Bathroom remodels create a great way to update your home and add value in case you decide to sell later. Most people update every ten years or so, but it really depends on your personal taste and how often houses enter the market for sale. Regardless of how often you decide to upgrade your bathroom with a remodel, there are specific steps you’ll need to know to make the job a success. Part of any quality remodel is the demolition portion of the project. Stay with us as we discuss how to demo a bathroom.
PRO TIP: If you are not very handy, consider hiring a company to help with your bathroom demolition. N. Vitale Disposal Inc is a great company that services Northern NJ with demolition services. Check out our video below to learn more!https://www.youtube.com/embed/KR5M9aB-_dU?feature=oembed
6 Steps For A Bathroom Demolition
Know Your Vision
The first thing you must do in the demo process is to have an overall vision of the final product. Some start a project and make decisions on what they want as they go. This type of behavior will surely cost you money and time in the end.
Make sure you create a drawing or digital picture of what the bathroom will look like after the remodel is complete. This allows you to make a specific plan on how to proceed with your project.
Make a Plan
After you have developed your vision, take the time to sit down and create a detailed and step-by-step plan on going forward with the project. Don’t only think of the new flooring and cabinetry you plan to install. Make sure your plan consists of each step in the demo also. A demo needs to happen in a specific way. If you take shortcuts and skip certain steps, you can easily get off track and affect the entire project. Within your plan, be sure to think of all of the possible issues you will run into while working. Here are a few examples of what needs to be in your plan.
- Rent a Dumpster: You will be surprised, even with a small bathroom, how much debris you will have leftover from the demo portion of your project. Before getting started, plan to have a dumpster or debris bag rented and on location. If not, you’ll get stuck during the process without a place to dispose of the material, putting you behind.
- Create Ventilation: With the tremendous amount of dust that a demo creates, make sure your plan has a way to ventilate the area. A restroom has years of germs within each small crevice. When the demo begins, these will become airborne. Even something as simple as a fan pulling the dust from the room will help.
- Proper Tools: If you create your plan properly, you’ll have a list of all the tools you need for the project. Taking shortcuts with improper tools is an excellent way to cause injury to yourself or damage that you did not plan for. Driving to a home improvement store in the middle of your project to purchase a tool you need will cause your project to run over on time. Research what tools you need and make sure they are included in your plan before beginning.
- Energy Isolation: Maybe the most important part of your plan is how you will isolate the energy within the room. Energy in a bathroom includes water and electricity. Have a checklist in your plan to isolate both of these energies not to add damage or cause electrocution and fire when working.
Remove All Loose Items
When we say loose items, we mean anything that is not physically attached to the bathroom. Shower curtains, soap dispensers, hygiene products, etc., all need removal before starting your demo project. These items will only get in the way of your demo and cause more time added to the task.
Work from the Top Down
After all of the energy has been isolated, you can begin the demo process of removing attached items. The best way to work within a demo is to remove items starting from the top down. This means any vents in the ceiling need removal first, then work your way down until removing the flooring as the last step.
Working in this way keeps your ladder steady without debris already on the floor when needing to reach high areas and makes for a much cleaner and smoother process overall.
Watch For Hazards
Isolating the energy that you know of is one thing. Being surprised by a broken gas line in a wall or causing damage to something you did not intend to can add a lot of cost to your project. Many shocked homeowners have found water pipes, gas lines, and other important utilities within walls that they did not know existed before starting the project.
Having these types of objects hidden and not knowing about them is common. The point is to take your time when breaking out sheetrock and other wall materials and assume something behind them will become damaged if you work too quickly.
Keep the Demo Area Clean
Anything installed into a bathroom becomes removable during a demo. Stripping out the cabinets, the toilet, a bathtub, and even tiled floors are items normally removed during a remodeling project. A good idea is to take all of the debris from each item out of the bathroom and throw it away before starting on the next item.
For example, after removing a bathroom cabinet and sink, remove all of it from the room and into a dumpster before tackling the toilet. You can use a local dumpster rental service near you for help with this too of course.
With floors filled with trip hazards waiting to clean can cause injury and slow down your work progress. Digging for tools, making space to stand, etc., will eventually cause more of a time delay than stopping and removing the debris.
PRO TIP: Read this article on remodeling and junk disposal. We think it will help!
Summing Up
Completing a bathroom remodel that includes a demo does not need to be difficult. Ensure your final vision in mind and create a detailed plan on how you will make the project a success. Follow your plan, keep the area clean as you work, and remove any material as you go. The most important part of a demo is to work safely by isolating any energy that can injure and do not cause more damage than you intended during the work.