Are you ready to update all that outdated wood paneling in your home? Before you start tearing into your walls, there are a few questions you should ask. For instance, is there drywall behind your wood paneling? What’s the best way to remove wood paneling?

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before removing paneling from your walls:

Is There Drywall Behind Wood Paneling?

In most cases, no, there won’t be any drywall behind wood paneling. Since paneling is a cheaper alternative to drywall, you’ll typically find one or the other, not both. In particular, if your home is more than 20 or 30 years old, you can expect your paneling to be nailed directly to studs.

That said, every situation is unique. So, you shouldn’t make any assumptions about what exists behind your walls.

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to tell if there’s drywall behind your paneling without having to remove any of it. In fact, here are a few simple ways to determine if there’s drywall behind wood paneling.

5 Ways To Tell If There’s Drywall Behind Wood Paneling

Before you start tearing down your wood paneling, it’s important to know what you’re getting into.

Here are a few simple ways to figure out if there’s any drywall behind your paneling, or if you’re simply dealing with studs:

1) Press on the wall

The first, and easiest, way to figure out if there’s drywall behind wood paneling is to simply press on the wall. Since wood paneling is pretty thin, it doesn’t take much to bend it.

If pressing on the wall causes the paneling to give, you can be pretty sure it was attached directly to studs.

If, on the other hand, your wall feels rigid and doesn’t give when you press on it, you’re likely to find drywall behind it.

2) Inspect behind an outlet or light switch

If pressing on your wall didn’t give you a clear answer, your next best bet is to look behind an outlet or light switch. Just remove the cover plate and take a peek inside.

If your paneling was attached directly to studs, you won’t see anything but paneling. However, if your paneling was attached to drywall, you should be able to see it around the edges of the cutout.

3) Drill an inconspicuous hole

If the previous two methods didn’t give you the kind of confirmation you were looking for, the next best option is to drill a hole in an inconspicuous spot on your wall. For instance, you could drill a hole behind a wall hanging or a piece of furniture.

The best part about this method is that you only need to drill a small hole. In fact, you shouldn’t need to go any bigger than 1/8 of an inch.

If your paneling is attached directly to drywall, you will see drywall dust come out of the hole while you are drilling. If it’s attached directly to studs, you won’t.

It’s really that easy.

4) Look behind baseboards

If you don’t like the idea of drilling an inconspicuous hole in your paneling, then you can always remove the baseboards and drill a hole there. Or, you can simply inspect for signs of drywall.

If your paneling is attached to studs, you won’t see any drywall behind it. However, if it’s attached to drywall, you should be able to see or feel the edges of the sheetrock in spots.

5) Remove the wood paneling (i.e., just go for it)

If you’re committed to removing your paneling, and you’re going to remove whether there’s drywall or not, you might as well just go for it.

Just grab a pry bar, hammer, oscillating tool, or any other implement of demolition and start pulling it down.

If there’s drywall behind the paneling, you may have a harder time removing it–especially if it was glued down. Meanwhile, if it was attached directly to studs, that paneling should come down with a few strong tugs.

How To Remove Paneling From Drywall

If you’re ready to remove your wood paneling, but you’re worried about damaging the drywall behind it, there are a few things you can do to minimize the risk.

Step 1: Assess How The Paneling Is Attached

The first step is to assess how the paneling is attached. In some cases, it may be glued directly to the drywall. In other cases, it might be screwed or nailed in place. More than likely, it is a combination of glue and brad nails.

To determine if it’s glued, I recommend removing the cover plate from an outlet or light switch, then pulling on the paneling.

If the paneling moves a decent amount, then it might only be nailed in place.

On the flip side, if it’s hard to separate from the drywall, you will likely have to content with some glue.

Step 2: Carefully Remove A Small Section

Once you’ve determined how the paneling is attached to the wall, you need to remove your first section.

To do this, I recommend using a utility knife or oscillating tool.

The goal here is to give yourself enough room to get your hand, or a pry bar underneath the paneling in order to start pulling it away from the drywall.

Step 3: Pry It Away From The Drywall

Once you’ve made a small opening, you can start prying the paneling away from the drywall.

You can use a spackling knife, pry bar, flat head screwdriver, or any other tool you can wedge between the paneling and drywall.

If it’s glued down, you might need to use a heat gun or hair dryer to loosen up the adhesive a bit. Just be careful not to overdo it as too much heat can damage the drywall.

Step 4: Start Pulling

As much as I’d like to tell you that theres a clean, damage-free way to remove paneling from drywall, I can’t.

No matter whether the paneling is glued or nailed in place, there is going to be some damage. At this point, you should just embrace it, and start pulling the paneling from the wall.

To be clear, you don’t need to go hog wild and do needless damage to your drywall.

Step 5: Repair, Texture, and Paint Your Drywall

Once you’ve removed the paneling from your wall, the next step is to repair any damage that the drywall sustained during the removal process. If your paneling was brad-nailed in place, you might only have a few small holes to patch.

For those of you that had to contend with glue, this process is going to be a little more involved.

Once you’ve repaired all the damage, the only thing left to do is texture and paint your wall. For a small wall, you can use a product like Homax Wall Texture. However, if you have wood paneling throughout an entire room we recommend the Wagner Power Tex Electric Texture Sprayer.

Beware Of Asbestos

If you live in an older home you should take extra precaution when tearing down wood paneling. If there is drywall behind your walls, there is a chance it contains asbestos.

Seriously, this isn’t something to mess around with. If you do see drywall behind your wood paneling, and you don’t want to run the risk of asbestos exposure, we recommend calling a professional to come take a look and assess your situation.

Is it difficult to remove wood paneling?

No, in most cases, removing wood paneling is not a difficult task. If it was attached directly to studs, it should come down with a few strong tugs. However, if it was glued to drywall, you may have a harder time removing it.

Is it cheaper to use drywall or wood paneling?

Yes, in most cases, wood paneling is a cheaper alternative to drywall. Since wood paneling does not require taping, mudding, or texturing, it is much less expensive and labor-intensive. That said, it is much less efficient and versatile than drywall, and it does not provide the same level of soundproofing.

With that in mind, if you want to add wood paneling to your home, we recommend hanging drywall first, and then covering it with paneling. While this is more expensive, it will give you the best results.

Do people use wood paneling anymore?

Yes, people still use paneling in their homes. While it is not as popular as it once was, there are still many people who prefer the look of wood paneling to drywall. Additionally, paneling is much cheaper than drywall, so it is a popular choice for budget-conscious homeowners.

Do you need drywall behind paneling?

No, you don’t need drywall behind paneling. In fact, many people choose to install wood paneling directly on studs. However, if you want the best results, we recommend hanging drywall first and then covering it with paneling.

Final Thoughts

While removing wood paneling might seem like a straightforward process, it’s best to proceed with caution. If you’re not sure what’s behind your paneling, you can use the tips in this article to figure out what, exactly, you’re getting yourself into.

Got any other tips on removing (or hanging) wood paneling? Be sure to drop your ideas in the comments below.