Last time we left off from our bathroom removal process with a bathroom that was empty, no longer cluttered with anything in it like a sink or a tub, or even cabinets. Before we could start building up our new bathroom however, we still had to do something about the room itself: the old ceiling, wall covering and floor still had to go.Let’s get started!
The gear
Yet another one of those lists also known as “what you will need if you want to reproduce this at home”. Please note that Amazon links are affiliate links and are mostly provided to show you what to look for when you’re nosing around in your local DIY shop if you want them really fast 🙂 .
- safety gear: gloves, ear muffs, glasses
- crowbar
- hammer (I used a claw hammer, to double as a pair of pincers as well)
- pair of pincers (find it on Amazon)
- sturdy putty knife or scraper
- utility knife (the one I use resembles this one on Amazon, although mine is a no-name brand :))
- hammer drill (I have one from Powerplus XQ. Most important part is to get one with at least regular SDS chuck, as a lot of the heavier drills and chisels come as such).
The method
Safety first! Always use gloves, ear muffs and glasses when necessary, better safe than sorry!
The last thing we did in part one was removing the bath tub from its place by demolishing the low wall below it. Just a reminder in case any of you had forgotten.
While the hammer drill was still in the room (I like to remove all unnecessary tools and clutter, keeping my work space as clean as possible) I went at the wall tiles near the sink and bath area, removing them all. After removing all the debris Chrisje and I had our fun removing the ceiling. Crowbar, I really like you for all my demolition needs! Step up the ladder with the crowbar and use it to smack down all the plastic shelves, or do the same with your hammer. One more thing to do before we had a nice, clean ceiling grid: remove the nails that didn’t come out with the shelves by using a pair of pincers.
Working down I now took on the walls, the rubbery stuff that was glued to the wall and then painted purple really had to go as well. This took me a lot of time and patience, scraping and prying it of the wall, every now and then cutting it up into smaller pieces, but persevere and you shall finish the job 😉 . With that the hardest part had been done, only the floor still needed to be tackled. It had been tiled with something in a very similar material as the wall, but in square tiles this time, and a different drawing on them. Luckily they came off a whole lot easier than the stuff on the wall, and this time I could use my trusty crowbar again 🙂 .
A whole lot of work and time later, this was the end result: a clean, completely stripped bathroom, ready for us to start building in it again!
Chrisje friendly?
We can draw pretty much the same conclusion as for part one: some things are, some not so. You just can’t really do much wrong with demolition (except when you remove too much), but for some things you need to be a little careful, for instance when removing the plastic shelves, as that sometimes gave small splinters. Once again, always put on safety gear! On a scale of 1 to 10 I should give it a 6.
Afterthoughts
In case you didn’t have an answer ready after part one, here’s the opportunity to try again 🙂 Suppose you have your own house, in need of a little loving. Suppose that same house is also ready to house you and all your belongings. What’s the first thing you’d tackle? What is going to be your first real “project”?