As much as homeowners love their houses, there’s always room for improvement. With architectural trends continuing to fluctuate, so do the homeowner’s tastes. Thus, what used to be a well-loved design is now something they want to replace. On the bright side, there’s no need to tear down the entire house to make any changes unless what you want involves the exterior. With interior demolition (or ‘gutting’), you can focus solely on what’s inside the house.
Since it has the word ‘demolition’ in its name, it’s only natural for the entire process to get messy. Hence, if you don’t want to get your hands dirty, click here to have experts handle the work for you. But those who are willing to give it a hand, know that interior demolitions are an extremely demanding job. Therefore, laying out a strategy for your next move is a must-have.
However, making a plan isn’t as easy as it sounds. Hence, here’s what you need to get started:
1. Get A Permit
Whether you’re demolishing the interior or exterior parts of the house, a permit is required for either of them to be accomplished. After all, demolitions are large projects that can easily tamper with neighboring houses, especially if the neighborhood is close-knit. Because with interior demolition, you’re bound to shut off all utilities from the house.
Although that’s typically a non-issue, not getting a permit for a demolition – specifically one that demands heavy work – would be harmful to everyone within your area. Since filing a permit is meant as an acknowledgment, everything you’ll do when gutting your home won’t be deemed safe without the document. Moreover, your neighbors might file a case against you for dealing with heavy changes to your house without notifying anyone.
2. Prepare The Site
Since it’s a messy process, prepping the house is a no-brainer. After all, no one wants to deal with clean-up once the demo work is over and done with, and your house looks much more fabulous than before. However, considering you’re demolishing the house all by yourself, setting down preparations also falls into your hands.
Put up safeguards when you only want to work on a specific area inside the house. Ideally, they’re best positioned along the workspace to limit the dirt to one area alone, especially if you’re working nearby the house’s living spaces, such as the kitchen or living room. To be absolutely sure the dust is kept in one place, cover up any air ducts within the area. But if you want to lower the dust levels indoors, crack your windows open. Set up a fan to drive out dust much better.
3. Make A Layout
Naturally, you can’t simply decide to demolish your interior at the drop of a hat without having a vision in mind. Map out the house to determine which areas you want to work on. Once you’ve identified them, list down the specifics that would bring your vision to life even better.
4. Lay Out Equipment
To make the entire demo work more efficient, make a checklist of everything you need to complete it. Admittedly, it’s better to identify what you want to work on the interiors before you haul in every demolition tool and equipment from the hardware store. However, if you’re supposed to be doing simple tasks, such as removing walls and flooring or ripping out cabinets, all you need are the basics, which are:
- Pry bars
- Claw hammers
- Screwdrivers
- Reciprocating saw
Aside from these, safety gear is a must-have, considering how heavy-duty the work is. With all of these in your hands, you’ll be able to do some of the work already. Naturally, other tools might be required depending on the job. Therefore, do your research to check what’s needed to get it done.
5. Inspect The House
Since you’re doing interior work, it requires a much more delicate touch compared to exterior demolition. Because all it needs is one mistake before most of the house goes down. Hence, when handling demo work yourself, look up how to control the damage efficiently. One of the most valuable pieces of information you’ll learn is to identify which walls are load-bearing and which ones are not. Right next to that is to locate the utility lines within your home.
Takeaway
Demolition work has always been a large project. Even if it’s done without any large equipment on-site, it still demands a lot from the worker, especially for interior demolition. But with a properly laid-out plan, demolishing the house’s interior would be much more efficient.