How do you figure chair rail molding height

Hey there Mark!

You can place it anywhere you'd like, but general rule of thumb is divide the height of the wall into thirds, and the chair rail is placed 1/3 the distance up the wall.

For an 8' ceiling, I place the rail 32-36" off the ground, depending on the size of the rail(heavier rail goes higher).

Thanks,
Json

3 foot is traditional. We have 12 foot ceilings in a 100+ year old home, and they placed the rail at 3 foot (which is actually 1/4 of the room height).

The idea is that when you scoot back a chair to stand up, the chair back will hit the chair rail and not hit (damage) the wall. Therefore, if you have shorter chairs, a shorter chair rail might be desirable.

We install chair rail at 36" for 8ft walls and 9ft walls. Only time we do different is if the customer wants a totally different look, in those cases were adding more to the wall than just chairrail,

I have 8ft ceilings and we are installing chair rail. Below the chair rail we are doing picture frame molding and crown as well. Should the chair rail still be 36 inches from the floor. I am concerened you won't appreciate the picture frame molding and was thinking of installing chair rail higher than the 36 inches. I don't know if this would shorten the look of the height of the top of the wall, since we are using the crown also. Any suggestions would be appreciated.