If the pipes will be pulled out altogether or are PVC, cut them withĪ hacksaw or a reciprocating saw fitted with a bimetal blade. Cut copper pipes with a pipe cutter if they will remain in the walls. This will also work for plaster and lath if you’re not comfortable using a saw.Ħ. Pull drywall down with a wrecking adze or pry bar. When you feel the blade penetrate through the lath, do not go any deeper as you may hit pipes, vents, or wires.ĥ. Cut through plaster-and-wood-lath walls with a reciprocating saw fitted with a 7-inch blade. To reduce debris, try to keep the plaster attached or “keyed” to the lath. (The stone plaster used with wire lath ruins reciprocating-saw blades.) Set the depth to 3?4 inch and cut out rectangular sections. Cut plaster-and-wire-lath walls with a circular saw. Make each wall 1/4 inch too tall, forcing it into position with a sledgehammer to relieve the load on the existing wall.ģ. Or you can build them in place, first nailing the top plates to the joists, then using a plumb bob to locate the bottom plates and nailing them down. (This is not necessary if you plan to remove the roof or floor above, which should come first.) Build the shoring walls on the floor and tilt them up. Build a pair of 2×4 stud walls four feet to either side of the existing wall. When in doubt, consult a professional home builder or engineer.Ģ. Or look in the basement for support posts. Interior ones typically run perpendicular to joists (parallel to floorboards). Pry out the framing members.Īll exterior walls are. Remove nails by pulling them from the back. If you’re reusing trim, carefully pull it off the wall with a painter’s pry bar. Use a voltage tester on outlets and switches.ĥ. Try to turn on the stove and faucets to check them. Shut down water and gas lines and turn off the power to the room. Make sure you clear an area close by for it.Ĥ. Protect floors against falling debris with particleboard over builder’s paper.ģ. Isolate the work area using 6-mil plastic sheeting sealed with blue painter’s tape.Ģ. Contact an abatement specialist instead.ġ. If you suspect you might have asbestos in pipe insulation or floor tiles, do not go near it. After all, additions cost a lot - but not nearly as much as a whole new house.īefore you begin: Always wear steel-toed boots, gloves, goggles, and a respirator (rated against lead-paint dust if your house was built before 1978). Of course, to play it safe you still might want to get the advice of an engineer. So if your remodel requires taking down a wall or tearing off a roof - and you’ve got the nerve to try it yourself - turn the page to learn how the pros do it right. To be safe, walls and roofs should be systematicallyĭisassembled in the reverse order of how they were put up. “They can end up removing structural elements or hitting pipes and wires,” says Tom. “You’re trying to be gentle with the salvageable parts.”Įnthusiastic amateurs get into trouble when they tear into walls without stopping to learn what they’ll find inside them. “It requires controlled emolition - handwork,” says Tom. Very few are wholesale teardowns, so it’s not possible to simply drive up with a wrecking ball and swing away. Most renovations actually work this way: Change some sections, save others. But the plan also calls for leaving much of the existing home intact, including nearly all of the exterior walls and one perfectly good kitchen. Literally tons of old walls, plaster, pipes, and sheathing, along with the home’s leaky roof, have to go before Tom can add on a first-floor library and bump up the second story. The new garage is just one aspect of the house’s remodel, which will require a lot of demolition. They ripped off the roofing, cut the joists, and detached the fasteners tying it to the house, so as not to take down more than they bargained for. So Tom has enlisted TOH host Kevin O’Connor, homeowner George Mabry, and Silva Brothers crew member Mike Sheridan to help him give the last wall one big tug.īut before the four could get to this dramatic point, Tom’s crew worked all morning at the site in Cambridge, Massachusetts, carefully dismantling the structure. The carport is just one bit of sad architecture on the 1950 Modern-style house that is the current TOH television project, and it needs to go to make way for a real garage. How does This Old House general contractor Tom Silva take down an outdated, nonfunctioning carport? On the count of three, naturally.
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