Time to take everything apart!
Demo Day. With so many people watching HGTV, the DIY Network and reading so many DIY blogs (see my friends page) Demo has become the “FUN” time of a project. And let me tell you it is fun, but you also need to be careful.
If you are not careful you can have a broken water or sewer pipe. Worse yet you could electrocute yourself if you are working with any sort of power. Make sure to look before you break and take the proper safety precautions.
The first thing I did was take down the old vanity. I started by uninstalling my faucet, and then taking out the old vanity.
Faucet laid out, no missing pieces!
Make sure to empty the trap before you take it out!
Not much room, what to do?
The water lines fit through, what about the drain line?
I cut out around the drain pipe with my multi-tool.
On a side note, I love my multi-tool! I purchased mine here.
Now that I was not worried about any water issues, I was free to remove the vanity. I started by cutting off the old caulking from the wall.
Carefully cut away from the wall, do not cut into the wall and damage it.
Next you have to remove the screws that hold it into the wall.
Sometimes they can hide on you!
Slowly move it away from the wall, making sure nothing is caught.
Make sure to be careful when taking it away from the wall. If you have a screw, adhesive, or pipe that is caught you can have a mess on your hand!
Free and clear!
It really opens up the room!
If you do not install a new sink right away, be careful. The trap that I removed kept the gasses from coming into the house.
Geek Tip - make sure to contain the sewer gases. I use a plastic bag and an elastic.
Next on the demo list is the radiator cover. From years of being in a bathroom it had started to rust. Instead of buying a new cover, I wanted to refinish it. As my house is less than 10 years old I had not worry of lead paint. Always be careful when dealing with paint.
Rust buildup from years of exposure
All laid out ready for some TLC, or a sander!
As you can see the washer and dryer look nice, but do not line up.
Next up, moving the washer and dryer.
Too much flexible hose!
One of the things I wanted to eliminate in this project was excess dryer hose. As it crinkled and the edges caught lint.
I really do not like these shelves, at least they are easy to move.
The shelving was easy to remove, just lift out of the brackets, remove the wall anchors and done!
Lift up the shelf
Remove the hanging clips
I like to use needle nose pliers to take out the anchors
Now that everything is out of the wall, time to sand down the holes. As I did not have too many bumps I used my handy drywall sander to reduce the ridges.
I sand down the holes before i fill them in to reduce the ridges.
I also had a few issues with drywall screws bulging out of the wall. As the house settles some of the screws budged out, making small circles that I could see. As this was the time to fix them I did.
Here is how:
- Find the bump, and with a screwdriver push in the center of the hole. This will crack the plaster covering.
- Take a small flat head screwdriver and clean out the slots. This will give you something to grab into.
- Take your Phillips head driver and hand tighten to the proper depth. Like all drywall, do not break the paper.
- Plaster over it like a normal patch.
A pesky little bugger that I took care of!
Then I went around and patched the rest of the walls. To do a good job I did two coats of Spackle, sanding after each coat.
One of the bigger holes to fill. Multiple coats help make it disappear
Now that everything is out. I’m done with my demo day. It might not look like a lot, but it was tiring!
There is still a lot more to do, so stay tuned for the next article.
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