What decides the cost of wainscoting

Wainscoting has no price per square foot that holds from one house to the next. The same drawing costs one amount on a straight dining room wall and a very different amount up a curved stair. What follows is what a finish carpenter looks at before writing a number down.

The pattern

Picture frame moulding is the lightest option: thin mouldings applied to the finished wall in rectangles. Board and batten adds a backing and vertical battens. Framed wainscoting, with stiles, rails, panels and a cap, is the most joinery per foot and the most layout.

The height

Wainscoting to chair rail height covers roughly a third of the wall. Full height panelling covers all of it. Double the height and you do more than double the work, because the upper part needs staging and every panel still has to line up with the ones below.

The shape of the wall

Straight, square walls go fastest. A stair wall needs raked panels that follow the pitch of the stair. A round wall needs mouldings curved to its radius. Both are set out full size on site and cut piece by piece, and that is where most of the difference between two quotes lives.

Everything that interrupts the wall

Outlets, switches, vents, thermostats, windows and door casings all have to land somewhere sensible, either inside a panel or on a stile. A wall with six interruptions takes much longer to lay out than a blank one of the same size.

Painted or stained

Paint grade work is filled and sanded, and small gaps disappear under the paint. Stain grade work shows every joint for the life of the room, so the material costs more and the cutting is slower.

The trim that is already there

If the baseboard and door casing are staying, the panelling has to be designed around their profiles. If they are being replaced, the whole wall can be planned as one piece. Either works, and the choice changes the scope.

How to get a number you can trust

• Ask for the price after a site visit
• Say which walls, to what height, and in which pattern
• Say whether the finish will be painted or stained
• Ask whether the painting is included, since many carpenters leave the work ready for a painter