle