Removing a wall panel is easy, as long as you have the proper tools and protection and know generally what you are doing.
First and foremost, be sure that you are ready to remove the wall paneling before you begin. Once you have started, there is no turning back. If you should find that for any reason you wanted to keep the removed wall, you will have to go to great expense to repair your error.
Second, a word of precaution: make sure that the wall panel is only a panel and not a supporting wall. In the event that you remove an actual wall, your house could face some serious structural dilemmas.
Once you have established that you do indeed want to remove the wall panel and can confirm that the area you wish to remove is merely a panel and not a full wall, you are ready to begin the demolition.
Begin your project by determining what kind of wall panel you are dealing with. In other words, you need to know what is on the other side of your panel. If you are remove thin faux wall board, then chances are you will find your board is either nailed to a frame or cemented into a grid-like fixture (more common in older houses).
If your panel is cemented to a fixture, then you simply need to begin the arduous process of peeling and chipping the paneling away. There are few solvents that will make this process go faster, so chances are, you will be faced with the tough task of hard manual labor.
More than likely, however, your paneling will be nailed or screwed into a frame. Frames in older homes are more complicated to break through, but not altogether impossible. You will be able to knock out a 10 x 10 square foot section of an older home in an afternoon if you have the right tools and help.
Begin this process by laying a tarp on the floor underneath your workspace. This tarp will be intended to catch debris as it falls from the wall and will reduce your clean up time and labor.
First you need to “crack” the wall, especially if your wall panel is made of dry wall. To crack the wall, you need to hit it with something hard, such as a sledge hammer, or something sharp, such as a crowbar.
Once you have made the initial crack, it should be easy to begin pulling down the rest of your paneling. Simply slide the crowbar into the crack and pull down hard, with all of your weight until you feel the wall give way and crumble. As it crumbles, you will see how helpful it is to have a tarp on the floor to catch the falling pieces.
Continue in such a manner along the wall until the entire panel is removed. This process, as you will soon learn, is easy and fairly painless. Good luck with your work and remember: safety first; wear goggles to protect your eyes and gloves to protect your hands.