Can someone tell me how hard or easy it is to remove wall paneling, the plain,old 60’s – 70’s,thin wood kind. What is the best way to remove it? Crowbars,Mall hammers,flat pry bars? I will need to get three rooms cleared which may be 700 sq. ft. or so total, down to the insulation and make sure the wood studs are ready for sheetrock board. Anything that I should know about doing this, I plan to rip/pop the panels off and toss outside to be disposed of. The contractor wants to charge about $2.25 per sq. ft. to demo the paneling. Oh, and I will have to pull off the electrical switch/outlet covers and take off the ceiling,baseboard,and door/window case moldings right? I need to make a decision by tomorrow on doing this or not.
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Just a note, it is possible to paint paneling. That would be a lot easier. I painted my den a sage green, and it looks great. No one even realizes that it’s paneling unless I tell them!
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You can also use a oil based stain blocking primer and paint the paneling, Then texture and paint like sheetrock. This also allows repairing holes and other minor defects with Mud and tape before textureing.
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What little I have been around the older paneling, It was real wood and normally nailed with colored nails about the same size as finish nails only panel nails have ridges around them making them a little harder to pull that plain finish nails. Be careful with the trim if you plan to use it over it will split and break real easy. Trim material can be a big expense if you need to buy much of it. I don’t think I have ever seen anyone “glue” paneling to the studs so you should be able to remove it with out to much effort.
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Not difficult, just time consuming. I use two of those flat demo bars with a hook on one end and nail pullers
on both ends. Yes, you need to remove outlet covers, switch covers and light fixtures first. You can get those flat demo bars at any builders supply, or Harbor Freight.
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Seems like most paneling is 4 ft by 8ft- that would cost 32 bucks a sheet to tear off at ! I would call that ridiculous- I tore off paneling and then sprayed and textured the walls. I used a hammer- some pulled off easily by hand- so- I think it was pretty easy- and I am female.
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I started removing about 1/3 of the paneling in the three connected rooms and it was going pretty good. The paneling was popping off with a little help of pulling on it, using big and little crowbars/flat bars/big screwdrivers. Then I found out the contractor said he had reduced the wall ft total from over 6000 sq. ft. for wall/ceilings for the whole house, down to 1730 sq. ft. for the paneling removal (not ceilings)in the three rooms. I just dropped everything as is due to no reduction of price for my work. I might be wrong but 1700 sq. ft. sounds like a lot for the three rooms,panel removal on walls only? I don’t have the exact room measurements to really figure it out.
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If the walls are 8′ high and the three rooms are 10′ x 12′, that would be, which would be fairly large rooms 3*10*12*8=2880 or 3*8*10*8=1920