Stripping varnish and paint

[eboo]

I have these walls. They're wood panels. Like, real 3/4" knotty pine wood panels. The room is so 50's looking and ugly. At first, I wanted to remove them all and sheetrock it, but it is a huge room and that is too much work for me, and I don't have the money to pay out. Then, I tried to prime over it with Latex Killz and two coats of latex paint. But, the paint is still cracking apart. So, what should I do? Sand over it, remove it with varnish remover, or acetone? My dad said pure acetone works better and it's cheaper. Is this true? I'm so pissed off and daunted by this project. Arghh.

 

[EEE]

acetone is gonna emit some seriously noxious and flammable fumes. imo, rocking it would be easier than stripping, whichever method you use, and give far better looks.

 

[eboo]

What is rocking the wood mean.

 

[BigWill]

"rocking" is short for sheetrocking, or drywalling.

 

[EEE]

huh-huh... you said wood... huh-huh

i meant sheetrock. it's cheap and not that hard to do.
hiring the job out might surprise you how affordable it is.

what's behind the panels? maybe there already is sheetrock?

 

[eboo]

Nothing. Not even insulation.

You can sheetrock right over the wood? What about the window and door frames?

Hmm...

 

[Dead Horse]

You can rock over the wood. You will have to remove the casings around the doors and windows but if you are careful when removing the old ones they should be reusable.

How big is the entire room? I could give you a ballpark cost of what it would go for if given the dimensions. PM me if you have questions....

 

[horn4life]

You will fumigate yourself using acetone, plus there IS a reason for the health warnings on the bottle.

Too bad you didn't rub down the old varnished wood with denatured alcohol and steel wool or your kilz might have adhered.

I KNOW you are both pissed and bummed but at this point you best scenario is probably to rock over the whole thing. OR so some sort of paint "effect" like a crackle finish which would fall under your "less expensive" desire.