Tongue and Groove Wood Planking Installation Guide

Prepare the Wood Wall Planking

Before attaching wood planking to your walls, unpackage and remove all wrapping and allow planks to acclimate to the room (humidity, temperature) for 72 or more hours. To insure uniform acclimation, spread out the planks in the room where they will be installed, rather than stacking them.

Arrange Planks by Color and Wood Grain

Like all natural product, there will be some color, tone and veining variations for each plank. Before you start attaching the planking to the wall, position the planks around the room and establish a sequence, spreading out the color, tone and veining variations as evenly as possible.

Different Installaton Methods for Wainscot Applications

It's best to use construction adhesive and coated finishing nails to secure the wainscoting to the wall.  Insure that the surface to be paneled is clean and dry, and relatively flat/smooth.  Since few floors are perfectly flat/level, we recommend leaving a short gap between the bottom edge of the base rail and the floor and using a carpenter's level to insure the base rail is installed absolutely level.  Use a continuous bead of construction adhesive as well as finishing nails (into wall studs) to secure the base rail into its level position.  Pre-drill holes and use a nail set if using finishing nails and hammer. 

The bottom edge of the planks fit behind the recessed groove in the top of the base rail. Once the base rail is installed, begin slipping in the planks planks, nesting the tongues and grooves. If needed, use a wood block and small hammer to carefully seat the tongue in the adjoining groove.  Apply a few dabs of adhesive on the back of the planks to hold them in place as you move along the bottom rail.  You should at least occasionally use a finishing nail at the top edge of the planks to help secure all in position, and nailing at the top will be hidden by the chair rail once it is installed.

Once the planks are installed you can install the chair rail using construction adhesive and an occasional finishing nail.  Pre-drilling is recommended and you should use a nail punch to set the head.  Fill all exposed nail holes with a non-shrinking spackling prior to finishing.

Precautions

All natural wood products may expand and contract due to changes in room temperature and/or humidity.  The manufacturer cannot be held liable for any movement of the planks.  It is critical that the acclimation step outlined at the top of this page be followed.  Also, the use of a construction adhesive an an occasional finishing nail as suggested above should help reduce the amount the expansion and contraction. Staining of the wood 'tongue' may be helpful after the planking has been installed for several months and has further acclimated to its new environment to make and contractions less noticeable.  Also, when staining this product, finish test a the stain or finish on a small portion of the paneling as there is variability in the degree of absorption of these wood products.