Walls and Ceilings - Wallboard or not Wallboard? That is the question!

I am working with a material that I hesitate to call wallboard...only because it looks more like compressed wood,(house built in 1944 and they used whatever they could get their hands on). I had to strip plastic bricks that were secured with tile adhesive off of the walls and in doing so the walls have suffered. I need to find a way to smooth the walls...will a mudding with joint compound work? I'm concerned that the compound won't bind with the wall material. This is only the beginning....but the rest will have to wait for another message board!:confused:

If it looks like wood and feels like wood, prime it and paint it. Or mud it, if you want the sheetrock look. In my experience, joint compound will stick to almost anything with any kind of porous surface.

You could go over it with 1/4" sheetrock to smooth the surface. You might be able to cover it with bridging material, a wallpaper product for smoothing and repairing walls.

oneheart58,

Hello & welcome to the forum, Chris is right, joint mud will stick to most any thing, Plaster guys do use bonding agents though I'm not familiar with the exact product. Never been a P&L fan myself, drywall is soooo much faster.