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Short Stuff: Wainscoting: When Half a Wall is Enough · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's you're sending for Dave. So this
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: is short stuff.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Let's go scoot scoot scoot.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Sure, all right, inside joke everyone, we're talking about what
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I call Wayne scotting today. Apparently you can also pronounce
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: it Wayne's coating. I've always said Wayne Scotting, and evidently
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: either one of them are just fine.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I saw also people in Chumley and Hayesbro pronounce it
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: wookie cat.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Well look it up.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Okay, if you don't know what we're talking about, we'll
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: tell you right off the bat that Wayne scotting is
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: a design feature. It's been around for several hundred years.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: And if you've ever been in a house and you
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: walk into let's say the dining room and instead of
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: the entire wall being let's say dry wall, maybe about
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: halfway down or I think the general rule is what
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: two thirds of the way down waist height, you will fine.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: And you know it depends on the height of your wall,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: though really, because you would you want to do it
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: different for like a ten foot ceiling than.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Like an eight foot seriling.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Quite a setup, it is.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: But if from there down you see like you know,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: these any kind of wood paneling or these these wood stripes,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: paneling board something like that. Not the rail itself. We'll
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: get to that. That is what Wayne scotting is.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it turns out it's harder to explain than you'd think.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: You know, I didn't think it was until I got going.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: First. Of all, that space that's waist height down on
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the wall is called the dotto. So Wayne scotting basically
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: covers the dotto. If you had paneling that went all
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the way to say, the ceiling, that's just called paneling typically,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So that's one aspect of Wayne scotting that usually is universal.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: It's about waist height, okay, yeah, and then it's often
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: made of wood, but sometimes it's made to look like
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it's made of wood. It could just be raised quarter
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: round or other kinds of molding, cut at forty five
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: degree angles and fashion into a square, a hollow square,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: and put in repetition on the wall and put a
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: molding at the top and a molding at the bottom,
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  Speaker 1: painted all one color that's a different color from the
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  Speaker 1: wall above it. You've got fau Wayne scotting as a
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: DIY weekend project?
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Can I stop all the carpenters from writing a letter?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, did I say something wrong.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I think it's to be I think it would have
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: to be half round.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was hoping that people wouldn't pick up on
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: that because I thought it as I was saying it.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: But I'm glad you corrected me to keep from emails.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's one way you can do it
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: is literally individual strips of board. Much more commonly these days.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: You can buy this stuff in large four by eight
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: sheets that are already grooved to look like those individual strips.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Much much easier, and it's a it's a not too
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: hard DIY project. I've done it plenty of times and
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: it really can really yeah, yeah, it's really easy. Uh well,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: we'll get to when it's not easy. But you know,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: if you can cut something to fit a wall and
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: you have like a what are those things called that
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: you get like cocking out of a tube with a
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: cock gun gun, Yeah, then then you can do that
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: some liquid nails, maybe even a little nails shooter.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a little finishing nail gun.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: It's just it's as easy as that. It's really not hard.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: The word itself. I think by the time the late
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: fifteen hundreds rolled around was a verb meaning to line
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: boards with paneling from uh supposedly maybe a middle Dutch
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: or low German wagen shot.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: That I really like. It's dining room feels much more
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: formal thanks to the wagon shot you've installed here? Is
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that a d why vagus job? You said?
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Then you get head over the head of the purse.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: And someone says, I never.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: So I saw this old house, said that it's Dutch
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  Speaker 1: in origin and it dates back to the thirteen hundreds,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: which is it's really something and imagine that it basically
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: hasn't changed essentially in seven hundred plus years.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And the cool thing about Waynscotting is that it's adaptable
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  Speaker 3: to a bunch of different styles. I mean, you're probably
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: not going to see like a modern or super super
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  Speaker 3: contemporary house with it. You may be able to get
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: away with it if it's a certain kind, but a
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  Speaker 3: lot of other traditional It can go with art deco,
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  Speaker 3: it can go obviously and was heavily used in the
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  Speaker 3: Arts and crafts movement. But it's a fun way to
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: break up the wall. But it originally served the purpose
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: and still sort of does as protecting that lower wall.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's what it was originally for, and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: that still is what it does, especially if you have
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: molding across the top of it that kind of finishes
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it and separates it from the wall above. That's frequently
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: referred to as a chair rail because it protects your
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: wall from being banged up by chairs when people slide
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: them slide them out to get away.
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  Speaker 3: And never knew that's what that came from. Oh really, no,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I mean I always called it chair rail. It can
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: also be called doto rail because what you were talking about.
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  Speaker 3: But I never knew it was to protect against a chair.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: I had no idea.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. It also technically could protect against Kramer
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: in his pool queue if you have a pool table
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  Speaker 1: set up in a room that's too small to house
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  Speaker 1: a pool table.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: That's good. Should we take a break, yes, all right,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: we'll be right back.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Softly jaw.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: So, all right.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: So there are different kinds of wayne scotting. There's bedboard
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: wayne scotting. You will notice those distinctive grooves, these narrow
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: vertical planks. That's a very common one that you can
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: buy in large sheets.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: That's what I thought. It was like plain and simple.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: I did too, actually, But if you throw the word
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: like flat panel Wayne Scotting in front of it, then
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: that is just another kind of smooth version. But I've
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: always just thought of Wayne Scotting as being the grooved.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the bee board. Yeah. So you said flat panel,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and you said that it's tough to get Wayne Scotting
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: or pull Way Scouting off into modern or contemporary house.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: You can, but it has to be very sleek and minimal,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: but you could do it. It's very daring. All of
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: your friends in the design community are going to say,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: what what a daredevil, But if you pull it off,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: they will fet you. They will have a party in
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: your honor for it.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: That's right, great use of fat, good word. So there's
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: also overlay and raised panel Wayne Scotting, and that's what
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: you're that's what you're gonna find more of these days,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: which is a panel that you put over the wall.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: And I kind of thought that's like it has always been,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: but apparently back in the day it was actually recessed
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: and built into the wall itself.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it would be even with the with the
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: wall above it, right, Yeah, So that raised panel, Wayne
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Scouting it it it's not the best name for what
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  Speaker 1: it describes, because from what I could tell, if you
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: have what amount to cabinet doors on your wall in
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: your dining room, but without handles, that would be considered
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: raised panel. Wayne Scotting. It's like a square a square panel, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: with a square routed into maybe like four inches from
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the top and the bottom of the sides. And then
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: there's that leaves another raised square in the middle of it. Right, Yeah,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: that's raised panel. And I just don't it does not
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: doesn't doesn't ring with me.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah you saw it though, right, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I just tried to describe it, and I knew that
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  Speaker 1: great of a job. But imagine like a square mot in,
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  Speaker 1: like a raised panel, a raised square of wood and
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: there's a square moat two thirds of the way in
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  Speaker 1: or a third of the way in.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my god, how about this.
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  Speaker 3: Imagine if you had one of those cutting boards that
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: catches the juice, yes, and you screwed it into your wall.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Right, you just got a bunch of those and you
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: lined them up evenly there here you go. Let's raised panel.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Imagine this. Imagine going on the internet and searching raised
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: panel wings cotting and then clicking the images and looking.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: At the boy. That's great. I love it.
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  Speaker 3: Uh. It was usually oak traditionally in the past. These
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: days there's all kinds of other products. Obviously, you can
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: have MDF, which is medium density fiberboard plywood, you know,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: the the in my opinion, kind of the cheap stuff
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: you get at the big box store looks fine because
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: you're gonna end up staining or painting over it. But
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: just make sure it is a stain. Great if you
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: are going to stain it. Otherwise it might not look great,
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: but you can always paint over it, which is what
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: we've done.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's how those the DIY version where it's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: really just dry wall covered with some you know, half
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: round or whatever molding that forms those squares to make
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: it look like, uh, what is it not flat raised panels? Man,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: I can't believe it. That's that's really It's not hard
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to do or no, it's not easy to do, but
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: it's not super hard, especially if you already know your
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: way around you know, cutting tools and yeah, miter saws
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: and like you said, call guns and finishing nail guns.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, if you've got if you're doing it in the
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: big sheets, you're you're gonna want to use a table
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: saw where it gets difficult. And I said earlier, you know,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: it's sort of not too hard as a DIY project.
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  Speaker 3: Where it does get difficult, and this is especially true
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: in older homes, which we found out. You know, our
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: house is from nineteen thirty five, so there's not a
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: straight wall or floor in our house barely.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: And then when you go to.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Put this beautifully perfectly rectangular bedboard up, and then you've
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: got a strip that's two inches wide at the top
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: and it goes down to about a third of an
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: inch at the bottom, and you're just like, oh, my lord.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: If you're good at that kind of stuff, it's not
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: so hard. But if that is a challenge for you
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: cutting something on a long, long angle like that, it
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: is a challenge for me, then it can get dispiriting,
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: is the word I'll use.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I saw. What you wanted to do is you make
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: your chair rail even that's all level, and then the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: basement you you shim and then caulk in so that
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: if you really look close to the baseboard, you'd be like,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: oh that that part of the baseboard has a little
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: dip to it. And you like, get out of my house.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I tried really hard to cover that up. But that's
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the of diy Wayne scouting projects that call gun because
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: you're calling in any grooves or whatever, and then paint,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: priming and paint, and then it does end up looking
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: like just one solid group of paneled wood. It's really
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: a neat thing.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Do you know the old construction turn.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Measured twice, cut once.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: That's a good one. Cock and paint. We'll make it
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: what it ain't.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Oh nice, chuck. If that's not something to end short
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Stuff on, I don't know what is.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: I think short Stuff is out. Stuff you should Know
• 11:38
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• 11:42
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• 11:45
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