My 40 year old house has a LOT of old paneling in it. I hate it, my spouse hates it and we both want it gone. However I don't want to go through the time and expense of replacing all of it with drywall since I'd be replacing approximately 200 linear feet of paneling with drywall. I have a friend that is telling me that he placed heavy paintable wallpaper over his paneling and it worked really well. However he only did it 2 or 3 months ago, so neither of us know the long-term effectiveness of this process. I don't want to go through this and then have it falling off the wall in a year.
The paneling I have is the smooth surface with the minimal depth grooving (approximately 1/8" deep grooving) I know I'll need to mud the grooving to smooth it out. But do I need to sand the paneling prior to placing the wallpaper or just make sure that all oils are removed from the paneling prior to placement?
Best Answer
I have successfully done this with rental units. I may have gone overboard but this is what I did. Skimmed the grooves with DuraBond, scuffed the panels with a polesander while feathering the edges of the joint compound. Applied a coat of primer on the panels and joint compound. Read the directions for the wallpaper paste and if they recommend the use of "sizing" (basically a primer for the paste to improve adhesion) use it. Hang the wallpaper, when dry apply primer to the paper (two coats on the seams) the apply the color coat.