How do you knock walls in your house down?

Carefully ! If the wall you are penetrating is a bearing wall, you will need to install a load-bearing header beam to carry the load, plus additional load-bearing studs to carry the load of the beam down to your foundation.

Carefully

One word. Sawzall.

*Be certain that you are not messing w/ a load bearing wall.

*Also know what is in the wall (phone, electric, cable, water lines?)

*Be aware of what the walls are made of….i.e. if the walls are plaster…you may get cracking beyond your construction site.

Once you are sure you have no issues w/ any of the above, you should be good to go….

Good luck!

/added sawzall to amazon wishlist

The wall is relatively thin, so I think it is just plaster, and is likely to not have any wires running through it.

Snoopy nailed it with the Sawzall, just to add a bit…

- Cut the wall into the biggest pieces you’re comfortable carrying and can fit out the door easily (closets can be tricky), less cuts = less debris and less trips
– Don’t get too close to the “edges” right away, it’s usually easier to clean that up once most of the space is cleared out and you’re not dealing in big pieces
– watch your head, watch the ceiling, even if it’s not a load bearing wall, whatever the ceiling is made of may be attached to the top of your wall or simply resting on it, do a little exploratory cut up top to see how everything is put together

Even a smaller reciprocating saw will be better than beating it down with a hammer, the time saved is in the cleanup

I’m jealous now, I want to tear stuff up too :(

knocking down walls sounds like fun….

“like a band aid….RIGHT OFF” I love Seinfeld.

/back on topic!

Merci.

@RandomMrdan you sound seVEre… or maybe that’s just the pic?

If it was me i would do all the necessary checks and then just pound away at the thing with various large and very dangerous instruments :)))

Rather than knock down, I prefer “take down”. If it is a thin wall, it most likely is not a weight Bering wall. I skin the wall, that is take down the drywall, or paneling on one side. That way you can see everything inside the wall.

Even if there are no electrical outlets on the wall, there may be wires running inside the wall to an adjacent wall or room. Once you can see the inside is clear of wires and pipe, you can go nuts with the saws-all.

Another bit of advice. However you choose to demolish the wall, you will create an incredible amount of dust. Consider closing off the area with plastic sheeting before you operate. Otherwise you will be be vacuuming, dusting up and inhaling that dust for weeks.

You will need a tool called a cats paw or shark tooth same tool pretty much to pull nails out of the studs and plates that you can’t cut with a sawzall. Are you taking the headers out of the two existing closet doors and putting a new one in for the new closet door?

before:

|¯¯              ¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯¯|
|   closet         |      
|                     |      
|                     |  linen closet   
|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|
|                     |      
|   closet         |      
|__              __|______|

after:

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|
|                                   |
|                                   |
|                                   |
|       closet                   |
|                                   |
|                                   |
|__                _________|

I use my brother’s head.

My answer isn’t a great answer, lol. I need to know how to achieve that :P

@squirbel : I GA’d you simply because it was an answer form I’d never seen before.

aha! Thank you! Well, I’d like to stanch the bleeding while I can; lurve is solely for relevant answers for me.

<3 breedmitch

When My older brothers were younger they decided to knock down an old shed. It was like a Laurel and hardy Comedy. They didn’t think that you should probably do that from THE OUTSIDE!!! The building came down and…. as the story goes (I was to young to remember) The building fell with one brother standing in the doorway! The other brother was trapped but not hurt.

I would tear out the drywall firs(before going through any studs with that sawzall) to you get a real good look at what you’re dealing with.

Deffinately pull off the base molding and drywall before cutting into it. Even if there is plumbing or electrical in it, you can re-route them and keep going. Worst case scenario, if it isn’t weight bearing, you just leave two feet of wall, route the utilities through there, and use it to decide your shelving on the long wall. I would climb up in the attic, if it is on the top floor, and check the framing from there. You can tell if it is wright bearing, as well as see if there is plumbing or electrical going through it. I always try to start in the attic on jobs like that. It’s the quickest and easiest place to start. Good luck.

Thanks!

Also, if you are careful about removing the molding, you can reuse it. Just sand it down and paint it. You should have plenty of LF to spare.

First make sure it’s not a load-bearing wall, or you could have problems. If it’s not a load-bearing wall then you should have no trouble. If there is any kind electrical work in the wall, then you will need to turn off the breaker to that outlet. If not, just hit into the wallboard, rip it out, then take out the framework. My husband and I did this in the house we’re living in. It made our small closet a walk-in closet. Huge improvement for relatively little work!

@squirbel – I GA’d you for the pretty picture too : )

@Judi – what a funny thought!

@stevenb – GA, i was going to suggest leaving some wall, but wasn’t sure if that was right.