Demolition and tips

Demolition day and tips.

I asked three people if I should empty every cabinet before the demolition of the old counters began.  Two said yes, everything and one friend said no.  So, I went in between and just emptied all top drawers, under the sink and cook top area.  Then in the underneath cabinets I placed towels on top of everything.  I figured if dust made it down that far I could just remove the towels later.  I also closed every bedroom door.

A view of the old tile, grout and wood trim counters.

The two guys that demolished the old counters seemed very aware of cleaning up.  They swept and wiped everything down before they left.  

I did read a blog post about a horror granite story.  Where they cut granite inside her house and they had to hire ventilation cleaners and dust was in every room of the house.  So, I was a bit concerned when they had to cut the opening for the cook top inside the house.  But, one guy used the shop vac while the other cut.   I opened both front and back door and lot of the dust went out the back door.  So, mine was not a horror story.  

Another tip, have a little cash on hand.  If you need to ask the crew to do things like cut wood sections of the underneath cabinet wall to make the cook top fit  (They are not supposed to do certain things) a little cash on the side will be accepted.  At least that is how it worked for us.

The only damage at this point is a few chips in the grout around where they yanked out the old counter.  I have to add a pencil trim around the bottom anyway, so I will re-grout when I do that.

Final tip.  If you want to save the demo fee, this loooked like a pretty easy job.  Rubber hammer under each cabinet until they are start to come off and then lift and discard.   Our crew did it all for $150.00 and hauled everything away too!  

Do you have demolition tips?  Oh and the towels did catch some of the dust, but not all.  I still have to rinse out items from the below shelves as I use them.