sheetrocking over wood walls?

10 years ago

Hi, I am new here and have a question, actually lots of questions, but my first question is about whether I can or should sheetrock over the walls of an 1840 house I purchased recently.

The walls are like nothing I have ever seen, they are slats that run horizontally, and do not fit well together. At all.

They really look like someone took shipping pallets, deconstructed them, and used those pieces of wood to make a wall.

We discovered this after ripping off the wallpaper in the stairwell and one of the bedrooms, now we see why the prior owners had covered them up! Some of the boards are a very dark brown or almost black. We have no idea what the dark coloring is.

Other bedrooms have brown paneling, which is probably covering up more of this same type of wood wall.

Our question is: can we just sheetrock over them? If we can, what is the best way to do that? Has anyone done that, and how did it turn out?

If sheetrocking is a bad idea, what would you recommend we do instead?

We would paint the walls, but since the wood slats are not uniform, and there are some rather huge gaps between the boards and from end to end, that would not look very good.

We could also wallpaper, but wallpaper is really expensive and not as easy to change as paint over sheetrock.

Thanks so much, we love the house but boy oh boy, does it need some work!

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Comments (7)

lazy_gardens
10 years ago
Pictures please?
columbusguy1
10 years ago
It sounds like you found lath behind the wallpaper...or something similar. On the other hand, if the boards are more than a couple inches wide, they are probably sheathing which was meant to be covered by a lining of cloth and then papered.

There is no reason why you can't drywall over this, just take advantage of the chance to update any wiring or plumbing in those walls. :)

Just make sure the joints in the drywall are staggered and properly taped and mudded.
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eaga
10 years ago
1840 emmy, do the walls look like this?

Here is a link that might be useful:
User
10 years ago
The biggest issue is the baseboard and door casing trim. Post some photos.
1840emmy
Original Author
10 years ago
Yep, you guys are right, it is lath...but no plaster over it, just wallpaper. I guess prior owners removed plaster and put up wallpaper, what a waste.

For some reason, the baseboards in the entire upstairs are just big boards, no nice millwork there at all, so it won't be hard to just pull those off, sheetrock the walls, and then put on some nicer baseboard. Every fireplace (which for some reason they filled with cement, yes, cement) has a lovely mantle. Painted, of course, but we can strip that off. I don't know why there is nice woodwork on the staircase, railing, and mantles, but not on the baseboards.

Thanks so much for all of your replies! Now if anyone knows the best way for us to get that cement out of the 7 fireplaces they filled with it! That'll be another thread, another project.
elphaba_gw
10 years ago
We've got an old house with horizontal "boards" (not lathe) that we found behind very old wallpaper. We are doing a demo for the kitchen. We have managed wherever feasable to leave the horizontal boards. In some cases, every other board has been removed to do the electrical and plumbing work necessary inside the walls. But we like the weight that the boards add to the house, that much more solidity when hurricane winds blow.
We plan to have sheetrock put up soon and hope to leave much of the horizontal boards. Your mileage may vary.
One of the walls here:
1840emmy
Original Author
10 years ago
Yep, looks like we got sheathing, it's wider than what I understand lath to be and isn't put on well at all. I plan to leave it and just sheetrock over it. Thanks, everyone, for your time and comments!