paneling - what to do?

[crokett]

The entire upstairs of the house we are buying has wood paneling on the walls. I don't like the stuff. I can paint it, except that being paneling it of course has grooves in it and I'd rather it not look like painted paneling. I can hang drywall over it, except that would be tres $$$$, not to mention messy and all the time it would take. What options to I have to hide the grooves? Can I fill 'em?

[JR]

David,

Is there drywall beneath the paneling? You could rip the paneling down, and repair the drywall. It's a very long, messy project, but with a good result. You really don't want to paint the paneling - it'll just look like painted paneling!

I have friend who bought a house that was 100% paneled. Cheep, cheezy paneling. Even the inside of the medicine cabinets had contact paper that looked like paneling! They ripped it all out and became drywall experts in the process.

JR

[dkhoward]

I hve done the same thing in our house. Most of our house was covered with cheap paneling (paper over cheap plywood). Fotunately, it was not glued only nailed in place so it came down quite easily. Beneath was wallboard which had been taped and bedded but never finished. We now have a variety of finishes from faux venetian plaster to hard plaster and paint. Our ceilings were all shot with popcorn finish. After much scraping and vacuuming, the ceilings have a rough plaster finish with a soft off white finish. It is a big job but well worth the effort in my opinion.

[Handy Al]

There's a type of paintable wallpaper that can bridge the gooves. I used it in our old house that had what looked like T111 for paneling in the living room. Do a Google search on paintable wallpaper paneling and you get lots of hits.

[crokett]

There is nothing behind the paneling. I've already checked. If I can fill the grooves, I don't think it would look like painted paneling, especially if I do some of the textured painting I was thinking about.

I will search on that paintable wallpaper- that may be what I am looking for.

[AAJIII]

I know you said that you did not want to do sheetrock, but you could leave up the paneling and cover it with 1/4" rock. I have a feeling that with all that filler in the grooves eventually the filler could start to fall out and look even worse.

[rg32]

That 1/4 sheet rock would work great for you.
I have an old house that is done with lath and plaster and that 1/4-inch rock goes nicely over the walls and ceilings that are in bad shape. As far as mud work goes,if you are terrible like I and want the job to go fast with little mess, find a good dry wall worker who does moonlighting. My guy’s name is "Fast Eddy" for a good reason and he excepts beer as payment.

[crokett]

I don't really want to do sheetrock. I was thinking a 2-part filler like Bondo would last a good long while.

[gfr]

Mr. David, look here first before removing on overlaying paneling with dry wall.

http://www.decoratetoday.com/default.asp?si=4&ref=1

Especially view this section (next link) (Mamy Many pages of ideas) of heavy mill textured wall covering and borders. Page 3 displays a couple of the more tradition drywall textures. My wife and I have yet to select which one we'll include in our overlay project.

http://www.decoratetoday.com/products/wallpaper/search_results.asp-asp--si--4?gensearchby=1

Home Depot and Lowes also carries a small selection of textured coverings where you can at least get a quick visual of this product.

[silverfox]

They make a filler for just such a purpose. I have never used it but I THINK it was here on this forum that someone did use it with good results....a LOOOOONG time ago.
Mike

[crokett]

Frankie, thanks for the links. There were some interesting ideas there. I think I am gonna just fill the lines and paint. I looked at the paper to cover, but that essentially means I am wallpapering a room, then painting a room and if I screw up the paper part, it looks like I just painted over wallpaper. That would look worse than painting over the paneling.

[Stytooner]

My experience says you may run into problems with the crack filling method. While most of the grooves are just that, every 4' is a joint in the groove. You may have problems with filler cracking due to manel movement from humidity changes. Especially so if there isn't something behind the paneling.
The best soloution would be drywall. Other soloutions are working down from the best. Paper can be just as costly as drywall and even moreso sometimes. If you go the paper route, to save a few bucks on paper and to get a look that is kinda neat, you could turn the paneling into wanescote at the bottom. Install a chair rail. Install some nice little lattice strips on the vertical grooves. Paper the top portion and pain to suit. This would reduce your paper cost by about a third. You could mill your own slats and chairail. One other though. Chair rail looks funny without baseboard and crown molding. Crown molding and chair rail will also reduce the need for professional accuracy on you papering.

[Thalermade]

Crockett, before filling the cracks, paint a couple of walls and put some furniture in the room and try it out for a while. Probably 10 years ago, we painted the paneling in my Mom's living room, and you don't really notice it because of the furniture. If anything, the grooves can become an "architectural enhancement"

All we did was clean the walls real well, primered and painted. Her living room is painted a light color, so maybe that helps too.

[crokett]

Thalermade, I might try that, thanks. Besides the $$$ and time, another reason I am balking at hanging drywall is that all the electrical boxes will have to be removed and moved. All the doorframes will have to be removed and reinstalled after hanging the drywall. Either that or some sort of filler strip would have to be used to cover the gap between the trim and the frame.

Lee, I thought about wainscotting but not sure how it would look in a bedroom.

[KenBurris]

David,
Here's what I did - not painted, but you could. 1 Gal water-based poly, a couple rolls of Postal Wrap for the room.