I've got ghastly fake wood paneling in a room. Its just hammered directly onto the 2x4 studs. If you scratch at it long enough you can get the paper/plastic 'wood print' off (leaving masoboard), but it literally takes an hour to do a 2'x2' area, so I've given up on that. Tearing it all down and putting up drywall will just take too long and be too expensive at this point.
Plan B was to fill all the grooves (they're about 1/8" deep) and joint the seams and corners then prime and paint. After spending too much time and making one hell of a mess I've given up on that. The good news: the whole room (about 20'x15') has had the walls washed with TSP, Ammonia and Mineral Spirits (as per the directions on the B-I-N Primer). The panelling still looks intact after this chemical assault, so it seems the plastic print will stay on the Masoboards. I've also jointed the corners (the old panelling just used to butt up against itself at the corners): I taped the interior corners and mudded them up pretty well, and put steel beads and mudded up the exterior corners.
So here is Plan C: put a really rough coat of mud into the grooves, sand it smoothish, then throw on "Wall Liner" (which is like thick wallpaper), then paint. Here are the questions:
- I know I need to size the panelling before putting on the liner. Should I just size it, or should I also prime it? The liner is thick stuff, so I'm not really worred about anything bleeding through. I'm rather worried about it not sticking properly to the panelling and peeling or bubbling in a few months/years.
- After I have put up the wall liner, do I have to prime it, or can I just paint directly onto it (the stuff sells itself as 'ready to paint')?
- Given that I've never wallpapered a room before, how long do you figure it will take to do this?
- Other suggestions/comments?
Cheers!