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New to the Forum - Wood Stove Backing, Walls, and Other Qs

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 3:40 pm
by simpleword
So, a little info first, as I plan on being semi-active on this forum:

My late grandmother left me a 3bd 2bth 1100 sq ft 1987 doublewide (castle or something like that, will verify at some point), on an acre of property in northern california. I will be moving there in June to start a complete remodel of the place. It is in decent condition except for the windows (aluminum vertical slide), and is in desperate need of paint everywhere! Luckily it has new-ish flooring all around.

I have four initial questions:

1. There used to be a wood stove, it was removed, as was the base below it, however there is a real goofy "faux rock" wall behind it. If I remove it, any guess as to what will be behind it? Will it be studs or will it resemble the rest of the ridiculous VOG walls.

2. Speaking of these ridiculous walls. What is the best approach to removing and covering the vertical strips that cover the gaps in the wall? They are so ugly. I'd love to fill them and and paint the walls. I saw an article about covering them with bead board, that might be a realistic option, though the living room has some odd nooks and crannies that might be hard to cut the boards for.

3. Another point regarding the wood stove. You can see on the ceiling that the flange for the chimney is still there. It's been sealed up on the roof but obviously it is uglier than sin on the inside. What can be done to cover that?

4. Lastly (for now). What about that horrendous ceiling? Are there any solutions for those panels or should I just paint them and try not to look up?

Thanks in advance!
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Re: New to the Forum - Wood Stove Backing, Walls, and Other Qs

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 6:03 pm
by Greg
I am guessing that is an outside wall. You may be able to remove the rocks and see what is behind them. You may end up rerocking the whole wall section since it is most likely 3/8" vinyl covered sheetrock that you will never match.
You can pull the cover strips with joint compound, but it they are textured you will need to skim coat the whole all so it is smooth.
You will need to decide how involved you want to get with the ceiling. You could just paint and find a way to make a decorative patch or scrape the popcorn off and patch the ceiling then repaint it as a smooth ceiling. None are a real easy job.

Greg

Re: New to the Forum - Wood Stove Backing, Walls, and Other Qs

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 6:35 pm
by simpleword
Thanks much Greg.

It is actually an inside wall, the other side is the master bedroom/bath, not sure if that makes a difference or not. I actually lived in this house years ago and ended up painting the bedrooms with a sprayer. Although there is a very slight texture to it the primer and paint filled in enough of the texture that the painted walls are smooth to the touch.

As for the ceiling, it actually isn't popcorn, it's an embossed texture in the panels. I could live with just painting them i suppose. Not sure why they decided making the strips yellow was a good idea but then again whoever came up with the initial interior of this model must have had serious mental issues. The big issue I suppose is the flange(?) up there. Maybe some decorative element is the best route. Lighting or something like that.

The house actually has a very nice front and (covered) back deck and a nice new-ish (10 years) metal roof otherwise I probably wouldn't be bothering with all this stuff. It snows 100+ inches a year there and there are have been no issues with the roof so I'm thinking it will be good for a while. The snow actually prompted the wood stove removal, it slides off the metal roof and kept taking the damn chimney with it so we said "screw it" and took it out, the monitor and central heat are fine.

For anyone that's interested, here's a list of things I will be doing to the place, I'll probably document it on here:

-paint exterior
-replace all windows
-paint entire interior - hopefully removing those unsightly strips
-remodeling both bathrooms completely.
-new kitchen flooring
-paint kitchen cabinets and install new countertops
-add central AC
-adding propane to the kitchen (I have a nice gas range that I will be bringing with me)

I think with these upgrades the place can be completely transformed and I'll end up with a nice house in the woods for very little investment on my part.

Thanks again!

Re: New to the Forum - Wood Stove Backing, Walls, and Other Qs

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 7:56 pm
by Greg
I thought that was a monitor, GREAT heaters. I used to heat the whole place with one. We use a pellet stove now.
The ceiling strips were probably white at one time, but yellowed over time. If there were smokers in the house that makes things even worse, or from the stove. you could try some 409 on a small spot in a corner and see what happens. Be careful since they may be brittle from age.
100" of snow is a mild winter around here, some places not far north of me get that by January (they can have it).

Greg

Re: New to the Forum - Wood Stove Backing, Walls, and Other Qs

Posted: Sat May 06, 2017 4:04 pm
by yakima4$
One comment.
When you pull the wood stove pipe support box from the ceiling you will see that they cut the rafter in half .
Make a close inspection for any evidence of sagging.
If any is occurring you would want to install some type of header const in the roof cavity and support existing cut rafter before installing header construction.

Ron