Putting Up Interior Trim & Molding

With the right tools and supplies, you can add a professional chair rail in your home in just 8 hours, saving time and money. Carpenters usually charge an average of $1.20 per foot for molding and $4 per foot for installation. Doing it yourself would cost you an average of $63 based on cost of tools and molding.

First gather these materials and then you will be ready to pick out a rail suited to your style: wood putty, tape measure, stud finder, putty knife, primer, pencil, paintbrushes, level, latex paint, handsaw, hammer, and a cordless drill. If you don’t have a miter box, one pound of finishing nails, or a nail set, you’ll need to purchase or borrow these as well.

Get your surfaces ready by priming and painting your molding. Let surfaces dry completely and then decide where you want to place your molding. With your pencil, draw a level line on your walls. Next, measure your piece of molding. With your miter box, saw 45-degree angles for your corners. Use your stud finder to find studs and mark their location on the walls as well as their corresponding location on the piece of molding.

Bring your molding to a work surface and drill a starter hole, with your cordless drill, at each stud mark. To attach your molding, hammer a nail �¾ of the way into each starter hole. Countersink the nail with a nail set and hammer. Touch up the holes with wood putty and a knife and let them dry. To finish up, touch up the paint on the molding.

To miter, get two pieces of wood to sit flush in or around a corner. A miter cut allows two 45-degree halves to form a 90-degree angle.