How to Demo a Bathroom

Are you looking to demo your bathroom yourself? This article will take a quick look at how to demo your bathroom. When looking to demo your bathroom you need to be careful and not to quick. The bathroom walls can have pipes and electrical wires behind the drywall. You do not want to destroy any of your pipes or hit a electrical line, as this could be life threatening to the person doing the demo work. Before doing any work in the room you will want to turn the power off to the room along with turning the water off.

You will need to start out with the right protective gear to do the job. You should have a good pair of work gloves to protect your hands. When doing demo work safety glasses are also a must. You will want to wear a pair of pants and a pair of shoes that covers your entire foot. Debris can going flying and hurt you or others if you do not take these steps to protect yourself from flying debris. Many people will also wear a hard hat to protect their head also. When you demo drywall many people wear a mask also.

The tools you could use would consist of the following: Hammer, Demo Hammer, Pry bar or Demo bar these tools besides screw drivers and adjustable wrench for pipe work. These simple tools should get you through the demo of the bathroom. Again you must be careful when hitting a wall that there are pipes and wires that are behind the wall and you do not want to wreck these. The screw driver will help to remove face plates off of switches and outlets. You will also need to remove electric fixtures in the room also with these tools.

You can start your demo of the bathroom by taking all the light fixtures and covers off. Again make sure the power is off and that you have turned the water off also. You will want to check to make sure you have shut off valves on your sink and toilet. If you do not have shut off valves you will need to put shut off valves in or cap your supply lines. You will want to place rags or duct tape shut your waste pipes on your sink and toilet. The toilet waste pipe can release flammable gases into the house if it is not plugged. You would not want any large debris to get into these pipes either. This guide does not cover the removal of the tub or tub surround.

The sink and toilet should be removed from the area to make it possible to demo the walls behind these areas. You will want to protect the tub from any debris and want to plug or tape the drain closed. Take the top or sink off the vanity base to make it easier to remove from the area. Once you have removed all fixtures and sink base you can start to remove the walls. You will also want to buy some contractor garbage bags. You will want these bags as you will just break open the light weight bags. You will also now want to close the door on the bathroom or hang a drop tarp over the door opening to keep the dust contained. When removing drywall you want to try to remove it along the seams and in sections. The more you break it up the more you have to clean up.

The above should help you to get through your bathroom demo. As with any home projects safety first.