LESLIE: Well, the couple that does home improvement together, hopefully, stays together. Now we’ve got Randy and Cindy together from Pennsylvania. What can we do for you both?
RANDY: Well, we’ve been remodeling our kitchen and we have some old tongue-and-groove paneling that we’re trying to wallpaper over.
TOM: OK.
RANDY: We’ve tried liners and primers and different things and it still seems to telegraph through the wallpaper.
TOM: Yeah, I imagine it would. If it’s tongue-and-groove paneling, doesn’t it have grooves in it that …
LESLIE: It’s got dimensional texture.
TOM: Yeah.
RANDY: Right.
TOM: Well, you’re never going to have a wallpaper that’s thick enough to cover that and there’s nothing that you could really put on the paneling, in terms of a paper underlayment, that’s going to – going to stop that.
LESLIE: Yeah, unless you want to fill all of those ridges with …
TOM: Yeah, but even that. I would rather see you skin it with some thin drywall or, better yet, take it off. Because I don’t think you’re going to find anything that’s going to allow you to cover that with wallpaper and have it not show through, guys. I think that this tongue-and-groove paneling is going to be way too dimensional for you to cover with paper. You need to think about …
LESLIE: You’re always going to see it through.
TOM: Yeah, you’re going to need to think of some other options. Does this go all the way up the wall or does it go halfway up the wall?
RANDY: Goes all the way; floor to ceiling.
TOM: Well. Have you thought about removing it? Will it come off?
RANDY: Not very easily.
TOM: You might want to just experiment with how difficult it might be to remove this. Because if it’s just nailed on, the wall repair is not going to be that significant. If it’s glued on …
LESLIE: If it’s glued on, that’s a different story. (chuckling)
TOM: Yeah, then you’re going to have to skim it with another piece of drywall on top of it. But I don’t think you’re going to find anything that will cover something as dimensional as tongue-and-groove paneling and not show through with wallpaper, guys. OK?
Randy and Cindy, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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