Because of the crappy job done by the previous owner of my house, in order to fix a leak in one of my bathrooms, the plumber has to go in through the dining room wall. The wall has wood panelling on it, and the plumber will not touch it, as it is not covered by my HomeShield insurance. How do I remove the panelling so I can put it back "good as new"?

 

Assuming it is glued, I do not know how it can be done. Certainly not good as new even if you could get it off.

 

Rev,

If your paneling has the typical grooves vertically, about the best I could recommend is to cut down the grooves on either side of the plumbing (I'm assuming bath/shower), replace it carefully and fill in the kerfs left by the saw.

If your paneling is floor to ceiling, you'll need to remove the base mould and crown mould first. This can be done, don't panic. If the paneling is a wainscot, you'll remove the base and the chair rail at the top. Then cut down any groove. If you could locate a stud on each side it would be great.

It's always nice to leave an access panel to the plumbing, in some areas code requires it, but it's often not aesthetically a good plan. So we are left with what we have.

We can get your paneling down, plumbing fixed, wall put back together with little if any noticeable finish problems.

I know you'll have other questions, I'm sure other pro's will be along with perhaps better ideas. Take a deep breath.

Oh, by the way, what part of TX?

 

I was able to get the panelling off by punching the nails all the way through (the holes are not noticeable) then slowly popping the piece of the wall from top to bottom. The guy that I bought the house from didn't use much glue when he put this panelling up, so it came of real easy.

After the plumber does his thing, then I get to see if I can put it back up!


Oh, and Sonny, Palmer, south on I-45 from Dallas.

 

Sounds like you're well on your way then.

Wasn't as drastic as I/we'd anticipated.

 

Good thing everyone is not pessimistic. Glad it turned out ok.