I must say, things have been crazy busy lately. We started the kitchen remodeling project this past week by expanding the kitchen. As mentioned in the “Turning a House into a Home” post, in order to fix the space problem we need to open up the wall between the kitchen and dining room to create an eat in kitchen. By removing the wall it would add additional 156 square feet of space.
Removing a wall is a messy and time consuming job. Back in the 1900’s, our house was built in 1920, they used plaster and lath to finish the walls unlike drywall that is used today. Plaster crumbles and makes a dusty mess everywhere and the lath is attached with small very sharp nails that require a hammer to remove. It’s time consuming but easily removed. We hung plastic over door ways to prevent the dust from filling the house. Then used a hammer to remove the plaster and lath from the framed wall.
Super messy! It’s very important to use safety glasses and breathing respirator or mask to prevent inhaling the dust.
We removed the plaster and lath from the dining room side of the wall first.
Then we continued to the kitchen side of the wall.
The framing will stay in place till we are ready to install the header. It’s very important to have the wall inspected prior to removal to make sure it’s not a supporting wall. This wall isn’t the main supporting wall in our home, but it’s a supporting wall for the upstairs bedroom wall above it. To prevent the ceiling from sagging a header will be installed to support the weight.
Over the last month, I collected buckets that were no longer needed for the disposal of the plaster. As the plaster came down we scooped it up and placed it in buckets to head to the landfill. The lath was gathered and bundled for disposal.
The expansion is almost complete. In a few days the header will be installed and the room will be ready for painting.
If you’ve missed the remodeling ideas you can catch up by reading the following posts:
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The remodeling project is coming along as planned. I’m looking forward to the next step. Stay tuned!
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Oh my! That looks like a lot of work, but how fun to see new things happening!!! good luck to you!
🙂
xx Crystelle
Crystelle Boutique
Wow, I never realized how much of a mess removing a wall can make…don’t tell my husband. I’m trying to get him to remove part of my kitchen wall as well. Thanks for the information. Coming over from the link-up at Classy Clutter.
It’s a huge mess, but I cleaned as I went. I hung plastic to contain the dust the best I could. Good luck!
Ah the joys of renovating an old house. That plaster is crazy heavy and then the lathe pieces are so light. We hauled ours out in Rubbermaid storage bins. Some of the bins I carried down the stairs by myself like superwoman, and others, it was like a 100 pounds plus of lead was in them. I am going to have to search your site for a house tour. I am excited to see it. A new kitchen is such an exciting thing! If I ever get my act together and go through the non-digital pictures I have, I am going to post about our kitchen, although we added on a kitchen, not a reno like you. We reno’d the old kitchen and made a master bedroom and bathroom from that space, although the bedroom isn’t near being done. Thus the name Turtle! Right now we are working on the upstairs.
Plaster can be very heavy in large amounts. I used small buckets to make it easy to move. It sure took a lot of them. By looking at the amount of buckets one would think I ripped out a huge wall, but I didn’t. Thanks for leaving a comment!
Removing walls is almost always a good thing. I love formal kitchens because usually separate dining rooms are wasted space and rarely used. Good luck with the reno!
Linking from Mod Mix Monday,
Ricki Jill
I totally agree with you. Our dining room was used more for media then dining. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.