by pedestrians and equipment that may pass along the hallway in which the wainscot is installed the ledges 106 are offset from the bases 66 to provide for the gap between the wall 12 and the panel 14 air is allowed to flow between the panels 14 and the corner guard 64 since glue or adhesive is not used to mount the panel 14 this mitigates warping of the panel 14 due to uneven moisture levels between the front and backsides of the panel 14 and mold growth also occupants of the building are exposed to less toxic materials other embodiments of the outside corner are also contemplated by way of example and not limitation referring to fig3 and 3a the outside corner is identical to the outside corner shown in fig2 and 2a except that the cap 72 a has a different configuration the cap 72 a has a sharper corner compared to the cap 72 shown in fig2 a the third embodiment shown in fig4 and 4a does not have a cap 72 rather the corner guard 64 has end arms 86 with nubs 88 that regulate the lateral position of the panels 14 the panels 14 can slide laterally in channels 32 20 and 59 the end arms 86 limit the lateral movement of the panels 14 referring now to fig5 and 5a an inside corner is shown the inside corner may have an inside corner guard 74 and an inside cap 78 the inside corner guard 74 may have two bases 76 that are used to mount the inside corner.