The Historic District

Hi Folks,

I want to add picture rail to our parlor walls. I am sure there was picture rail at some point in the past, but haven't found evidence of it, even though the rest of the woodwork is original and intact.

My inside walls are lath/plaster over studs (approximately 24" centers) which I think I can manage, but my outside walls are plaster over brick. I'm unsure how to go about securing the picture rail to the plaster over brick walls (no studs).

Do you think drilling and countersinking masonry screws every 16 inches would be sufficient? Do you have other ideas or suggestions?

Devyn, the traditional way would have been to secure a nailer on to the studs before the plaster was applied and the rail installed on to the nailer.
I would not use screws they are hard to hide and if your using a modern picture rail you will not have the depth to countersink and fill.
With no nailer I think I would go about it by drilling holes and installing wooded plugs, then install your rail with finishing nails.
. Do do this my plan would be pre drill your rail smaller than the finish nails your going to use. Run a chalk line on your wall at your desired height plus 1/2 the hight of your rail. With a friends help and a finishing nail smaller than the holes you drilled in the rail hold the rail up to your caulk line and mark your hole locations on to the wall.Now you have your plug locations,
Cut your plugs from 1/2 inch dowel about 2 inches long. Using a 17/16th masonry bit drill your holes in the wall, insert your plugs. You now have locations to install your rail using longer finishing nails. Set your finishing nails and fill.
There are other ways to do it and I’m sure there will others put forward.

OurPhillyRow wrote:Hi Folks,

I want to add picture rail to our parlor walls. I am sure there was picture rail at some point in the past, but haven't found evidence of it, even though the rest of the woodwork is original and intact.

My inside walls are lath/plaster over studs (approximately 24" centers) which I think I can manage, but my outside walls are plaster over brick. I'm unsure how to go about securing the picture rail to the plaster over brick walls (no studs).

Do you think drilling and countersinking masonry screws every 16 inches would be sufficient? Do you have other ideas or suggestions?

We just installed a picture rail in our living room. Once I have a level line drawn along with rail cut to length I drilled and counter sunk holes for screws every 18". I applied a adhesive chaulk to the back and screw in place with brass screws. I have some rather heavy paintings hanging now and it's holding fine. The adhesive is really doing most of the lifting. My wood is natural and I used a brown wax on the four coats of shellac to make it match the oak trim. I applied the same brown wax with an artist brush to the screw heads, they are barely visible now.

I've got a similar problem, but my exterior walls are plaster over plasterboard and some of my interior walls are plaster over brick and others are, apparently, just plaster (bathroom, for one). The other interior walls I have no idea what the plaster is applied on except, hopefully, also plasterboards. It's certainly not lath. I've been afraid to hang anything on them since I moved in last fall!

The way I have done this in the past is to install nailers - drill a hole in the plaster / brick with a good sized masonry bit. hammer a slightly tapered softwood dowel (or shaved bit of scrap) firmly into the hole. Then nail the picture rail to it. Hand driven nails will work best as they are generally fatter than air gun nails. the idea is that the nail works like a wedge to further hold the wood in tight to the hole. This is the way picture rails were often installed in brick houses in the uk for years. I restored a 1930s house there and when I pulled off the wallpaper I was able to find the filled holes (and even the installer's pencil line) and reuse them

I had the same problem--except it was my kitchen cabinets that needed to be hung on plaster over brick! I cut out channels in the plaster and installed oak strip (leftover flooring) with Tapcon screws in the channel, flush with the plaster. I was then able to install the cabinets, screwing into the wood.