To remove or not to remove old wall paneling BRRRR

[Sage Souther]

What would you do? Remove old wall paneling and horse hair plaster underneath, and install new drywall or just paint old paneling? 

[Alex L.]

Quote from @Eliott Elias:

Always remove paneling, it serves no purpose. There should be drywall under it. 

 I've rehabbed a few older properties with wall paneling that didn't have drywall beneath them -- just plain studs. And even if there is drywall beneath, depending on how the paneling was applied (particularly glue), remediation might be a hell of a job. Might not even be much of a cost difference in skim-coating the damaged drywall vs putting new stuff up, which is what my recent dilemma was on a current rehab that I ripped all the ugly, painted paneling out of.

If either of those issues are at play here, I'd personally just take it all down and put up fresh new drywall, especially if you're using the BRRRR method. Drywall really isn't that expensive (labor prices may vary) and the house will look nicer, which should help a bit with the appraisal price, and better to get this project done out of the way now rather than later after refinancing. Hopefully the paneling wasn't glued on though, and it comes down easily with drywall behind it that's in good shape. Would save a lot of time and money.

If BRRRR weren't in the equation, then I wouldn't be against leaving it since it doesn't look awful from the pictures, but I'm sure it might look a lot different in person.