I primed the back and front of our bathroom beadboard but still get shrinkage in the winter. We didn't glue it down, just nailed it, but wonder if that would make a difference?

What do you mean by Shrinkage ? thanks.

The wood shrinks ( winter) and expands (usually summer) with the humidity showing gaps between the boards. I read that if you prime both sides and the tongues and grooves it will do this less.

It did not help ours enough as we still get gaps. We used the pine two board tongue and groove and primed all, nailed it down with probably not enough nails as I was hesitant after gutting the po's super glued, 2 million nailed sheetings off the walls resulting in a total gut...grrr.... Things that I wish I had done, 1-used more nails 2-glued 3- if I had it to do over I would purchase the pine sheet .

Thanks for the advice grammy46 & changingitup

I don't think there is anything you can do to keep the bead board from expanding and contracting slightly over time. I installed the wider version in my bath, I will add a link below.

It has been in for a year now. We installed during summer, it shrank during winter, (I am in MD and it is very humid during summer at times), re-expanded during the summer, and already seems to be settling back to it's shrink size for the winter. It is not that noticeable now. It was the first winter because of the last coat of paint.

I did prime before it went up, then painted two coats while up on the wall to get all the trim to blend together. When it shrank, the paint split so it looked kind of messy and didn't look right in the cracks. I just ran a space heater full blast for 2 days and made sure it was really dry in there at the driest part of winter then took a razor blade and very carefully worked each crack. Peeling out any excess paint and touching up all the way inside the crack with a tiny brush. This way when it expands and contracts it is much less noticeable.

We used just nails (with a nail gun). No glue. I would also beware of putting it up to tight if you think it is too dry and might expand. My dad did this in his bath and the boards buckled when the humidity it. Better to have them shrink a little than pop out.

Good luck,
Kalindi

Here is a link that might be useful: Wainscoting