Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

We are moving into my FIL's house soon...

The 2 bedrooms we will be taking over both have ugly wood panelling.

I wanted to take it down. There is sheetrock underneath, but FIL said that he doesn't know the condition of it.

He thinks we should just paint over the panelling. He said at least that way if it doesn't cover well, we can take the panelling down and deal with the sheetrock, but that we should try that first.

I think it would be better to take down the panelling, do whatever repair work we need to do, spackling, patching, etc. and paint that. I feel like that is the *right* thing to do.

The panelling has been up for over 20 years. It is buckled in some places, he says we'll just put more nails in it to hold it down.

He is 70 years old, DH is NOT handy and I know won't be helping, and I think FIL just wants to do it in whatever way would be the least work.

So ... WWYD? And does anyone have experience painting panelling? Any special things you need to do to it first?
TIA!
Melissa

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

we just loved into a house and did both - painted some paneling and took some down. the paneling was very dark but in decent condition.

to paint it, i used a primer first and then used 3 coats of paint. it came out pretty good. i am happy with it. it was only half way up the wall so it wasn't as much work as a full wall.

we removed paneling from several walls, spackled and painted. let me tell you, it was a big PITA. i really wish we had just resheetrocked. but i listened to my Dad and he didn't think it was necessary. we spackled for days to get it smooth. now that it's done and painted, you would never know it was there.

either way you go, it's a lot of work. good luck!

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

It depends on how much time you have and who's willing to do the work -
Painting the paneling is just nailing it down, priming and painting. - removing it...........who knows HOW much work you're going to end up with?

I understand that it's the 'right' way to do it, but if you don't have someone who's willing and able to do the work the right way, and you don't want to pay someone to do it, it could be more of a disaster than just painting over the paneling .........

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

Everything I am reading online says that the panelling first needs to be sanded, then primed and painted, or the paint will bubble, peel....

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

We have paneling in three rooms. One room we primed, haven't painted it yet but its a least better than it was. It'll definitely take at least two coats.

We are going to eventually take the paneling down in all the rooms, but we will just resheetrock it afterwards.

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

don't read too much online I read the same stuff, the walls would need to be washed, sanded, etc - no way! My painter painted the paneling in our playroom and it came out great! He just primed first - the paneling was in good condition though but needed to be secured a bit in some areas.

I actually like the look of it - but I guess it's a personal preference. there was no way we wanted to rip it down and re-sheetrock with all that dust! Not worth it for this room at least. I posted pics a while ago on it - you can search for them if you want

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

I would just paint it... My parents have paneling in their basement and have just kept painting over it. It looks fine...

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

We have paneling in our kitchen We painted it.

We had paneling in our laundry room that we took down. HUGE PIA

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

We painted over the paneling in our basement. I didn't do anything to prep it except wipe it down with a damp cloth. Getting in between the grooves can be annoying with the first coat of paint but after that it wasn't a problem.

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

We painted our paneling in our Basement, and we acutally like it.

The Painted Paneling acutally gave us a beach-y look.

Of course it was alot of work to Wash the walls them primmed the walls then paint the walls it also took 3 coats of paint to cover the dark walls.

Message edited 8/5/2008 1:56:57 PM.

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

It depends on how much work you are up for!!

We took down paneling in the foyer, hallway, stairwell and family room of my old house. It was a HUGE job. The paneling was nailed and glued. We did it ourselves. HUGE JOB!! But, I'm glad we took it down. HTH

Re: Paint Panelling or take it down and see what is underneath?

We pulled our paneling down and HAD to replace the sheetrock....it was so old and just falling apart. They had glued & nailed the paneling on in some spots, so turned out to not be as easy a job as we hoped !

I voted to just paint it since I think the grooves would give the walls a cool look !