How to Demo and Remove a Wall

i'm b kotov and I'm Ashley whether you're remodeling your entire home or just sprucing up a room with a fresh coat of paint we're gonna show you how to do it right if your home feels cramped and dark you may want to consider demoing a wall or two removing walls let's in more natural light and make the house feel larger and more inviting back in the 1960s when this house was built they put walls everywhere yeah I'm in the kitchen actually it's just right there in the living room and there's a Dern wall of the way by removing this wall we're going to create an inviting open space perfect for quality family time and entertaining guests [Music] we want to be safe when we're demoing a wall so let's make sure that we have all our safety gear before we start it's demo time baby slow down Cody we can't just start slinging sledgehammers what if this walls holding up the roof that is a great point when it comes to houses exterior walls do a lot of the heavy lifting but interior walls carry some of the load as well knocking down a load-bearing wall would be a dangerous mistake to check if this wall is load-bearing I have to crawl up in the Attic to see if the wall we want to tear out of supporting the roof so there's where the wall is and I don't see any support structures directly tied to it if the truss is connected to the wall like this then we'd have a load-bearing wall I also took a look at the crawlspace which wasn't the most glamorous job I looked around for a bit but I didn't see any signs that this was a load-bearing wall if this was a load-bearing wall it would have blocks or supports like this to carry the load down to the ground another way to identify a load-bearing wall is to look at what it's made of if the wall is built with two by six boards and contained stud packs which are groups of boards nailed together to support a lot of weight then the wall is probably holding up more than family photos it looks like this wall is not load-bearing well what about this light switch there's got to be wires in the wall if there's a light switch another great point to see if this light switch is live we're gonna use this voltage detector just touch the pin to the switcher outlet and if it lights up and beeps the wires are hot hey Ashley cut the power to the light switch please got it now that the power is off we're gonna take the voltage tester put it back on the switch if it stays green the outlets safe to work with you can find one of these voltage testers at your local Lowe's home improvement store we also check the wall for plumbing by looking under the house and in the Attic to see where the pipes are located and from what I could tell this wall is pipe free but to be on the safe side we're going to take it slow by carefully removing the wood paneling with a pry bar we can see what's inside the wall and avoid damaging any plumbing electrical wires we may have missed so what do we do with these electrical switches you know I'm not sure where they're gonna end up but they can't stay here for now so we'll detach them roll them up and safely secure them from the ceiling there are many ways to take a wall out there's the sledgehammer approach the kick the wall down technique but one of the best tools for demolition is this right here a reciprocating salt there's lots of different blades you can use for this salt we're using a demolition blade so we can cut through wood metal or plastic now if you feel the blade binding and touching that stud you're cutting might be carrying a structural load so if you feel that stop immediately and re-examine the structure as you're removing studs from the wall watch where you're laying the boards it's common for people to trip or get poked with nails because they're careless with their demolition process we found it easiest to use the reciprocating saw to cut through the nails or screws holding the studs to the floor then we lifted them up and they pop right off the top of the wall now that we have all of the studs out of the wall it's time to address what is called the top plate and the bottom plate we're going to leave the top plate the way it is for now because we've got some really cool plans for it later but now it's time to rip out the bottom plate I used my handy pry bar and hammer to lift the bottom plate off the floor I had to get creative in a few places with the pry bar but above all I just took my time and focused on not damaging the hardwood flooring removing this wall wasn't an extremely tough job but it definitely took longer than I thought it would by removing the wall we now have a massive 500 square foot room whether you're flipping houses like us or just want your home to feel bigger and brighter demoing a wall is a great way to add value and wide-open spaces to a home and now you know how to do it right thank you so much for watching guys if you enjoyed this video be sure to hit the like button and let us know in the comments any questions you have and if you want to try out any of the tools we use in this video we left links in the description below as well as some links to additional articles to help you out with other demolition projects and if you want to see more how-to videos with cody and me hit that subscribe button and stay tuned to the Lowe's YouTube channel thanks guys [Music]

Channel: Lowe's Home Improvement

Views: 692,888

Keywords: how, to, diy, lowe's, lowes, how-to, remove a wall, how to remove a wall, demo a wall, how to demo a wall, demo day, use a sledgehammer, how to remove studs, how to demo a house, demo wall with electrical, demo safety, move a wall, how to take out a wall, wall removal, wall demolition, open concert, open concept tiny house, open concept kitchen, load bearing wall, load-bearing wall removal, load-bearing walls, how to know if a wall is load bearing

Id: uRQjK41qyvY

Length: 5min 15sec (315 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 17 2019