HI all experienced rehabbers,
I am rehabbing a 3bed2bath semi detach in a 70K - 80K ARV neighbour. Should I replace the woodpedaling walls with sheetrock for max profit?
Any advice helps! Thank you!
Anthony
Howdy:
What is woodpedaling? If it is ugly rip it out and replace or even just paint it if it is in good enough condition. Is it wood paneling? If it is really dark then you may just paint. I did one where there was sheetrock under the paneling which still took a lot of work pulling down ( it was in bad shape) and patching holes and texturing and painting.
I just bought a property that had dark wood paneling in every room except the bathroom – yes, even the kitchen…
We left it in one room that could be used as a bedroom OR a den and painted the rest…lightly sand the paneling (especially if there is any gloss, use a good primer, and paint with a decent topcoat…mine came out great.
Keith
Really appreciate your quick response!!! You guys are great!
Anthony
Hey, if you really want it to stand out and still want to get out on the cheap…
Get a bucket of sheetrock joint compound and fill in the seams in the paneling. No need to get detailed, just slap it in. Joint compound dries quickly and you can handsand it very easy. Either do that, or run an electric sander over it (lightly, remember, it sands easy).
Once smooth, you can paint it. If you’ve really smoothed it, regular paint will make it look like sheetrock, or if it’s a little rough, paint with a soft texture paint mix. Looks good, and it’s a whole lot easier than tearing out and replacing with sheetrock.
Raj
Thanks Raj.
Another question: The current heating system uses oil furnace and radiator. If I am to keep the radiator could I replace the oil furnace with some type of gas heating? The current oil furnace is very old so I will need to replace it anyway, and I really don’t like the oil tank in the back yard. I guess my concern is does the furnace work with gas heater, and is it economic to use a gas instead of an oil furnace.
Thanks,
Anthony
You’ll need to have a heating guy look and see if the radiators that you have can be used with gas heat…most gas heat that I’ve seen is “forced hot air” that comes out through air duct rather than heating water and pushing hot water or steam.
As far as costs, gas was a bit cheaper but I’m hearing that gas will skyrocket this year because of the hurricanes in the gulf where most of the US gas wells are located. All of my properties are gas – oil is almost unheard of here…but in New England, oil is king…
Keith
Thanks Keith. I will have some heating guy look at it.
Anthony
We still want to know what woodpedaling is.
Sorry, it should be wood paneling. I am new to this business, and obviously there are a lot I need to learn ;D
One thing to consider is why there is wood paneling. As far as I know I have never seen new construction with wood paneling walls. Usually is it put up to cover something (except in basements). Most cases I have seen is to cover up cracked plaster walls. But I have seen it done to cover mold and water damage and even to disguise a sagging foundation.
Painting paneling is a quick fix. Are you flipping or holding? What size is the house? You may want to consider doing a layover with drywall in key rooms if not the whole house.
As to the heating question. I know they do make gas boilers that are use with radiant heat. Of course you need to condiser the cost involved which I would imagine will be no small amount.
Good luck
Thanks Baloo for the reminding. I will definitely pay attention when I find wood paneling in new/pretty houses next time. This house is a 1900 old house, so I guess wood paneling was normal in that time. And wood paneling is only used in the living room. All other rooms use plaster. I am going to fix and flip it.
Thanks again for your input.
Anthony
i have seen modular construction with wood paneling walls.
I would not remove wood paneling from the walls of an older house unless I was prepared to do some major work. there is probably a moisture issue you do not want to deal with. I have had good success filling in the seams in wood paneling with low shrink joint compound then priming, then covering with wall paper.
If your dealing with any type of beaded paneling why waste your time filling and sanding? Just install sheet rock over the existing wall tape and paint. Better then new.
Time is better then money!
Baloo,
I am not understanding your question. Filling the seams in the beaded wood pedaling 
then wall papering would take about half the time of drywalling. And that does not even include the time involved correcting the depths of the electrical swtiches and sockets, and installing new door and window mouldings that would be necessary if you added a layer of drywall.
eta: there is no sanding required when filling the seams. One grunt could deseam a typical bedroom in 1-2 hours.