I just heatgun’d the paint off of a small room’s trim and wainscot. Its not quite done but looks a hell of a lot better even now. Now that the bulk of the I can see that several of the panels have large gaps between them. I’m planning on stained finish. The best I can come up with is wedging in some backer rod and carefully smearing a bunch of wood filler on top of the rod. Then staining the filler along with the panels. Will the filler just crack off over time? Any preferred fillers for this sort of application?
The panels are not loose, just have gaps between them.
The finish is an old shellac (rubs off with alcohol) and I expect to be putting a new shellac over it, but I am open to other finishes.
Eric
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Is the gap in the picture a straight separation - or is the right panel a little "proud" of the left one?
I think I would try to remove and reinstall the trim and wainscoting so the gap(s) are eliminated. If necessary, a trim piece could be put in a corner or the end of the wainscoting to make up for whatever you lose by closing the gaps.
Unless you're really good, I suspect that you'll be less than thrilled with packing the gaps with filler.
These there is a little in and out too.Take it out and reassemble, yup, that's probably the obvious answer.The problem is that some previous yahoo put in a tile floor and tile flush to the wainscot. That definitely takes the project up a couple levels. Argh, that is the right answer though.Eric
Don't you hate when the "right" answer is the one that you really didn't want to hear? - lol
You may be able to sneak around the tile problem if you have a Multimaster. Just cut the wainscoting flush with the tile and call it good. A little base shoe would hide that later.
Another (more time consuming) way would be to mask the tile with blue tape and use a flush cutting saw to cut the wainscoting.
A more extreme solution would involve a colored caulk in the gaps and other locations that would make a pleasing pattern. Then, you just have to swear that that's what you planned all along. - lol (Note: If you can make that work, you're a far better man than me.)
I can't say I'm thrilled by the prospect of cutting it out. If that's the route it would have been smarter to just rip it all out and start fresh. I'm not emotionally ready for that option.I guess I'm leaning towards nothing. The room is quite small, just a rear entrance about 5 by 8. In that small space its hard to see what's happening down at your knees. Its not like everyone is sitting around the dining table looking through my gaps.thanks for the input.Eric
gaps? That's the problem. Stop calling them gaps. Call them 'the personality of an old house'.
When installing paneling for wainscotting it's always a good idea to paint/stain the area behind the joints with something a shade or three darker than the paneling, in case gaps open up. Once it's up it's harder, though I did once manage to work an artist's brush behind the paneling to touch up the worst of a gap.