Skip to main content

Kitchen Remodel: Managing Demolition Debris - Fine Homebuilding

Sign up for eletters today and get the latest how-to from Fine Homebuilding, plus special offers.

A lot of thought and preparation goes into replacing an old kitchen. There are cabinets and countertops and flooring to choose and install, wiring to redo, lights to hang. But before that happens, the old kitchen has to go.

Demoing an old kitchen isn’t the hardest thing, but it takes forethought. As New Jersey remodeler Tyler Grace says in his “DIY Kitchen Demo” article in FHB #271, it’s a critical phase of the remodel. It’s not just about removing the old to make room for the new, but about keeping things neat and organized to make it easier to install the new. Still, there’s no getting around the fact that demolition is inherently messy work. Grace’s mess management is geared toward protecting the house and its occupants from the inevitable dust and debris, and making the most of his dumpster space.

[M52A0783] After all of the site protection is up and the demo begins, the debris piles up quickly. It’s tempting to get it all into the dumpster as soon as possible, but that’s not always the best approach. If there’s a dust barrier separating your work site from the rest of the house—like the wall of plastic sheeting and ZipWall poles Grace used in this project—he likes to keep the barrier closed as much as possible so that it can do its job. Keeping it closed, though, means coming up with a plan for storing the debris in the work site while the demo is underway.

Grace’s strategy is to stage a bunch of plastic trash cans inside the work site to hold debris while he demos. Anything that’s too big to fit in the cans gets neatly stacked. When he runs out of room, he moves the debris to the dumpster in as few trips as possible, minimizing the number of times he has to open his dust barrier and the transmission of airborne particles to the rest of the house.

[5M2A1116] Even if someone is strong enough to safely carry heavy demo debris, such as a nail-filled sheet of underlayment, all by themselves, Grace and his crew sometimes prefer to use two people, because that makes it easier to carefully navigate through doorways, down stairs, and other tricky spaces. Pairing up can also save you from having to make apologies and expensive repairs.

[5M2A0643] While it’s good practice to salvage materials for reuse, a lot of what gets demoed is bound to end up in the landfill during a remodel. That dumpster in the driveway seems big when it arrives, but it can fill up fast. When it’s to the point of spilling over, your options are to get another dumpster, which is expensive, or climb in and rearrange the trash to make room. It may be possible to avoid either of these scenarios by dumping the waste in an orderly way from the start. Grace breaks down cabinets into slabs and lays them flat in the dumpster to make the most of the space. Anything else with empty space gets the same treatment. If they have to, he and his crew will get in and rearrange the debris as they go. That’s a lot easier than trying to jam bits of old drywall and lumber into crevices in a nearly full dumpster.

Check out the full article, “DIY Kitchen Demolition,” in issue #271. Plus, read more of Tyler Grace’s demolition tips here:

  • Prepping for Demolition
  • Drywall Removal Made Easy

Photos by Brian McAward.

Get home building tips, offers, and expert advice in your inbox

×

Original Source

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AAMA releases new document on aluminum fenestration and energy efficiency

The American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) recently released a new white paper that discusses the use of aluminum in high-performing building enclosures. AMC-2-26, “Aluminum in High-Performing Building Enclosures,” is now available in the AAMA online store as a complimentary download. “This white paper was needed in order to educate and inform the marketplace about the energy advantages of using aluminum fenestration,” said Elizabeth Cotton (Kawneer), chair of the AMC Marketing Committee. “With today's technology, these products can achieve current and foreseeable stringent codes requirements in an efficient and innovative manner, as well as achieving credits through green building certification programs.” The document addresses aluminum extrusions used in the manufacture of entrances, storefront framing, curtain walls, windows and skylight fenestration systems. Aluminum products can be sustainable due to the recyclability of aluminum that helps conserve energy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WeWork takes on a construction management app provider

WeWork, the New York-based urban workspace designer and redeveloper that’s one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., has acquired Fieldlens, a six-year-old producer of construction management applications that allow for more efficient on-site communications. Most construction projects “are broken social networks,” says Doug Chambers, Fieldlens’ founder. His company’s app helps make a jobsite environment more like Facebook or a social feed, where everyone on site is communicating in real time, all the time. An example Chambers gives is a project manager who is walking a site, and using the app on his smartphone to send observations, pictures, confirmations, and directives to other crew members. Chambers says that on one jobsite in Buffalo, N.Y., the Fieldlens app is facilitating 1,000 interactions per day, on average, among the 80 to 100 workers on site. “Fieldlens lets people get back to work,” and not get bogged down on a lot of administrative and paperwork duties, says Cha...
Post a Comment
Read more

ABC's Construction Backlog Indicator rebounds in 2017

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) recently reported that its Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) rose to 9 months during the first quarter of 2017, up 8.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016.  CBI is up by 0.4 months, or 4 percent, on a year-over-year basis. “This was a terrific report,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “For the first time in the series’ history, every category—firm size, industry and region—registered quarterly growth in CBI. Among the big winners were firms in the western United States and those with annual revenues between $30 million and $50 million per annum" Highlights by Region Surging financial markets helped support activity in financial centers like New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Expanding cyber-security and life sciences activity supported markets as geographically diverse as Washington/Baltimore; Austin, Texas; Silicon Valley, Calif., and Seattle.  Though backlog is slightly lower in the South on a year-over-year basis, ...
Post a Comment
Read more