What is the best way to demo a wall?

13 years ago

I am planning to demo a wall that divides my living room from a tiny bedroom. What is the least messy way to do that? I am trying to save some money by doing the wall demo myself, I will hire a electrican to do the electric, and possibly a drywall person to finish off the "holes" left behind in the ceiling and side wall area where the orignial wall was removed.

I know that most just take a sledge hammer to the dry wall, but I really want to avoid all that drywall and dry wall dust flying. I am guessing I would just need to buy a hand-drywall saw? (I realize there will still be dust from that, but not as bad as just hammering away with a sledge hammer.)

The framing is attached to the concrete floor with the "gun shot in" style nails, so they are probably in fairly deep, so I am guessing in this case I will need the sledge hammer to knock the framing away from the concrete floor?

I will be leaving the left corner post of the wall intact since it is load bearing. I will be making that into a decorative column.

So any suggestions for a smooth demo?

Some photos of the wall I am talking about.

In this photo BELOW the wall is seen to the left, (just showing a photo of how it will incorporate into the rest of the rooms). The bedroom will now become the living room, where you see the dining table (was once the living room). I feel this will open up the house much more visually and add to the brightness (right now it is so dark with only the one window in the room pictured below).

I also prefer the privacy of sitting in the new LR and not having people that approach the front door from not seeing in while I am relaxing on my couch. I am more laid back about the dining room being as public. (hope that makes sense).

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Comments (13)

hendricus
13 years ago
No saws and no sledgehammer. With a regular hammer you can knock some holes in the drywall to get your hands in, then just grab a piece and pull off a section. The less you break it up the less the mess. To take the joists out just hit them sideways with a sledgehammer till the bottom is loose then pull the top out. After the studs are out the top and bottom plates should be fairly easy.
worthy
13 years ago
Sissy way! Mike Holmes just punches the walls with his bare hands.

(Good idea to turn off the power first.)
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judithva
Original Author
13 years ago
Hendricus, thanks for the tips, I had not thought to use a hammer, much easier than having to saw it by hand (and faster). Good tip with starting with the joists too (I would have been using the sledge hammer on the plates first, so yep, your way is definately easier :)

Worthy, LOL, good old Mike, but he is a bit bigger than me (I'm just barely a 5 foot tall woman). I definately thought about turning off the power first already, that is not the way I want to go out of this world! LOL Thanks for making sure that I may have not known. I don't mind trying most anything with remodeling, but I have a very high respect for electricity!

thanks again guys, I am off on Friday, so I will have 3 days for demo...I am looking forward to it!

Judith
macybaby
13 years ago
A saw will make more of a mess. Use a utlitiy knife to score and bend the sheetrock backwards - it will snap along the line, then you only have to cut the backer paper. Usign a saw of any sort will make a ton of dust.

I usually start by making a hole with a hammer near a stud, then I use a pry bar to start loseing. If it is screwed on, you may loosen it enough to locate the screws and hten you can remove them - otherwise it will just pull through the screws or nails. It will break off in chunks, but I've been able to get it off in chucks that are almost a half sheet (4x4). These get scored and snapped so I can get them out the door.

Once all the sheetrock is off, I use a saw to cut the wall studs, then I can carefully twist each half off without banging on the wall - you can pop sheetrock nails/screws on adjacent walls if you get agressive with pounding. If the stud was toenailed - you just pull the nails, if it was frame nailed, then you need to cut the nails off (reciprocting saw works well).

I DO NOT let my husband do any demo - he does not have the patenece and ends up busting the heck out of everything, and ending up with a huge mess to clean up and dust everywhere. With a bit of time and care, you can remove the wall with little mess.

Here is the most recent wall I removed (about a year ago)

Just be glad it's sheetrock - and you are not dealing with this sort of mess!

The lath and plaster was bad enough, but the real pain was the blown-in insulation that had to be removed.

Cathy
judithva
Original Author
13 years ago
Cathy, wow, that was one messy project, I'll bet you were really happy with the final result opening the rooms to each other.

Yep I am lucky, I have only sheetrock, screws, and framing to remove, no insulation! Yeah!

Thanks for the tips on using the scoring method for the rest of the sheet rock, that will keep things neater, and the tip on sawing out the posts (I will have to buy a saw).

Thanks for everyones input, I am excited to start this Friday!
macybaby
13 years ago
If you buy a hand saw, the best are the japanese pull saws. I have a bucket full of hand saws that are not worth the effort - they have too agressive teeth and you simply can not get a good cut with them. The pull saws cut as you pull them towards you, standard ones cut as you push, and that is way harder to control.

You mentioned it's a bearing wall. Though the wall in the picture is in the middle of the house, it is actually a bearing wall as that was the exterior of the house at one point, then a porch was added and eventually closed in. We had already "fixed" the wall and then after four years decided to swap the den and dining room and opened up a second passageway and made an alcove for the hutch as there was not enough room for the hutch and dining table.

This is what the other side of the room looked like after we made changes the first time

And after making changes

We moved the wall 2' into the kichen to make the alcove for the hutch.

Here is the kitchen side of the original wall, after plaster and lath had been removed. You can tell where the exterior windows use to be -

This wall now has three headers installed. The main one is 7' wide and then htere are the two new ones, 3.5' wide for the second entryway and about 5' wide for the alcove

I put the new wall in place before opening up as I wanted to save as much sheetrock on the back side as possible.

This is the new wall - DH was working out of town and while I can demo and build walls, I needed him to put up sheetrock so it stayed like this all last summer.

My house is a complete remodel so we've been at this since 2004 - the big problem is I ended up changing my mind a few times so we tore out a wall and patio door we had installed only four years earlier.

And just one more picture taken a few weeks ago - we were still using the old cabinets - the new ones are getting final coats of finish and we may get some installed this weekend.
judithva
Original Author
13 years ago
Cathy, actually only that far left corner is part of the load bearing wall-the hall way is the load bearing part, and since that corner is part of the hall way, I will be leaving that post and disquising it into a decorative column at the same time).

Thanks for the tip about the saw, I would have probably bought the wrong one so you saved me money and effort! :)

Wow, your transformation is coming along nicely, I sure wish I could steal 2 ft from my kitchen, it is only 10ft x 7.5 ft! UGH That built-in area is really nice for your hutch, it will be really nice when you are finished. And of course a new renovated kitchen, that is really great, you will feel like you are in a whole new home :)

I know what you mean about doing things slowly, I have to do the same as I am just doing this by myself, and will have to save money for each other step (electrial..and maybe drywall repair)new flooring, that needs to be done. But it will be worth it.
kudzu9
13 years ago
Once most of the sheetrock is down, you can get the studs out by cutting through them at chest level with a SawzAll or other power saw and pull them out by hand. If you're worried about dust, cover things in the vicinity with plastic and have someone hold a vacuum near where you cut to catch most of the sawdust. Once the vertical studs are removed, use a pry bar or crow bar to go after the headers and footers.
judithva
Original Author
13 years ago
kudzu9, thanks for the additional tips. I hope to do some sawing tomorrow.

This is how far I got today.... I am not sure whether I should keep a header or not, other choice taking it out all the way to the ceiling...
I still have to get the other closet (boxy wall to the left)..but I am thinking maybe leave it so I will have a closet, and I will not have to remove an electrical plug and 2 light switches..I will think on it over night. I have a ton of stuff to get rid out of that room, I'm pooped LOL
macybaby
13 years ago
Looks good - thanks for posting your progress pictures.

Cathy
inox
13 years ago
How old is the sheetrock?

Here is a link that might be useful: Sheetrock - Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure Risks
judithva
Original Author
13 years ago
Cathy, thanks for checking back, I ran out of room to put any more sheet rock (garbage can FULL) LOL, but that is OK, it gave me time to clear out the things in the old room. I will re-attack the removal of the last part of the wall this next weekend, and hopefully my co-worker will hook me up with a electrician so I can finish this "little" project.
I will be posting more photos as I go. :) I hope you will post too as you continue to remodel :)

Inox, the sheet rock is about 6 years old, although when I first moved in the old sheet rock wall was removed (at the time I did not know about the dangers of lead paint, asbestos etc..) so I am basically tearing down the "newish" sheet rock to open up the wall area.

However, my floors DO have the asbestos in them so I will just have to cover them up with new flooring rather than tearing them up. Thanks for the info though, it is always good to receive important info like this when remodeling.
judithva
Original Author
13 years ago
Some progress, I plan on leaving the header (the taller one in the middle, but will "thin" it down a bit) I was going to tear out all the way to the ceiling, but I thought a header would further define the area. So far what I have done:

This is my inspiration photo for the header, column and molding that I would like to acheive: