My mother in law’s house has some old,thin cracked/split 3/16″ wall paneling in her 1963 brick house. It was damaged by Hurricane Gustav as the door blew open creating air pressure differential which cracked/split it in spots. IS THERE ANYTHING economical that can be done to repair it or replace it with some other type of wall paneling/board OTHER THAN SHEETROCK? She received estimates on sheetrocking the house and it is extremely expensive to undertake for the whole house. Some of this old thin paneling is already wallpapered so this causes more problems to repair and the paneling is very obsolete. I would appreciate your opinions on this, I could possibly submit some digital photos if it will help.
—
Well you can always buy more wall panelling. try going to a warehouse type place and u might find some sales or put an ad in the paper looking for 2nd hand panelling as people likely have some laying around. you might be able to take the panelling down, turn it around and paint the backside of it and put that side turned out? or maybe get by with panelling some rooms with the good paneling and drywall the smaller rooms?
—
That is a good suggestion possibly with the good paneling but the cracked panels would be completely through it, preventing a side swap. A discount/used building material outlet may be an option. I think there is one in BR called “Restore”, I may go by there/call and see what they may have. As I said the paneling was a VERY CHEAP paneling from early 60’s.
—
I am not sure if any of those things will do a decent job of repairing the paneling. We don’t want to remove the paneling just to reverse the sides. That would be a lot of work for little gain. I think some sanding might help BUT after the finish is altered by sanding THEN WHAT can be done to restore it to a finish again. I don’t think drywall mud will do much good, I could be wrong but? Thanks for your ideas, this is a real mess to correct with little money to do something better.