Removing paneling

Anyone do this? We have a room in our new house that has the old school paneling. I really want it out I'm sure alot of this depends on how the condition is of the walls underneath but - anyone do this? How much did it cost and how long did it take? TIA!

Re: Removing paneling

My dad has done this for us in our old house (and loads of times in his own home, etc).

The biggest issue is...no one knows what condition the wall underneath is in. So that's the big question. It could be paneling was used to hide those walls, or could have simply been the IN thing at the time.

In our situation, paneling was used b/c the wall underneath was not level, the ceiling and floor were not even, etc. So putting up the sheetrock required my dad to build up parts of the wall to make it level (for lack of a better word).

If someone knows what they are doing, it's not really a huge deal. But finding a person to come in and just do a small job like that, not going to be an easy find.

Another option you have, which we did in our first apartment (family owned home), we had a painter prime and paint all the paneling. Actually looks pretty good b/c you can see the lines of the paneling. But bottom line is, it's paneling under there. I would want it out, in my forever home, asap. LOL

I wish I had a good rec for this, but I dont. A good handyman for small jobs is hard to find.

Message edited 8/15/2011 12:57:33 AM.

Re: Removing paneling

Or there is NO wall underneath. BTDT! Then you have to drywall because you only have studs.

Also some people glued" paneling into the wall to avoid uneven walls.

Unless you are ready to "discover" and drywall the room again, don't start that project. If it's not in the budget, you can just paint over it.

Is that "real" wood paneling or the fake wood look?

Re: Removing paneling

we removed all of our paneling. You will have no idea what it will be like until you start trying. As said it can be glued and if that is the case your better off just resheet rocking or just paint over it for now. If nailed you will just have a ton of spackling to do.

I just sheetrocked which was actually better to do since we discovered we didn't have a good amount of insulation in the outer wall and we had a bee's nest (old but still it was there) within the wall.