Panelling and Floor

The last features of the actual room to be completed was the panelling and the dado rail. The first part applied was the skirting boards 20cm wide 12mm thick MDF. with thin 6mm pieces to pad out the back. On these areas of padding that stand along the joins in the flats screws were drilled in. Above the skirting was the bottom of the panelling that was again a 12mm thick but 15cm wide length that was drilled straight onto the flat. Smaller lengths of this 15 cm MDF were cut at 14 cm long for the sides of the panels. A 40x40 square was used to mark out where these had to be drilled to the wall. First two notches had to be counter sunk on these pieces to ensure the screws would be hidden. Then another long length of 15cm was added to the top. on areas that need to be cut to measure, the wood was lined up and marked where it overlapped the already screwed piece. Using a square to draw the line and then a jigsaw to cut the piece to size. On the corners of the rooms if the 40x 40 didnt fit exactly then the piece of 40cm MDF was cut in half, one piece applied to each wall of the corner. Once all the panelling was applied Fiona and I went round with polyfiller to cover any gaps or obvious screws while Callum went round with a hand held router to route the inside sqaure of the panels and the line of the top where the dado would eventually sit. Rhyan and Nicky followed behind with a hoover to clean up the dust so they could be painted and glazed before the end of the week. The already routed dado lengths of pine were painted and glazed before being applied to the wall so not to mess up the wall paper.

After I had helped apply the panelling and polyfiller the gaps, I went on to help Callum with the sheets of plywood that would be eventually the drawing room floor. We painted them with two thick layers of a dark oak varnish and once dry, using a length of the 15cm MDF Callum drew lines of the floorboards with a subtle black marker. Making these marks more realistic will be easier next week once the boards are on the ground in position.