Renovation starts with a good plan and budget. Once those things are done demo can begin.
This house had been renovated with a sub par finished basement and our only choice was to completely gut it.
One room was framed in without a window. The room was removed which gave way to a larger bedroom and a proper closet. I think that a lot of homeowners make the mistake of trying to salvage sub par construction to save a buck but in the end it’s usually better to just gut it and build it right. We removed all paneling and drywall in the basement and the paneling upstairs.
Our plan was to renovate the entire home, so we got to work demolishing the old upstairs bathroom which featured a pink bathtub and moldy plastic tiles
We saved the carpet for later removal.
When doing an entire home I usually fill up a roll off with demo materials then use the garage throughout the project as a dumpster until the end. This particular remodel had a ton of paneling which had to be thrown away.
The pocket door between the kitchen and the dining room was removed to make way for an open layout. Pocket doors can be removed to open up a space without the need for additional structural engineering and modification as Was the case with this job.
I also try to remove soffits in kitchens when I can to open up the space and modernize it. Cabinets were removed and loaded onto the trailer and The soffits in this kitchen were demoed next.
The appliances were fully working if but dated. They were sold on Craigslist rather than getting junked.
Anytime I remodel, I save metals and take them to the scrap yard for recycling. This home had post wwii metal cabinets in the kitchen so we pulled them out and loaded them onto my trailer. I also recycle bath tubs, copper wiring and plumbing, brass and even lead shower pans.
The trailer was fully loaded on this run to the scrap yard. The stove, kitchen sink, bathtub, cabinets and broken appliances were all recycled.
The paneling was also removed in the main living room area. unfortunately the previous owners had used contact cement to hang the paneling which meant that we had some extra work that we weren’t expecting. Luckily, most of this job was well thought out without any big surprises.
One absolute score was that we found beautiful hardwood red oak floors underneath the carpet in this house. This was a wonderful find and was a true unexpected treasure.
With the place fully demoed end cleaned out, it was time to start our framing. Check out my next post for info on that.
