We’re moving house next week and as expected the new place needs decorating. The lounge and dining room both have dado rails and we want to get rid of them. I’ve never removed them before. What do I need to know? Will I need to get the rooms re-plastered?

Crowbar and hope not all the plaster comes off, or you’ll be replastering

I misread the title and thought we were having the same problem.

Carry on.

Will I need to get the rooms re-plastered?

Maybe if it’s a fairly recent one and it’s been gripfilled on! If it is then large chunks of plaster might come off with it.

Otherwise if it dates to a time when dado rails were fairly standard then it should be held by cut nails, which should leave quite small holes which can be filled.

Ease off using something like a thin electrician’s bolster.

If it’s an old house, the rail may have been added after DPC treatment – strip plaster from bottom of wall, inject DPC, add dado rail and only re-plaster from floor to dado rail. Real mess if you take the rail off.

I did it.hallway & staircase . Do it gently & with help to catch the rail when you pop a long length off.
I had lots of making good & it’ll be skimmed whenever we can afford to do the loft ,as the finish is far from perfect.
If you’re selling I’d leave it and paint over it. Especially if it’s old and there’s paper involved.
Hang on, next week?!! =Rod for own back.

Start with a small section and see what you’ve got. Cut in with a knife either side, thin scraper down behind to see if it’s bonded.

You can buy moulding pry bars just for this kind of job.

Senor – it’s our new house, so no great rush.

This is as I thought it would be. I’ll have a go at it next weekend and see what happens. If it needs re-plastered then it’s not the end of the world and I would rather have it done right while we’re decorating the rest of the house then we can forget about it for a while.

Look for round wooden plugs, a sure sign it’s been screwed on. If it has you can generally mash the plugs out of the way with a small chisel and get to the screws.

Hopefully it isn’t gripfill.

Thanks Kayak. I’m going to do a final check on the house tomorrow before we exchange and complete next week. I’ll have a look for the little plugs.

Fingers crossed

Worked in a care home, we screwed dado onto wall to act as a buffer from chair backs bashing and scraping the walllpaper, long screws sunk into dado and then filled.

Another care home the handyman had gripfiled th dado onto the wallpaer , so when the wallpaper was stripped, off came the dado rail as well, then at a private house the dado had been grip filled to the plasterboard walls and plastered brick walls, both walls damaged trying to remove it, plaster off, plasterboard ripped.

Best idea is to score the wall along the top and bottom of the dado rail to stop the plaster,wallpaper pulling off the wall further than the width of the dado.

Sorry gastro, I misread, new home =crack on . 🙂

Acting as a ‘buffer’ for chairs etc was the original reason dado rails were ‘invented’

Don’t assume that if it’s screwed on it isn’t gripfilled on as well. I’d score with a Stanley knife along the top and bottom.

However it’s fitted should be simple enough to make good afterwards

If theyve been there for any period of time and been painted or papered upto multiple times, youll struggle to get rud of the evidence without reskimming. I quite like plainish ones, painted white.