You might think that storming into that old bathroom with a sledgehammer and crowbar is the way to go when you’re thinking of dismantling all those old pipes and leaky faucets that have been giving you trouble. You might have a pleasant fantasy about hammering all those fixtures to pieces while you wear a hardhat and gloves to shield your eyes from all the flying debris, but that’s not the way that a proper bathroom dismantling is accomplished. Taking that sledgehammer to some of the components in the bathroom can result in more damage that will need to be repaired like pipes or wires inside the walls.
One of the first things that you’ll need to know is that gutting a bathroom down to it’s bare essentials results in a lot of debris that needs to be taken away. You’ll need to have a plan in mind for getting rid of this refuse before you even start. You’ll need to know how you’re going to transport all that refuse to the proper facility so that you don’t find yourself having to try and work around it later. There are several things that you’ll need to do before you even touch any of the drywall as well.
You’ll need to turn off all the water supplies to all the sinks and toilets. When you’re ready to take off the wall that surrounds the bathtub, you’ll need to turn off the main water supply to the house as well. Remember that you’ll need to turn off the electrical supply to the house before you even start hammering away, and be sure to check that you’ve got the right circuit breakers by flipping the switches on and off.
Remember to also save what you can. For example, wood trim around windows and doors that is in reasonably good shape should be preserved and laid aside. There’s no need to go through all the hassle of buying new trim when you’ve already got some that suits your new needs. Finishing nails that are stuck in the back of the trim should be carefully pulled out. Although there is usually a hole left in the trim later, you can fill these in with putty after and they can be sanded down and painted to look as good as new.
Still, most of the bathroom remodels that you will encounter don’t require a complete remodel and therefore you won’t need to gut the entire bathroom. For many of these jobs, there are only smaller sections of the walls that will need to be gutted and in many cases, you will need to control your dismantling efforts to ensure that you don’t cause unnecessary damage that will need additional repair work.
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