Dado rail removal

[Starzy]

Hi folks

I’m looking to remove a dado rail that runs up the staircase and around the landing but not sure how to deal with the cracked/missing paint left behind. Could this be skimmed with some polyfilla and sanded by someone with little experience? If so which polyfilla do you recommend as the last time I checked there was at least 5 different types.

Alternatively I would have to get all the walls skimmed and a plasterer told me I would be mad to do that as the rest of the wall is in good condition.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as it’s the first thing you see coming in the front door and if it was going to be real noticeable then i would have to try and convince the wife to leave it on.

cheers
Starzy

 

[Tigercubrider]

Possibly carefully cut the dado to remove at least 12”. That may allow you to gently prize the rail away from the wall and slip wedges in, so it comes off at a very shallow angle and doesn’t rip the wall apart.

They may have built the wall with wooden blocks in it to allow the rail to be fixed.

then something like
https://www.toupret.co.uk/individual-customers.html
to feather the gap?

 

[Starzy]

The dado rail is only like 4”. I was going to run a blade or something along the edge of it so I didn’t pull a lot of paint off with it. So u suggest removing more to use the product u linked?