LESLIE: Now we’ve got Cody in Kansas on the line who has a sheetrock question. What can we do for you today?
CODY: Well, we’re actually renovating our kitchen and first renovation. We’ve never done this. We have wood-paneling walls and I’m wondering, can you sheetrock over the wood paneling? Do we need to do a complete teardown and tear it out before we sheetrock?
TOM: I mean you could drywall on top of that but I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think you should take down that old wood paneling. You’re going to get a much cleaner look when you’re done and I just don’t think it’s a good idea to have all that extra material on your wall.
CODY: OK. Is there – should I go with ¼-inch drywall? Should I go with ½-inch?
TOM: Is this regular paneling that’s like an 1/8- or ¼-inch thick?
CODY: Yes.
TOM: Yeah, that should come down fairly quickly. Once you pull all the electrical cover plates off the boxes, you should be able to get that going at the seams and pull that right off. And then just lightly sand the walls, if there’s any imperfections there, and then you can apply new drywall on that.
You could use probably – if you have existing drywall there, you could use 3/8-inch drywall as your second coat. And if you glued it, make sure you can – you’ll need fewer fasteners but make sure you overlap the seams. So don’t use the same exact seams as exists in the original wall. Does that make sense?
CODY: Yes. And the original wall, I believe, is the – it’s lath and plaster; it’s not actual drywall.
TOM: Oh, plaster lath? Yeah. I would definitely go on top of that. I would not pull down the plaster lath. I’ve done that job both ways and it’s a lot cleaner if you just go over it. But keep in mind you’re going to have to extend the electrical boxes and perhaps trim around windows and doors and that sort of thing to compensate for the additional thickness.
CODY: OK. Alright. I appreciate it.
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