House Remodel...I'm new to this and was hoping for any advice

I hope you are not going to live in it while you renovate it. If so, burn it down with you inside. I did it once and it was a mess, no escape from dust, humidity, heat, cold, the neighbor's cat...

...and no we aren't going to live in it while we renovate. Seems like a giant PITA, esp with a little one who is already nosy and about to start crawling.

My wife and I bought her exes mother in law house that was built back in the early 40's. It was, to my surprise entirely sheet rock, which had not aged well. About 1000 square feet, ripped all the rock out, wiring, opened up a two closets and added them to the bathroom. Opened up to another two closets and made it one big one. Had an old attic fan, took it out and put a attic ladder and laid some plywood to make for some room for x-mas decorations and other bull shite. It had mostly hardwood floor and redid it, my cousin does that kind of work. Repainted the outside, inside and replaced all lighting obviously and electrical outlets. Had central heat but no air, put a new a/c in. All new appliances, washer/dryer and picked up some kitchen cabinets on the cheap. New front doors and all new windows. Bought the house for 20 grand, put 40 in it and the house is now worth over a hundred grand. Did all the demo myself along with the floors. Ran all the wiring, outlets and painted the rooms. Contracted the sheet rock, installation of the cabinets, the remodeling of the closets (carpenters), the actual hook up of the electrical box (electrician) and the a/c. Took about 3 months. Working on doing the same to a garage on the property and making it into an apartment. Its about 500 sq. ft.

Buy a few lead paint checking kits and do some testing just to be sure before you start tearing stuff down. Get plenty of good N95 dust masks too, do not want to give yourself a sinus infection. Contractors are all over the place as far as cost and quality of work, you'll really have to ask around of those in you area that have had work done similar to what you are planning. I'm doing a heavy remodel of my own house right now and it's a lot more money and time than you imagine if you want things done right.

Popcorn ceilings can be a breeze. I got sheet plastic on a roll, laid it out and then taped it up the walls about a foot. Then spray/mist the ceiling with water (twice), I can back with a scraper. Once it's all done, just roll up the plastic.

quote:

---

Guy at work seems to think I should leave the wood paneling up and sheet rock over the paneling. Anyone ever do it this way?

---

You could do it that way and buy electrical box extenders to get your outlets and light switches even with the outside edge of the sheetrock.

I've put paneling for wainscoting over sheetrock and capped it off with some chair rail molding to finish the top edge.

My only issue with covering the paneling is I'd want to see what condition the wall under the paneling is in, as in any rot, termite damage, etc.

Plan on it costing roughly double whatever initial estimate you get. Try and get personal recommendations on contractors, in my experience a high percentage are either crooked or incompetent or both. The ones that are worth a crap are usually really backed up. As said above, living in it while work is underway is Hell.

I followed the recommendation from my contractor to remove the paneling and found bad wiring. I'm glad I listened to him.

quote:

---

Removal is real easy, but messy as hell but I'm betting it's more than the three steps method of check for asbestos, wet it down, scrape it off.

I've removed several such ceilings and the main reason many contractors went with that type finish was because it hides a lot of crap. Most of the time tape joints are not nearly as nicely finished as you'd find in a smooth, or even orange peel textured ceiling. So, expect to have to do a fair amount of skimming and floating to make the end result look good.

---

This is all true. I did the same thing in my house and the key is to spray with a garden sprayer first. Wet it real good while the floors are covered. Let is sit for 10 minutes, then go at it with a paint scraper or putty knife. It should come off real easy and not create any dust (which is important in case there's asbestos in it).

After the popcorn is removed, be prepared to go back and touch up some areas with putty before texturing because the popcorn was 100% used to cover up imperfections in the ceiling after not being floated correctly. If it's an older house, you'll likely see divots everywhere the nail or screw was inserted to anchor the sheetrock to the ceiling joists. This is caused by the drywall sagging over time. It's not hard work, it's just very time consuming.