Repairing a hole in paneling

If you have rental property with paneling you may have the need to repair a hole in it that has been caused by a tenant, damage done by vandals or you may have purchased a house with previous damage to the paneling.

No matter what the reason you have to repair a hole in paneling there often is the problem of not being able to purchase replacement paneling that matches the piece with the hole. Paneling patterns and colors go out of style quite quickly and when it comes time to do a repair you likely will not be able find a piece to match.

Here are a couple of recommendations for fixing holes in paneling from The Frugal Landlord.

Number one is to take a piece of paneling from a closet to repair the hole. You can use a circular saw to cut down the middle of the nearest wall studs and remove the damaged piece.

Sometimes you can use a box cutter to score down the middle of the studs and remove the piece.

Go to a closet and remove a similar piece and use it to replace the paneling with the hole in it.

You can then use a piece of paneling or a board to repair the out of sight spot in the closet.

The second way to fix the hole but requires more work and more money is to fix the hole in the paneling by replacing it with a piece that doesn't match and then painting the wall.

You can just paint the one wall and consider it an accent wall or while you have the paint out you can paint the whole room.

See the photos for a before and after shot of a hole in paneling fixed after a thief tried to steal copper by ripping out an outlet.

If you need to learn some carpentry skill you can volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.